Video: Helicopter blows barriers into riders' path at Tour of Croatia

After motorbikes and cars, now helicopters following races are in the spotlight after the downdraft from one blew crash barriers doubling as advertising hoardings into the path of riders at today’s queen stage of the Tour of Croatia, won by Trek-Segafredo’s Riccardo Zoidl.

Footage posted to Twitter by Cyclinghub.tv shows how the lead riders had to avoid the crash barriers that had been blown over in the closing few hundred metres of today’s race.

The helicopter almost blew the riders off the road in #TourofCroatia - Time for drones? pic.twitter.com/zZhj1unjH1

— CyclingHub.tv (@CyclingHubTV) April 22, 2016

Scottish rider Robert Millar has spoken in the past of how pilots of low-flying helicopters working for host broadcasters may have given a helping hand to home riders when he was challenging for the overall win at the Giro d’Italia.

More recently, in the 2013 edition of the Spanish race the Vuelta a Burgos, several riders gesticulated at a helicopter after it blew them off the road, and in the following year’s Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, one was said to have caused Katusha’s Pavel Kochetkov to crash, causing him to break his collarbone.

> Video: What happens when a TV helicopter gets a bit too close?

As for that question about whether drones should be used instead of helicopters, Felix Lowe – who blogs for Eurosport as Saddleblaze – pointed out that one was being used in today’s race.

@CyclingHubTV You could actually see a drone above the riders from the helicopter cam at one point...

— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) April 22, 2016