Czech and Slovak TT championships cancelled

The joint time trial championships of Czech Republic and Slovakia, due to be held Thursday near Brno, were cancelled due to safety reasons after the race course became a detour from a major motorway. The resulting amount of traffic on the course made the conditions unsafe for the riders. "The Prague-Brno motorway was blocked following an accident and the traffic was deviated. Then, the trucks and the coaches [were] circulated on the road where the race was being held," the championships' director, Pavel Havranek, explained to AFP.

The women's and juniors races were run before officials decided the conditions were too unsafe to continue the competition. "We completely cancelled this competition. The traffic on the road is too dense. The health and the safety of the cyclists were in danger," explained the principal referee of the race, Richard Kratochvil.

While the race organisation searches for a way to reschedule the event, the time trial director, Zdenek Valenta, blamed the cancellation on a lack of co-operation on part of the local police force.