Former double Giro d’Italia winner and former world champion Giuseppe Saronni has called on the riders to take responsibility for their actions, to limit the intrinsic risk of racing, and so reduce the chance of crashes.
Saronni was one of the patrons of the Italian peloton in the eighties as he battled with Francesco Moser. He then became a television commentator and team manager, and has always spoken his mind about racing and safety.
During stage 6 to Naples, around 40 riders crashed as rain turned a section of local roads into ice. 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the highest-profile rider to leave the race after the crash. He was diagnosed with a concussion and a fractured vertebra.
Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) suffered a double fracture of his right forearm and a complicated fracture of the right hip. A huge number of other riders were left with road rash and bruising.
Race organisers briefly neutralised the stage and decided that no times or points would be decided at the finish. The crash appeared to occur after a rider touched their brakes before a corner, sparking a domino crash effect in the nervous peloton.
Saronni suggested that riders were taking too many risks.
“The riders need to know how to race. Having a bike computer, data, and radio isn’t enough, you need to have a brain,” Saronni told Italian website Bicisport.
“It’s important to know when to slow down, to avoid risks. Crashing hurts, and so the riders have to look after themselves. They need to leave the right gap in the peloton depending on the conditions.
“Riders talk in the peloton, and so team leaders and road captains can agree on things without turning things into a show. Race neutralisation didn’t exist when I raced, and it shouldn’t really happen every year.
“There are risks in cycling, it’s important to face them with responsibility and intelligence. Sometimes that seems to be missing in the peloton.”
It is often said that there is a lack of respect amongst riders in the modern peloton, with young riders taking risks with little consideration for their seniors and rivals.
Saronni revealed how Felice Gimondi once raised his voice to call for more respect and better safety in the Giro peloton.
“When I raced, there was always a group of neo-pros; they were full of ambition and wanted to do well. One day on the Giro, the young riders were taking huge risks, we always felt a brake lever in our backsides, we were that close on the peloton.
“At one point, Gimondi started shouting and called all the team leaders to a meeting after the stage to make sure everyone raced with more consideration. The next day, everyone raced differently.”
