Fury as riders hit car parked in disabled bay
BMC cyclist Bookwalter is treated in hospital Anger at ‘dangerous’ and ‘ridiculous’ car position
Organisers of the Ovo Energy Tour of Britain were last night facing serious questions after several riders collided with a car parked in a disabled bay on the side of a road in Retford, Nottinghamshire, during stage four of the race, and one – BMC’S Brent Bookwalter – was taken to hospital and later withdrew from the race.
Ben Hermans, a team-mate of Bookwalter’s who was also taken out in the incident, described the positioning of the car as “ridiculous” and “dangerous” and laid the blame squarely at the door of race organisers. Orica-scott’s Michael Hepburn was the first to plough into the vehicle, which was parked on the right-hand side of the road, as the peloton swept around a fast lefthander. The Australian smashed the rear windscreen before a host of BMC riders, including Bookwalter, Hermans, Silvan Dilier and Joey Rosskopf, along with KatushaAlpecin’s Reto Hollenstein, followed him, all ending up in a heap.
Bookwalter was taken to hospital but discharged without serious injury. That did not stop Hermans from questioning why the car was there in the first place.
“It’s ridiculous where this car was parked,” he told Cyclingnews. “It’s a fault of the organisation, or the commissaire who was in front of the race. They’re in front of the race in the car to see things like that. It was so dangerous.”
Hollenstein, who suffered a cut arm, also spoke to Cyclingnews. “It’s bad for this kind of race,” he said. “It’s well organised, but things like this shouldn’t happen.” A statement from organisers Sweetspot said: “We are aware of the incident involving Brent Bookwalter during stage four and are investigating the circumstances leading up to it.
“We operate a rolling road closure and cannot remove every parked vehicle on the race route, however we work with residents, communities and local authorities ahead of the event to ensure as safe a passage for the race as possible.
“In this instance the car that was parked in a disabled parking bay wasn’t able to be moved before the arrival of the race and as per our procedures was flagged by one of our motorcycle marshals to alert riders to an obstacle in the road.’’
The stage was won by Colombian Fernando Gaviria (Quick-step Floors) in a bunch sprint. Team Sky’s Elia Viviani, who finished second, regained the overall lead from Caleb Ewan (Orica-scott).
Today’s stage is a 10-mile time trial in Clacton-on-sea in Essex.