Tour de Pologne 2020: Massive crash disrupts stage 1



Horrendous. Will obviously face the consequences from the authorities. Can't imagine the cycling community will be too happy with him either.

I'd imagine, purely from a pro cycling point of view, that he'll be sacked by Jumbo-Visma and, beyond any ban he gets, will find it incredibly difficult to find a UCI World Team who'll employ him. Sprints are always risky and there can be big crashes occasionally but, usually, if a rider is to blame, it's more that they've gone beyond flat out and got messy or are unaware of an opponent. From those two videos, it looks like Groenewegen was in control and aware that Jakobsen was there.

One thing that's slightly mitigating for Groenewegen is that the barriers were either badly put together or made of a combination of balsa, spaghetti and bamboo.
 
I hope he makes it through the night. Will probably never cycle again.

To be fair, a medically induced coma is standard in this situation (with a head injury). It may be that he can make a full recovery. It might take a year or two though, if not more, and will lead to some doubt initially about how good he is. Jakobsen is/was clearly emerging as a sprinting talent - 2 Vuelta stages last year in his only grand tour.
 
To be fair, a medically induced coma is standard in this situation (with a head injury). It may be that he can make a full recovery. It might take a year or two though, if not more, and will lead to some doubt initially about how good he is. Jakobsen is/was clearly emerging as a sprinting talent - 2 Vuelta stages last year in his only grand tour.
I agree. Just look at Van Aert's comeback following his horror crash.
 
I'd imagine, purely from a pro cycling point of view, that he'll be sacked by Jumbo-Visma and, beyond any ban he gets, will find it incredibly difficult to find a UCI World Team who'll employ him. Sprints are always risky and there can be big crashes occasionally but, usually, if a rider is to blame, it's more that they've gone beyond flat out and got messy or are unaware of an opponent. From those two videos, it looks like Groenewegen was in control and aware that Jakobsen was there.

One thing that's slightly mitigating for Groenewegen is that the barriers were either badly put together or made of a combination of balsa, spaghetti and bamboo.
He has absolutely put another rider in danger there. That's Abysmal. Really bad. You don't do that.

My first reaction was the barriers were shite but you just don't do that. He's clearly ridden across him there.

Imagine if that had happened with cav there'd be hell on and rightly so. He's almost killed the bloke. He may already have.
 
Horrendous...but you will get a lot of sprinters saying “ just a racing incident”
seen similar awful crashes and very little ever done to those causing the crash apart from being chucked out of the race and a few hundred euro fine
 
He has absolutely put another rider in danger there. That's Abysmal. Really bad. You don't do that.

My first reaction was the barriers were shite but you just don't do that. He's clearly ridden across him there.

Imagine if that had happened with cav there'd be hell on and rightly so. He's almost killed the bloke. He may already have.

Exactly. The barriers weren't great but he's fully aware of another rider to his right and swerves that way, putting them in danger. TBH, the only reason I mentioned the barriers was that someone on the other side of them was hurt. The primary reason the barriers are there is to stop that from happening.

As you say, Cav would be hauled over the coals for that, at the very least.
 
Groenewegen will get kicked out of the race and then maybe a 3 month ban, however long basically means this season is a write off for him. I don't think Lotto Jumbo will sack him, he is the poster boy for Dutch cycling, if he is sacked somebody else will pick him up.

They need to ask some serious questions about the race though, that road is a 3 lane highway, why narrow it down so much, that race is a magnet for crashes as well. Needs some serious questions but mainly I hope Jakobsen, the referee and the other 3 or 4 riders are all ok.
 
Groenewegen will get kicked out of the race and then maybe a 3 month ban, however long basically means this season is a write off for him. I don't think Lotto Jumbo will sack him, he is the poster boy for Dutch cycling, if he is sacked somebody else will pick him up.

They need to ask some serious questions about the race though, that road is a 3 lane highway, why narrow it down so much, that race is a magnet for crashes as well. Needs some serious questions but mainly I hope Jakobsen, the referee and the other 3 or 4 riders are all ok.

Only a year since Lambrecht was killed in the race. Looks pretty damning from the overhead but agree the punishment won’t be as severe as people are suggesting. Barriers should definitely be more robust than that.
 

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