Four days after the peloton staged a mass protest as a statement over rider safety at the start of Il Lombardia, another car was able to enter the course of a cycling race on stage 1 of the men's Eneco Tour in the Netherlands.
A driver entered Wednesday's race route with around 70km to go just ahead of the breakaway, going in the same direction. Fortunately an in-race marshal was able to direct the green car to the side of the road from a motorbike, where it pulled over, allowing the three breakaway riders to pass safely.
Thankfully, the peloton were 1:44 behind, so by the time they reached the spot where the car was, it had already been diverted off the course. But it's the latest in a run of incidents which forced the riders' hands before the last Monument of the season.
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Remco Evenepoel led the protest and delayed start in Italy on Saturday, giving a speech in which he said: "We want to make this statement because there's too many incidents happening with vehicles in the race. Unfortunately we lost the life of a brother and of a colleague of us, so we want to make this statement to show to the world that we cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured or literally dying in what we like the most to do."
Evenepoel was referring directly to Finlay Tarling, the British rider who died after a driver entered the course during the Volta ao Portugal in August.
Since his death, non-race vehicles have entered the route at the Giro dell'Emilia and Coppa Bernocchi, with a police motorbike going the wrong way during Tre Valli Varesine also knocking two of Tom Pidcock's Pinarello Q36.5 teammates out of the race.
Racing continued on Wednesday with Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) taking the win on the impacted Eneco Tour stage, but it's the latest in a run of shocking incidents just this year which forced the riders to take a stand at Il Lombardia.
At the same time as Evenepoel spoke, a scheduled shared statement was released by many of the riders in the professional peloton, in which they called for action from cycling's governing body, the UCI, and race organisers.
"As riders, we stand united against the unnecessary risk our lives are being subjected to," it read.
"[Last] week alone, there were multiple incidents of vehicles on race courses. Two riders crashed when they hit a motorbike who was driving the wrong way on the race route. Luckily both escaped with cuts and bruises, it could have been so much worse.
"This summer, a life was tragically lost to exactly this kind of failure. We will not stand for this any longer. Riders race at high speed with little protection, and we depend on the UCI and race organisers to secure the roads. That responsibility is not being met.
"We are calling for the UCI and race organisers to take accountability and act. That means a serious, open conversation between riders, race organisers and the UCI resulting in concrete changes to how race routes are secured and managed.
"After five minutes, we raced as normal. We did not want to affect the race, only to show what riders can do when we stand as one. We love this sport. We respect the race organisers. We want to race hard and put on a show for our fans. However most importantly we want to come home safe to our loved ones."
