A WhatsApp group, ring-leaders, and a secretive operation – How the rider demonstration at Il Lombardia took shape

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, PARTENZA!"

The master of ceremonies yelled out the traditional countdown on the start line of Il Lombardia on Saturday morning, but no one moved. The peloton had instead staged a protest for rider safety after numerous incidents this year, including the death of Finlay Tarling.

It was an extraordinary moment, and not just for the way it played out but the way it all came together behind the scenes.

Rider unity has been a consistent headache over the years but this protest was a slick, strong, and even secretive operation.

Beyond the riders, “no one knew this was going to happen,” the New Zealand champion George Bennett told Cyclingnews. "We kept it out of the Telegram groups, we didn’t even tell our directors or team staff."

What’s most striking of all is that they didn’t even involve the CPA, which is the riders’ union that is supposed to act as a representative body in situations like this.

Instead, a WhatsApp group was created in the middle of the week, either by Tom Pidcock or Ben Healy, depending on differing accounts. Either way, it's clear they were the two ring-leaders.

Pidcock had seen two of his Pinarello-Q36.5 teammates struck head-on by a police motorbike at the recent Tre Valli Varesine, and had said he’d wanted to stop racing then and there.

It was the third incident involving vehicles on the course in the past week alone, and comes in the context of the tragic death of Finlay Tarling at the Volta a Portugal in August.

Invites were sent out and after a while, one rider from each of the 25 teams competing in Il Lombardia was in the WhatsApp group.

"We all wanted to get every team involved and the best way was to have the leader of every team in a chat, and they could be spokesperson for their team," Mark Donovan, a close ally of Tom Pidcock’s at Pinarello-Q36.5, told Cyclingnews.

"We kept it pretty tight. We could have involved the CPA, but it was slightly more kept within the riders. It’s nothing against the CPA, they do great job, but sometimes also we can, as riders, make decisions ourselves."

'All in line'

In the group, the idea of a demonstration was discussed, and rider representatives were encouraged to express their support or opposition.

"It was good, it was great. When we actually come together, I think no matter what, we should support it," said Bennett.

One rider we spoke to suggested the advantage of the setup was that even if 5% of teams were in opposition, then the majority would prevail. But there were no concrete mentions of dissent that we heard.

In the past, situations like this have put the smaller teams in a tricky position, especially the second-division Italian teams who rely on invitations to these big occasions. They can be reluctant to be part of something that causes disruption to a major race organizer such as RCS Sport, which also runs the Giro d’Italia. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

"We were all in line. All the 25 teams today were in line,” the WhatsApp representative from one such team, MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort’s Fausto Masnada told Cyclingnews.

"I had a request from some of the big riders of the bunch, and it makes sense what we did. Sometimes we just need to show that the riders have the power to decide these kind of things."

The start line, and the speech

And so to the start line of Il Lombardia in Bergamo on Saturday morning. The first indication that something was happening came when Pidcock, Evenepoel, and Giulio Ciccone were seen holding talks with the race director Luca Guercilena a few minutes before the start.

Ciccone was Lidl-Trek’s rider representative and a key link between the riders and RCS Sport given not only his Italian nationality but also his ties to Guercilena, his long-time team boss at Lidl-Trek until just a few months ago.

Guercilena later told Cyclingnews he was informed by the riders "25 to 30 minutes before the start". Either way, there wasn’t enough time to do much at that point – not even to give the master of ceremonies a heads-up – but there was just enough time to get a microphone heading in the direction of Remco Evenepoel, who delivered a public statement on behalf of the peloton from the front row of the start line.

"We asked them ‘do you have a statement?’ And they said, ‘we are going online now’ [with social media posts]. So we said ‘OK, it’s better you explain because otherwise the people on site don’t understand’," Guercilena said.

"Then it was very fair what he did, taking the microphone and explaining to the public what was happening. We and the public at the end were quite supportive of that."

The riders we spoke to heaped praise on Evenepoel for his impromptu speech.

"A leader, a champion," Masnada said.

"It wasn’t planned that he would speak,” Bennett said. “They were basically like ‘what the fuck are you guys you doing?’ I looked at Remco and he was like ‘argh’… I think he did well there."

A sense of pride and satisfaction among the riders

All in all, there was a sense of pride among the riders that they’d pulled off a demonstration in that way.

"I think was in good spirit, we did it in a way that didn’t take away from the racing but still showed our position," said Bennett.

"Considering what we’ve been through as a team [Finlay Tarling rode for the development arm of Bennett’s NSN Cycling], I think it’s insane that something like that can happen, that we think about every day, and then there’s still cars on the roads.

"It’s nothing against RCS. In the three races we did [where there were incidents with vehicles], none of them were RCS races. RCS runs a great show, it was nothing against RCS, but we did use their platform to get the message across. I just really hope it does something."

Donovan, who witnessed his teammates Thomas Gloag and Marcel Camprubi being hit by the motorbike at Tre Valli Varesine, added: "It’s hit us quite hard. It’s terrible really, it could have been a lot worse, and if people saw the images, if there was a camera there, they would be really shocked about how bad it was.

"Something needed to be said. We didn’t want to ruin anything. We understand how hard it is for the organisers here, so we didn’t want to do anything stupid and mess up a year of planning, but just make a statement to make sure everyone knows we can’t keep going like this, and make a point to the UCI and race organisers that the riders won’t stand for racing in unsafe conditions."

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for comprehensive race coverage of the UCI Gravel World Championships, alongside the final Monument of the season, Il Lombardia. Subscribers get unlimited access to exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.