"We cyclists have to reflect, maybe we are the ones who create the danger" - Pello Bilbao reacts to scary Itzulia Basque Country crash
CyclingThursday, 04 April 2024 at 18:58
The fourth stage of the Itzulia Basque Country was marked by a hard crash that caused the abandonment of Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel. Pello Bilbao, leader of Bahrain Victorious in the Basque race, escaped the crash.
After the stage, he spoke to the media and in a video by Laura Máñez Taberner for Le Puncheur commented the following about what happened. "Nobody wants the race to be tarnished in this way, seeing that the situation is dangerous, that the point where they fell looked bad. In the end, it looked like it was going to be a simpler Itzulia than usual, less dangerous, but we always enter very narrow roads and much more dangerous areas. This year it was especially simple in this sense and yet there are still many crashes, which I think has to make us reflect on the cyclists themselves who are perhaps the ones who create the danger."
Bilbao is clear that although there was a problem with the road, the cause of the accident in his opinion was the high speed at which the cyclists entered the curve:
"It is clear that all the leaders with all the teammates did not enter, we will have to rethink the way we compete. I knew the descent and yes, the asphalt is muddy because of some roots, even so we entered too fast in that curve, I was behind, I saw that there was danger and I was leaving a little distance. When I saw the fall I got quite a bad body because they were going at high speed."
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- Demi must be so happy to now be on a team that works for her, and not against her. I think that if she and the team get their tactics dialed in, she could prove to be unstoppable this year.
santiagobenites08-05-2025 - I wouldn't call 24 seconds destroyed. At the end she was suffering and Reusser was slowly reeling her backabstractengineer08-05-2025
- I dont expect much from them top 5 maybeabstractengineer08-05-2025
- G does not strike me as a tactical support but more of a strategic one. His tactics were follow train and opponents and sprint at the endabstractengineer08-05-2025
- These pro forma statements, always the same, no wonder most people don’t get enthusiastic about follow cycling in depth.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Go, Yatesy!! And Felix!mhfrvz08-05-2025
- He (itsent) is making fun of you (awp).verve82508-05-2025
- It's pretty obvious they didn't notice the step and stumbled down. It's clear because there are other spectators sitting on the step and the stumbler was looking at the peloton and not where they were stepping.Pogboom08-05-2025
- If Primoz wins, it'll only be because no TdF contenders show up to the Giro.Veganpotter08-05-2025
- To me it seems like she wanted to take a step closer but she hadn’t noticed the level was lower and as she tried to look down to understand the unexpected movement in her leg her balance continued forward and then she tried to find footing to stop the movement but there was none left so down she went, silly fart. Hope that girl in the red jersey was ok, didn’t seem to react well.Mistermaumau07-05-2025
Pello's comments may not be well received right after the incident, but I think there is some validity to it. This took out many of the race GC favorites riding near the front of the peloton, so their teams where probably pacing the peloton at the time. Those teams probably needed to have approached that turn slower, however, they probably didn't realize how is dangerous that turn, as probably this race stage wasn't recon'ed earlier (unlike major stages at the Grand Tours). Possibly the race organizers, who hopefully know the course well, could have warned teams and/or provided a flag man at the site. But sometimes things just happen in competitive racing that are just difficult to manage
Agree, some dangers are difficult to notice and often there is no time to react then, it is partly the riders’ fault when they ride too close to the limit in sections and situations where it isn’t warranted. NOBODY had anything to gain by taking this curve at limit speed.
IMO, the high average speed of races this year shows something has changed in the riders’ approach to races. MSR, Flanders, etc all broke records which means riders are either more tired or closer to limits during more of the race.
It’s not so much the breakaways that have changed anything it’s the way the peleton decides to ride.
Agreed. Felt like this incident is going to happened sooner or later. Hope these kinds of crashes does not happened too often. Speedy recovery for all those riders 🤕😕🤕🤞🏻