Lidl-Trek Future rider swerves to avoid two drivers at Sauerlandrundfahrt time trial in another car-related life-threatening situation

Three weeks after Finlay Tarling's death after being struck by a driver at the Volta a Portugal, a rider was once again put at risk at the opening stage of the 2.2-ranked German race, the Sauerlandrundfahrt.

In footage shared on social media, Lidl-Trek Future rider Louis Leidert could be seen swerving to avoid an oncoming driver while he raced the 13.7km opening time trial in Brilon. The driver managed to slow and mount the kerb to avoid Leidert.

Moments later, Leidert was forced to brake and take evasive action once more as a driver, this time heading in the same direction, turned off the road just ahead of him.

21-year-old German racer Leidert thankfully managed to avoid any collisions during his ride and raced to sixth place in the time trial, 33 seconds down on stage winner Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies).

Sauerlandrundfahrt organisers released a statement on Friday morning, saying that they are taking the incidents seriously and have tightened security measures for the remaining three stages of the race.

The statement does not explain how the two drivers accessed the barriered race course on stage 1.

"During the first stage of the Sauerlandrundfahrt, an incident occurred in which two vehicles entered the official time trial course despite the barriers. Fortunately, there was no accident, although one rider was forced to swerve out of the way," the statement read.

"We are very glad that nothing more serious happened in this instance. At the same time, we are taking the incident very seriously and are investigating it thoroughly. It goes without saying that it is not in our interest for such a situation to arise – the safety of all riders is our top priority.

"For the upcoming stages 2, 3 and 4, we have therefore, in collaboration with the police, the public order office, our stewards and the volunteers, significantly tightened security measures once again.

"We will do everything in our power to ensure that such an incident does not happen again."

The incident isn't the first to occur since Tarling's death when he was hit by an oncoming driver on stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal.

Less than a week later, at the Tour of Britain Women, O'Shea Chilli Bikes racer Maeve Plouffe took to social media to detail her experience during stage 1 of the race.

The American racer was exposed to public traffic with "cars coming at me from all directions" after suffering a puncture and riding at the rear of the race convoy.

Plouffe narrowly avoided being hit, she said: "On a side note, while the race convoy was still in sight and I was less than two minutes down, there were cars from the general public coming at me from all directions, including one that nearly hit me on a roundabout.

"Later on, the moto escort was wonderful and I felt much safer. But considering the recent devastating events in our cycling community, it's scary to see situations like this, when we know that this can have horrific consequences, especially so soon after suffering such a tragedy."

Like Leidert, Plouffe was lucky to avoid being hit, though she didn't make it to the end of the stage after chasing alone at the back of the race for over half an hour.

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