Marc Madiot refuses to attack Etoile de Besseges organizers for car controversy - "The car that was incriminated on Thursday had been stopped twice by the police. It nevertheless took off"
CyclingSunday, 09 February 2025 at 13:00
The Etoile de Besèges is currently a race at risk, with it's reputation severely damaged after it's 2025 edition where half the peloton left the race in protest of the safety conditions. It is undeniable that the shocking incidents with cars on the race course deserve criticism, but veteran DS Marc Madiot argues that this was largely cause of the irresponsibility of the drivers and not the fault of the race organizers.
On stage 2 a vehicle moved to the race course heading towards the peloton. The slowdown led to a small crash that caused headliner Maxim van Gils to abandon the race. It is said from the peloton that there were serious discussions that day, and that if the incident was to repeat itself there would be serious coincidences. Unfortunately, less than 24 hours after, at the start of stage 3, it did happen again.
A car was present in a roundabout right in the first kilometers of the stage, and the peloton stopped riding, neutralizing the race and talking to organizers. Seven teams fully abandoned the race with immediate effect, with the majority of two others following as well. In the meantime, more riders (and the whole Equipo Kern Pharma) have also left the race, which had only 64 riders finishing the queen stage.
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"We must also recognize that there is a little contempt from certain teams, even certain riders, in relation to the race organizations. I don't blame anyone. I want to say that it's no one's fault and at the same time everyone's fault," Madiot shared with RMC. The manager of Groupama - FDJ, one of the few teams that didn't leave the race, was adamant that it was neither exclusively the riders or organizers' fault, but a combination. It is believed that the small amount of policemen closing roads, together with the difficulty of some overtaking the peloton to do their job, led to the unfortunate incidents.
"The organizer does his best to make his event safe, it also has financial constraints, particularly concerning the cost of the police. You have to pay to have the presence of motorcyclists. The police are not there for free. We must also recognize that there is a little contempt from certain teams, even certain riders, compared to the race organizations," Madiot argues, criticizing the mass withdraw of teams from the French race, who finds itself very much at risk of not continuing into 2026.
"Twenty years ago, this kind of situation would never have happened. When there was an incident, there was respect from the organizer and the volunteers. It's less obvious today for a certain number of teams with the World Tour". But Madiot is specially critical of the drivers that got themselves in the way of the peloton despite the warnings that had been given by the policemen:
"The other point is the lack of respect from motorists regarding events. We see it every day in the news, refusals to comply are rare. There are sometimes very serious incidents between motorists and the police. We find ourselves in a competition where the car that was incriminated on Thursday had been stopped twice by the police. It nevertheless took off again in the wrong direction," he reveals.
"There is a problem of education. I knew a time when we respected the decision of the police officer. I support the organizers, who keep professional sport alive. They are not obliged to hold bike races, they try to showcase their region, that is respected."
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𝐂𝐋𝐌 final à Alès ⏱️ pic.twitter.com/g0rgeKvIuE
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) February 9, 2025
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shocking a french guy defending a french race. this is inexcusable. 2 days in a row
Quote," We find ourselves in a competition where the car that was incriminated on Thursday had been stopped twice by the police. It nevertheless took off again in the wrong direction," he reveals."
I will admit to nearly pulling onto the road at the top of the Tourmalet when a Espoires race was coming through a number of years ago, the rolling road block wasn't exactly policed that well.
I will plead very ignorant Scotsman, I was so dumbfounded at myself at what I'd very nearly done, I didn't think to jump out the car and take pictures!!
I guess my message is that unless its very well policed or you have inate knowledge of what's happening it would be quite easy to pull onto a road inadvertently. However where you know a race is in progress there is absolutely no excuse to venture on the roads.
The whole point of policing is to make sure safety is guaranteed. Like you discovered, this is rarely the case everywhere and by and large little happens because MOST people have basic sense and respect. What I cannot accept is theat police and organisers are there in positions of professionals and yet their behaviour/decisions and concern is often not professional at all. When I hear the same car was already stopped twice, all I can say is 1. some police obviously don’t know how to obtain respect or take decisions anymore, 2. the way of blocking intersections has not been discussed properly. As so often, there is no space (and no REAL interest here probably) to lay out how to man crossings properly but if anyone asks, I’d be happy to explain some basics which I’ve picked up along the way, yes I have fone this, volunteered, helped race organisers and seen it all, it’s just that I refuse to repeat a badly done job which is generally why people ask me back and those events (cycling, running, triathlon, company reward or incentive days, kids event, fund raisers, charities, concerts, raves, wow, I’d forgotten so much from focusing on the present) improved with time which doesn’t seem to be the case with many cycling events these days.
Agreed!
I go to a lot of gigs and festivals and you can see how the security has improved over the years. They are now largely there to support the event rather than police it, by taking away the "bouncer" approach policing becomes less necessary.
Repecting the police and authorities, that's another question. Respect for the police is increasingly non-existant certainly in the UK, who's to say its much different anywhere else
It has deteriorated in the same fashion many things do, first the US, then UK, then some large EU countries, then it generalises world-wide, screen content probably plays some responsibility as does the ratio of individualism towards collectivism.
But, it wouldn’t be a problem if all these authorities would learn to adapt. They do, slowly in many domains like drug smuggling (studying traffickers psychology) but not in others like child abuse (refusing to focus on more likely perpetrators) and unfortunately, public safety has never been a priority (except short-term symbolically after big accidents, terrorist attacks, etc.) and cycling races are considered a low ranking level of public safety, hardly surprising as mediatically any accident is easy to blame on someone else because it’s quite easy to manipulate a storyline when the media itself is not interested in getting to the bottom of things.