Anyone who has ridden a bike for any length of time knows what it’s like to take a fall. For those who ride for a living, crashes are an occupational hazard.
Unfortunately, this most painful aspect of our sport was highlighted last Sunday in an accident-marred Tour of Flanders.
While riders, and in at least one case a spectator, spent the following days nursing their bruises and assessing their respective injuries, debate raged here and elsewhere about the appropriateness or otherwise of replaying or posting links to those crashes – in particular Johan Vansummeren’s collision with an elderly lady.
Regular Roar contributor Kate Smart decided not to include the footage of Vansummeren’s crash on her blog, The Shanking Soigneur, while, in his Roar column earlier this week, Lee Rodgers expressed his dismay at people putting footage of the crashes on YouTube.
Fellow Roar columnist John Thompson-Mills however, had no qualms about having the Vansummeren footage posted on his article yesterday and went so far as to say he hoped it rained for this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix as he wanted to see riders go down on the pavé!
Suffice to say, Thompson-Mills didn’t get a lot of support from readers in the comments section.
“This post is wrong. Crashes can be career or life ending. After Wouter Weylant’s crash, how can you want a tasty few?” asked Tourdecouch.
“After crashing last year during a race and lying on my back unable to move thinking I had a broken neck I don’t like watching the crashes and I enjoy them less,” stated Bones506.
It is easy to sympathise with the above viewpoints, but before we completely distance ourselves from Thompson-Mills’ comments, consider this.
This Sunday, millions will be watching Paris-Roubaix on television and thousands will line the roadsides. Anyone with any interest in the race at all will be keen to witness what happens as the peloton approaches and then enters the Tranchee d’Arenberg, that horror stretch of cobbles that never fails to live up to its reputation.
It is the most anticipated moment of arguably the most anticipated race on the calender. And it is nothing less than carnage. The race hits the cobbles at breakneck speed, with each team trying to deliver their leader to the front of the pack in a bid to avoid trouble and then BANG, the race explodes. Bikes, riders and sometimes even spectators are sent hurtling in all directions.
Look me in the eye right now and tell me that you won’t be watching at that particular moment!
Of course no one wants to see a rider get hurt, but part of the attraction of the Tranchee d’Arenberg is the carnage that it can bring to a race. Knowing that not all who enter the ‘trench’ will emerge into daylight on the other side adds to the unpredictable nature of the race and hence its overall excitement.
The debate surrounding Vansummeren’s crash focused mainly on whether or not the footage of the incident should be posted willy-nilly across the internet. For those who are unaware of what happened, Vansummeren crashed into a small traffic island, on which a small group of spectators stood, including an elderly lady who was knocked violently to the ground by the out-of-control rider.
It was a sickening incident that left both the lady and Vansummeren crumpled on the roadside. The lady ended up in hospital in a coma and by all reports remains in a critical condition. Vansummeren is back on his bike but is severely traumatised by what happened.
While the decision to run with the footage or not comes down to personal choice, in cases like this, it can actually be advantageous to do so.
Like it or not, professional cycling has a history of bike riders colliding with spectators. Tourists with cameras have been known to bring down half a peloton, and who could ever forget the gendarme who stepped in front of Wilfried Nelissen as he was sprinting towards possible victory in Stage 1 of the 1994 Tour de France?
If seeing footage of such incidents causes a person to think twice before placing him or herself in a compromising position on race day, then it is worth posting. While most of us would know better, perhaps the small group that stood on Vansummeren’s traffic island were unaware of the danger they faced as the 200-strong peloton split and streaked by on either side with just centimetres to spare.
But now, thanks to Youtube and other video sharing sites, everybody knows of the danger. It just might prevent the same thing happening next time.
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