The chairman of the CPA Adam Hansen recently achieved a small success when he convinced Giro d'Italia organiser to carry extra warm clothes in neutral vehicles, especially in hard mountain stages where temperatures often drop quickly and for riders it can become impossible to get to their team cars as fast as needed. This inniciative was supported by another rider with vast Grand Tour experience - Thomas De Gendt. The two went out into war to defend this decision on X.
"I have suggested to the Giro organization that neutral vehicles should take extra jackets. Sometimes team cars are too far away to quickly offer warm clothing to suffering riders. For the haters who say that this is a 'dramatic' change: cycling is also changing, slowly...," Hansen indicated that he recieved not only positive reactions.
Former colleague Thomas De Gendt supported him. "For riders who ride spread out over the road, it can sometimes take tens of minutes before cars can get to them. And sometimes the radio no longer works well over those distances. In mountain stages gaps can be up to 40 minutes."
The Australian chairman of the union was therefore pleased with the support of De Gendt, who often thinks about the safety of riders. "Thank you!", he responds. "Some keyboard warriors have no idea. They make it seem as if I have never competed in a race," Hansen playfully deals with the criticism on social media.
Thank you! A lot of keyboard warriors have no idea. They make it seem like I've never done a bike race.....
Some people don’t realise that on mountainstages the distance between the 2 team cars can be up to 40minutes. If you are in a small group in the middle then none of the cars can hear you through the radio. Even if they hear you it takes 20-30 minutes until you get help.
