The Pros Wake Up

Jos van Emden sees clear

Jos van Emden, a veteran racer on the Tour-favored Jumbo-Vism, now in his 14th year as a professional, wrote an opinion piece for Wednesday’s edition of Algemeen Dagblad, one that I believe represents an important, even seminal starting point for a reassessment and reorganization of European professional cycling. The Dutchman is the sort of rider that every team director needs and wants in a team. Deeply experienced and completely reliable, able to grab the reins when needed and pull off a win – he’s got 14 career victories including two National Time Trial Championships – van Emden is professional from head to toe which makes his brave public statement all the more powerful. Van Emden proposed, following up on the wholesale carnage of the first races, a subject that I’ve been writing about, a starter set of 10, common sense safety proposals listed below, with my own perspectives added in based on my years as a racer and promotor. 

1.     Course inspection. JvE suggested an inspection team, allied only with the teams and not the race organizers nor the UCI, to inspect “at least” the final five kilometers of the racecourse for safety considerations. I’d take that even further, having the teams all pitch in to hire someone like my friend Jacques Michaud, a Tour stage winner and longtime director, of whom every pro has complete confidence, and others like him, to inspect entire courses, perhaps even the mornings of the races. Had that happened in the recent Critèrium du Dauphinè, the pot-holed and treacherous descent that took out Primož Roglič (still recovering) and Steven Kruijswijk (out of the Tour) could have been neutralized, Yellow Flagged as they do in auto racing. This would require agreement and coordination among the teams, but could be done, as JvE says, “starting immediately”.

2.     3-kilometer Rule. Bit of inside baseball for casual readers but basically a rule that states that riders who crash or are held up in the final three kilometers of a stage (in a stage or multi-day race as the Tour de France) are given the same time as the winner. JvE wants this applied to all flat stages to avoid the physical conflicts that occur when the “Yellow Jersey contenders” get mixed up in the sprint finishes. He wants to leave the sprinters a clear road to do their dangerous job, keeping the less acrobatic climbers out of the mix.

3.     Publication of Race Route. JvE feels that this should be done months ahead of time, instead of the week or weeks that often happens, which is of course a fine suggestion and one that in fact UCI rules require. However, I’d add to that a powerful, standardized social and traditional media campaign, a sort of ‘plug and play’, that should be created by the race organizers, again, working collectively, that could be implemented for all the races. The fact is that the public really only tunes in during the last two, and more likely last week before an event. So a mass outreach during that shorter time will prove most effective.

4.     The next three – Downhill Finishes, proper race barricades and banner placements were all covered in my pieces “The Crash”, parts one and two, and are along the same lines as what JvE is proposing. Eliminate downhill sprints, and create new methods of barricading and bunting that are safer for the riders, who even on the flat sprints approach 50 mph (80 kph). After his own proposal of using ice skating style airbags as barriers, JvE makes an important point: “(The bag/barriers) should become standard at WorldTour competitions. When not in use, they could be used on smaller races, so that the WorldTour also contributes to safety at lower levels." This is a key point. While the cycling media focuses on red herrings such as shared television rights, the bottom is in fact dropping out of the sport. Our crucial foundation of smaller races, the ones that create the riders of the future and bring cycling to the masses, are struggling to survive or collapsing right and left. I’m speaking about Europe because here, in the USA, the damage has already been done and is possibly/probably irreversible. Hellooo…National Championships on Somerville weekend? Tour of Missouri on top of my Univest GP? It was all so stupid and sad. 

His idea of the big races contributing in some way to the smaller ones is a crucial first step in keeping cycling’s eco-system alive and is one that warrants serious exploring. What about a version of the old, and sadly missed USA Cycling rule that every club must organize a race? Perhaps each pro team could contribute to an amateur road race or two. This would make sponsors happy as cycling needs to look much more towards community outreach to achieve modern sponsorship success. 

7.     Team Radios. JvE, surprisingly, calls for the elimination of race radios for the riders as, he points out, nervous Team Directors often scream at their riders to move to the front, even when unnecessary, causing unsafe conditions. Hooray! While the teams try and justify the use as a safety measure, as Erik Zabel once told me: “If they want safety, then they should put Radio Tour (which is the inner-race commentary to the officials, media and directors, that reports incident, breakaways, time gaps, etc.) in the ears of the riders. If they do that, I guarantee you that every rider pulls the radio out of their ear within a few kilometers.”

8.     Red and Yellow Cards. JvE calls for a more standardized and much less arbitrary punishment system along the lines of soccer. Excellent point in my view.

9.     Motorcyclists. JvE acknowledges, as we all in the biz do, the crucial role the motos play in our sport, closing roads and doing all the wonderful things they do. However, some of the pilots get a bit too caught up in the race and crazy things happen. He calls for them to have large numbers on their backs for clearer identification in case of abuses. 

10.  Sidewalks and cycling paths. The iconic sights of Belgians – it’s generally them – hopping up on paths, scattering crowds makes for great TV, but, in this modern era, is simply too dangerous and JvE rightfully calls for the practice to be shut down.

 Both Jos van Emden and Dane Michael Mørkøv  came out this week against the CPA ) Cyclistes Professionnels Associés) which seems to be a UCI-controlled rider’s union, both slamming it for ineffectiveness. It is finally time for the professional racers to stand up and create their own, independent union. Cycling is a professional sport, like baseball or NFL, and its athletes deserve the same protections as the American sports have for theirs. As my father once told me, “Where do you think the 40-hour work week and paid vacation came from? It wasn’t from the business owners.”

There is so much more that needs to be done, a large part of which I feel is a move away from politics of Olympic Federation control back to cycling’s origins as a private, entertainment business, like the NFL. Which is of course a much deeper discussion than there is space for here. Jos van Emden has done a great service to cycling by speaking out in the calm, measured yet effective way he has. I hope the other racers rally ‘round him and work collectively on issues while being aware of the current fragility of our sport in making and implementing demands. All of JvE’s proposals were quick, inexpensive and effective. He’s started from a fine place, it’s now up to the peloton to take a pull.