Dangerous CRO Race finale sparks more criticism of UCI over rider safety

The 2022 race season is drawing to a close but calls for the UCI to take action on dangerous race courses show no sign of abating as the recently completed CRO Race becomes the latest event to come in for criticism.

The very technical final six kilometres of stage 6 of the Croatian race into Zagreb city centre included various un-barriered sections where riders could weave their way past spectators and small anti-parking bollards on the pavement. 

There were also traffic islands, and even a segment of tramway incorporated into a semi-pedestrianised street, bringing with it the danger of tyres falling into the narrow tram tracks.

Nobody was injured or crashed as a result of the obstacles, although stage 4 winner Axel Laurance (B&B Hotels-KTM) fell heavily in an unrelated incident and could not dispute the sprint, won from a 14-man group by Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) after the peloton shattered in the very tricky finale. 

However, both former riders and Jumbo-Visma’s Jos van Emden highlighted the risks, and what they see as a lack of action over these seemingly perennial issues. 

"Once again the UCI is being the UCI. Not only today [Sunday] but three out of six stages were way over the limit. David Lappartient how do you think it’s going" Van Emden wrote in a Tweet.

He then added another comment about how this would be the first and last time he took part in the race.

Van Emden was responding to another Tweet by former sports director and former rider Johan Bruyneel, who commented: "Great to see the UCI is making rider safety one of its priorities these days. Look at this finishing circuit in final stage of Tour of Croatia today. WTF???"

Another retired rider, Rory Sutherland, was equally sceptical that there had been any improvements in the last few years, saying: "Since I stopped racing 2 years ago, nothing has changed. It has even gotten worse. How was this ever okay?"

As it has been in other years, rider safety has been a recurring issue this season, with complaints also been registered about the Vuelta a Burgos, scene of a horrifying late stage crash in the final kilometre when Van Emden’s teammate David Dekker hit a speed bump and went flying.

There were also issues raised in the Tour de Pologne, a UCI WorldTour race which saw multiple pile-ups in several sketchy city finales. The most notable incident took place in stage 5 where the course turned sharply and narrowed suddenly in the final kilometre, leaving just a handful of riders ahead of dispute the sprint.

The Saudi Tour sparked a letter from the Riders Union to the UCI over safety issues, highlighting separate situations on the opening stage that it saw as "potentially very dangerous".

The first concerned the gravel section deep into the stage that was apparently littered with solid obstacles, while the second revolved around the finishing straight, with the roadside barriers and deviation zone said to go against the rules. 

Rider safety has been an increasingly prominent issue in recent years, with a string of incidents - such as Fabio Jakobsen's life-threatening crash at the 2020 Tour de Pologne - followed by calls for action from the governing body. The UCI updated its safety protocols in February 2021 with added specifications for races in the men's and Women's WorldTour, and men's ProSeries. 

The CRO race was a third-level category-1 race but still has to comply with UCI safety guidelines, although the governing body's willingness to enforce those guidelines has come under question from riders and commentators. Those questions show no sign of abating.