TOUR DE FRANCE | 29/06/2024 | 08:09
by Francesca Monzone
The International Cycling Union has decided to increase safety measures while racing and the Tour de France will be the first major test for the new rules, among them the extension of the neutralization zone in some stages first beyond the canonical 3 kilometers from the finish line.
The race management has decided to apply this rule in six stages: in stages 5, 6 and 10 the limit will be set at 4 kilometres from the finish line, while in stages 3, 12 and 13 it will be 5 kilometres. The Turin stage, number 3, will therefore be the first in which this new point of the regulation will be applied.
Everyone knows that the preceding kilometers are very chaotic and the men in the classification live that moment with the fear of falling, while the sprinters’ teams jostle to take the best positions. Often there are straights and the speed is very high, a simple contact is enough to end up disastrously on the ground. Unfortunately many times we have seen group crashes and almost always, there have been riders who ended up in hospital with fractures and were forced to withdraw. This new rule, which for the moment is still on an experimental basis, will not eliminate falls, but it will certainly lower the risks and the men in the ranking will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Runners who are involved in a fall, in those stages where the experimentation is being applied, must immediately raise their arm and report to an authorized race commissioner at the finish line.
But in terms of safety Christian Prudhomme has announced other measures that will be introduced as early as tomorrow’s stage on the San Luca: «We have tripled the crowd containment tapes: in San Luca for example we will place tapes and barriers along the entire climb. And we will also install new “crowd containment” barriers in the last 250 meters, designed to ensure that runners pedaling along the balustrade are not hit by cell phones displayed to take photos».
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