"We are pushing the limits too hard” - Quinten Hermans escapes relatively unscathed from Itzulia Basque Country crash as Vingegaard, Evenepoel and more are hospitalised
Cycling
After his stage win on Wednesday, Quinten Hermans was in good spirits pre-stage 4 of the Itzulia Basque Country. Following a mass crash which left Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and more hospitalised however, the Alpecin-Deceuninck star had some harsh words.
“I didn't see a lot of it, but I was there," an emotional Hermans began in his post-stage interview. "I was able to avoid it a little bit and ride into the bushes, where most of them were on the ground right in front of them. I am really one of the lucky ones, the damage is relatively minor. I try to look around as little as possible at such a moment. There are people from the ambulance who have to do their work at that moment, I try not to look too hard at it. I've seen enough falls, that's never nice to see.”
Echoing thoughts also shared by Pello Bilbao, Hermans expressed his belief that the speed of the riders may have caused the real danger. “I think the riders misjudged the bend. There were a lot of bumps in that bend and I think that's why they didn't dare brake," he explains.
"The braking moment was gone and the bend was sharper than expected. As a result, the second rider lost all his line. I can't say it was a dangerous course or a dangerous bend, I think we pushed the limits too hard," Hermans concludes.
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I understand that the course should not be stupidly dangerous, but the riders also have a responsibility to ride in a safe manner. The organiser dont force the riders to blast down the hills.
It’s a collective problem but when you know as an organiser that your race course is not one that gets reconned by riders in advance, you should realise you need to think ahead. I say this from personal experience recently in a fast bumpy downhill curve. No problem to find a safe path when you’re alone or in a small group, no problem to get through safely at 40km/h, no problem during recon but during the race we were the whole breadth of the road, doing 50-60 through the curve so no more deviations possible and some were forced to be in just the wrong places but miraculously managed not to cause a mass fall with their bikes jumping around. Needless to say, the descent was approached very differently in the following rounds. The pros didn’t get a 2nd round to do it better. In the peleton you are often dependant on the speed of the guys in front to judge your own speed but not everyone has the same road surface or position and you can’t always see the difference (especially in road condition if you have riders all around you). There are going to be a lot of discussions this year I think.
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- You can enjoy it by all means but will you also take responsibility for the consequences of encouraging it through that? Because we all pay the price of the way it affects people, moods, behaviour, illness, violence, crime, social degeneration, etc, no real good comes of it or what do you feel there is to gain from it other than experiencing a momentary emotional high some might not be able to achieve any other way?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- There's no reason we can't live in the real world while enjoying the doped up sport.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Tadej definitely wasn't terribly out of the ordinary as a junior. Just goes to show what great coaching and a proper "supplement" regiment can turn someone into.Veganpotter12-04-2025
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- Veganpotter, I’d take that as a compliment, like not knowing how to manufacture a bomb :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
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- Alsene, I tend to agree but it’s incredibly complicated to calculate who has what advantage in which particular situation as the variables are largely interrelated. As you note, the rolling resistance alone is affected by numerous criteria, all things equal it is easy to change one variable to determine whether the heavier or lighter rider has an advantage, however, when EVERY rider is free to play with ALL variables (tire pressure, bike stiffness, wheel seperation and dozens more), many of the advantages/disadvantages melt into a smaller overall a/d much harder to determine when there is not an enormous weight difference (we have riders from mid 50 - mid 90kg but most are much closer together). In the meantime each team has optimised the set-up for each rider so differences are nowhere near what they used to be 30-40 years ago but obviously there is and always will be some but without highly advanced scientific research (which no-one is likely to provide for free and investing teams will keep for themselves) I feel there is now little point in people like us trying to make any factor or point the determining one, none will ever outweigh the gains from drafting and strategy :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Firstly, it’s not them, it’s their doctors and consultants and people contacting them trying to sell their wares. Secondly, now that there’s money in the sport, they can afford it, and peddlers see lucrative opportunities to separate them from their earnings, not very complicated to follow, in fact, wasn’t the whole modern thing started by someone having access to an oversized sponsor budget as there was a good marketing alignment of nationalistic and feelgood stories?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Yeah, let’s just discuss important matters while the world goes to bits ;-) Enjoy your entertainment but stay responsible!Mistermaumau12-04-2025