Cycling

[William Clough]

Just got this from the Guardian website.
Good news: the Dutch cycling federation have tweeted that Van Vleuten ‘appears to be okay’ after her crash, and more news will follow.

[Graham Breeze]

Just got this from the Guardian website.
Good news: the Dutch cycling federation have tweeted that Van Vleuten ‘appears to be okay’ after her crash, and more news will follow.

Yes that's good. But from yesterday:

Nibali - broken collarbone

Henao - fractured pelvis +

[Deadlegs]

When all they say conscious and talking that always sounds worrying.

I take two things from this weekend. Firstly, a good one day race is still the best entertainment that cycling has to offer. Secondly, for all the talk of doping, and I am an extreme cynic, for spectacle and bravery there is no better sport. That's why I think cycling will survive but track and field is knackered.

[Witton Park]

They should have had straw bails down the side of those huge stone kerbs and on top as well. That netting was almost more dangerous, when you saw Porte yesterday, it almost funnelled him to the supporting post.
It's not expensive to do that.
That Dutch lady today looked like she planted the back of her neck on the kerb. She is hopefully very lucky. Would have probably been a little kinder had she landed on a bail.

[Daletownrunner]

They should have had straw bails down the side of those huge stone kerbs and on top as well. That netting was almost more dangerous, when you saw Porte yesterday, it almost funnelled him to the supporting post.
It's not expensive to do that.
That Dutch lady today looked like she planted the back of her neck on the kerb. She is hopefully very lucky. Would have probably been a little kinder had she landed on a bail.

Exactly my thoughts as well, looked like the poor lass nearly snapped in half hopefully she's ok..

[The devil's own]

Reports are she is currently in ICU, however in a stable condition having suffered 3 "minor" lumbar region spinal fractures.

[Stagger]

That course was unfit for purpose.
To see so many injuries is not right.
Glad to hear the Dutch girl will be ok.

[anthonykay]

I take two things from this weekend. Firstly, a good one day race is still the best entertainment that cycling has to offer. Secondly, for all the talk of doping, and I am an extreme cynic, for spectacle and bravery there is no better sport. That's why I think cycling will survive but track and field is knackered.

I don't watch much cycling, but I have to agree with Deadlegs after the races this weekend. Annemiek van Vleuten was being incredibly brave, the way she first took off on the climb with only one other woman able to stay with her, and then sped off on the descent. But sometimes bravery takes you over the edge. She had presumably been round the course several times in training, working out the best lines round all the bends, but never with the fatigue of 120km of racing behind her. Anyway, latest news suggests that she is not seriously injured, although three fractured vertebrae sounds pretty serious to me.

WP's suggestion of straw bales seems the obvious way to go, but might this have encouraged the competitors to take even greater risks?

[My autocorrect changed "Annemiek" to "anaemic". How wrong can you be?!]

[PeteS]

Well an exciting weekend of racing but I think we could have done without some of the excitement of that final descent - it was lethal and I don't know how its managed to pass whatever safety inspections were done. Chris Boardman's pre-race course report highlighted the dangers of this descent and it surely was just an accident waiting to happen. The crashes in the men's race were bad enough, but that poor dutch girl yesterday had my heart in my mouth. I honestly thought we were looking at another fatality and although the subsquent run-in was gripping stuff I could not concentrate on that for fear of what may have just happened. More could and should have been done to mitigate any such incident - it is by pure luck that there were no more serious incidents. Whilst I enjoy an exciting race as much as the next cycling fan, rider safety has to be paramount and I for one never want see again the likes of the Wouter Weylandt incident in the Giro 5 years ago.

[PeteS]

Finally caught up with the TT. Good to see Fabulous Candelabra winning so emphatically in his final professional year after what was quite mediocre TdF by his high standards.