Sep Vanmarcke suggests restricting use of bike computers in races to improve safety: "Riders are looking at their computer instead of what's going on next to them"
Cycling
The calls for improved safety of cycling races have become loud and clear over the past 12 months and both UCI and race organizers are doing their best to satisfy the demands. Yet Sep Vanmarcke is not very content with the decision to remove Kanarieberg from the Dwars doors Vlaanderen course just because of last year's mass crash that involved Wout Van Aert among others.
"Nothing has ever happened on the Kanarieberg that was decisive for the race," he said at Sporza Daily. He believes the importance of this sector is simply overexaggerated while the center of the race lies elsewhere: "On the Oude Kwaremont, it was. You have to be at the front there."
On the security side of things, he is please with the work of organizers in Belgium: "Cycling is a dangerous sport and we can be proud of how we approach it in our country. Every race here is extremely well-secured. They can learn something from this abroad. But in the crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen it was simply a situation where the wheel was tapped and that will happen again," says Vanmarcke.
Rather than change the courses, the Belgian would like into the behaviour in peloton and the way riders approach racing. "It is too easy to always nag the organizers from the sidelines. And it is also too easy to always point the finger at the UCI," believes the former podium-finisher at Tour of Flanders.
"I can certainly list 5 things that could improve the problem. Next month I have a meeting with the UCI where I can discuss my ideas. I don't know if they will do anything about it, but then I will have done everything myself," says Vanmarcke.
"You're not allowed to look at your phone in the car, while riders are constantly staring at that screen on their bike in front of them. You're looking at the route on that screen, but you miss a colleague's manoeuvre. People even fall on the climb because they're looking at the wattages and the screen on a climb. Only show kilometres and time there," he thinks out loud.
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- if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.OCexile03-04-2025
- Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Took a while but we finally have a more nuanced analysis.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- If I remember right, it was those same hungry journalists selling us a different story less than a year ago about the bleak future of Dutch (men’s) cycling with no possible successor for MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Good, hopefully Jonas goes also so we get a nice duelvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- right? i think it’s hungry journalists that fuel this, and i understand the jam they can be in trying to create stories, but you’d hate to think ANYONE is failing to appreciate how RARE someone like van der poel is (or how LUCKY we are to have both mvdp and pog racing at the same time). a little perspective is a good thing…OCexile03-04-2025
- Anyone know how long that 213km ride took? Coz without that the segment speeds don’t reveal anything surprising. If it took him Less than 5h ok but otherwise it was just some interval training for him.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Hinault was even lighter than Pog at 62 kg when he won PR in 1981, beating Roger van Vlaeminck no less (albeit at the fag end of the latter's career), so it can be done.Cooldude03-04-2025
- Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
KerisVroom03-04-2025 - If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025