Visma DS comes down on Tour de France after Primoz Roglic crash: "This is one hundred percent the fault of the organization"

The Tour de France race organizers are coming under heavy fire from riders and team managers alike after the mass crash that has now officially taken out Primoz Roglic from the race. Roglic's former head DS at Team Visma | Lease a Bike Merijn Zeeman was specially annoyed that the road furniture that caused the incident was not properly marked.

The incident happened with 10 kilometers to go on stage 12. It was a seemingly innocent patch of road but with a small curb in the middle of the road. A tricky obstacle. One that, as pointed out by Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld, could spell disaster. Unfortunately, his hunch was correct and in a section just like the one shown in the picture, Alexey Lutsenko of Astana lost control of the bike in the middle of the peloton and fell on the right side where Primoz Roglic was, who was unable to brake in time to avoid the fall happening right in front of him. The Slovenian suffered a hit in the shoulder, but the big blow suffered in the fall left the 34-year old in a state where continuing the Tour was not possible. The likes of Jarrad Drizners and Raul García Pierna were also left in a bad state after the crash as a result.

"A crash like that shouldn't have happened. There were curbs on the road and they were impossible to see. There was a marking at the first obstacles, but not at the others," Merijn Zeeman told NU.nl. "If you're riding close together, you can't see that. You can't blame the riders for that". "This is one hundred percent the fault of the organization. You can't go through such a passage with a Tour de France peloton. That's very irresponsible and shouldn't happen".

It is a continuous debate whether enough security measures are taken to protect the riders, even on the biggest race in the world. Sure enough many efforts are taken, but with over 200 kilometers of roads to traverse, some sections are not given the focus they require. This was certainly one of them, and the subsequent fall has led to absolute disaster in Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe who had placed a full bet on the Tour de France this year.

Due to more forward positioning; Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel all managed to avoid the crash. “We have invested a lot to be at the front. All teams want that, but you have to start early. We have put a lot of energy into that," Zeeman assured.

Roglic has been confirmed to abandon the race this morning. Last night Zeeman had wished his former rider the best and still cast hope that he would be able to continue the Tour despite the incident: "We feel bad for Primoz. We hope he can still participate, but we all know that a fall does not help.”