Amateur cyclist insists he was "completely unaware" he'd gatecrashed Omloop Het Nieuwsblad — as organiser criticises Muur "stunt"; Pub fills car park with bike racks; How to keep up with Wout; Podium beer skills; A very steep climb + more on the live blog

Left_is_for_Losers wrote:

Hosking seems to have some serious axe to grind with Adam, the CPA and everything else. Seems to have a chip on her shoulder with cycling generally since she couldn't find another team a couple of years ago. 

Standard chauvinist reaction to a woman daring to speak her mind, must have a chip on her shoulder. "Since she couldn't find another team" - you mean when B&B Hotels collapsed at a time when all other teams had filled their rosters?

Rendel Harris wrote:

Left_is_for_Losers wrote:

Hosking seems to have some serious axe to grind with Adam, the CPA and everything else. Seems to have a chip on her shoulder with cycling generally since she couldn't find another team a couple of years ago. 

Standard chauvinist reaction to a woman daring to speak her mind, must have a chip on her shoulder. "Since she couldn't find another team" - you mean when B&B Hotels collapsed at a time when all other teams had filled their rosters?

Clearly Adam and the CPA think she has a bone to pick with them too. 

Just Rendy Harris twisting things to suit his own agenda again. 

It's not like she's managed to find another team willing to pick her up in the last couple of years either is it. Most elite riders if they were dedicated enough would have. 

Left_is_for_Losers wrote:

It's not like she's managed to find another team willing to pick her up in the last couple of years either is it. Most elite riders if they were dedicated enough would have. 

Thank you for the proof that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. "Last couple of years"? Hosking had a $150,000 contract to race for B&B Hotels for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, they announced that they were pulling out in December 2022, at a time when all other teams would have already finalised their budgets and lineups for the 2023 season. She looked for another team but she couldn't find one able to pay enough for her, as an Australian, to cover her living costs of staying in Europe for 75% plus of the year, and so she retired. So she hasn't been looking for a team for "the last couple of years" and been unable to find one, her team went bust just over a year ago and, because of the reasons outlined above, she was unable to find a new team and retired. Come on now, try harder, you're nasty enough without having to add extra lies to increase your nastiness.

I have just realised the the video is on the Standard website !

Yet when you submit anything to the police you are asked to remove it from all social media platforms. There is something seriously off about the whole thing.

How are the Standard showing the video ?

In all fairness the CPA often have their hands tied and struggle to speak out when controversy occurs. The concussion protocols are complex and still somewhat in a testing phase; there will always be room for improvement and as new cases occur we will have the ability to learn and adapt where necessary. There was no need for the backhanded comment but I sympathise with his frustrations when protocols were properly followed and yet he still faces criticism.

As for the Lefevre/Alaphillipe spat, the CPA's job is to support the riders however tipping the applecart before the facts can be ascertained is often detrimental in the long run. The CPA must know something private that the public do not otherwise it would have made a statement on the matter by now.

Matthew Acton-Varian wrote:

The concussion protocols are complex and still somewhat in a testing phase; (snip) I sympathise with his frustrations when protocols were properly followed and yet he still faces criticism.

If the protocols were supposedly followed and there's still confusion and ambiguity as to the safety of riders, then as President of the riders' union it should be his job to be kicking up a fuss and demand improvements to the protocols

We would all love a magic solution that could immediately and correctly identify 100% of concussed and uninjured rideres following a crash, but as none exists, we have to work with what's available. For too long has nothing been done about it, and there's still a lot about brain injuries that we have limited medical knowledge about. The protocols are still very much in their infancy but it's not exactly a system you can run computer simulations on and perfect before implementation. There are going to be cases where more could be done. But the fact that Yates was pulled despite wanting to carry on is significant progress from when before the latest protocols were issued. The delay in Yates' withdrawal were for reasons beyond the riders, teams and CPA's control - Yates passed the initial roadside tests according to how individuals are trained by the host country's medical education system. We don't know the answer as to whether the result would have been different had a medic trained more strictly on concussions had assessed him, but his team continued to make observations and further tests as he made an attempt to continue. Concussion isn't always obvious, and if there was no way of telling on first assessment, then the situation needs to be observed in balance. Had Yates not been concussed but forcibly withdrawn from the race there would have been uproar from the rider and his team.

This isn't a pop at you Matt.

You have to wonder why concussions protocols are complex, it should simply be if a rider comes down and head takes a wallop then out of the race.  The health of the rider should be imperative, no buts or maybes.

Unfortunately, there's no solution where everyone is happy. If, in the middle of a stage race, a rider showed no symptoms but was withdrawn, and was later proved that he was safe to continue, the rider and his team would be very angry at being a rider down for the rest of a race, which could have severe outcomes if that rider was a GC contender or domestique. We don't have a static arena where the rider can just nip back on.

For some relevance, during the 6 Nations match between England and Scotland this weekend, the players were wearing smart mouthguards that detect impact and alert officials. A Scotland player took a hit to the face which set off the accelerometers in his mouthguards and the player was forced off for a ten-minute assessment (much to his annoyance - and a Concussion Substitution was made so Scotland could keep 15 men on the field) despite having clear vision and no signs of concussion. After the ten minute assessment he was cleared to return to the field and the CS was reversed. In that arena, such a system works, as incidents often have minimal impact on games, false alarms are not detrimental to a team getting a result.

In an ideal world, cycling would have the ability to do something similar, but is it really possible to fairly have a spare rider in a team car get out and join the race for ten minutes whilst the downed rider gets assessed in the medical car? - especially in a sport where results are individual, not really. A false alarm does have bigger consequences that can be detrimental to a team's result, and that's where the push back comes from. Cycling needs to find a balance and find a system that is 100% effective, takes the decision making out of the riders hands and avoids any controversy from false alarms. That's a really tough ask, but they are trying.

If the story from UAE's DS was accurate, then little more could have been done in Yates' case

How about one or more of the race motorcycles or indeed cars are designated as pace vehicles and, once cleared to carry on, the rider is allowed to slipstream them back to the position they were in before the concussion examination or, if the concussion examination takes too long for that to be feasible, the rider is granted the same time as the group they were in at the time of their crash, provided that they make it home within the cutoff time plus the time it took for the medical examination?

Good idea, in theory. However the practicalities of such a move could be problematic, especially if you have to slow the broom wagon down to compensate. The logistics, which may not always be required, mean condensing even more vehicles into the already densely packed convoy, and that could cause so many more problems. Also we have enough controversy with riders drafting back to the pack after a crash or minor injury (not to the head), allowing it for concussion assessments might also be pushed back.

Considering riders have multiple helmets, accellerometers and crash sensors in the helmets looking for concussion would be an extremely expensive uptake too, until the technology becomes cheaper. I can see that being implemented at some point in the future but probably not within this decade.