Over the weekend the women's Tour des Pyrenees hit the headlines despite taking place simultaneously to several of the big races in the calendar. However that was not for good reasons, the race was cancelled due to the lack of safety conditions, but the race organizer has once again criticized the riders for the situation.
The three-day race saw mayhem from it's very start to finish. In southern France a quality field was put together including a few WWT teams, but on that day the problems became apparent. The finale was packed with vehicles and pedestrians who seemed to be warned only seconds before the riders passed by - or not at all, leading to a shocking situation where the race was constantly being threatened in it's literal finale. Stage 2 was neutralized all the way into it's summit finish in Hautacam, but a crash still took place indirectly because of road traffic.
On the morning of stage 3 two teams decided to abandon before the start as there seemed to be no improvement in the safety measures, but ultimately the stage was outright cancelled with the race ending there. Criticism was aplenty of the lack of conditions provided, however race organizer Pascal Baudron instead directed his words towards the riders themselves, arguing that "they imagine they're at the Tour de France and all roads must be closed".
However that was not the end of it, as in words shared by RadioCycling he has doubled down on that criticism: "They're sawing off the branch they're sitting on. The day there are no more races, they'll be able to cry and that's what's going to happen. Quite honestly, I don't think it's worth organizing a race to see all those months of effort ruined for the whims of spoilt children."
😲 These comments from Pascal Baudron, the organiser of the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées that escalated into chaos, are quite something. Do you think Baudron and co. should be allowed to run a bike race again? 👇 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rad… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/76nT0G…
