A Maeve Plouffe near miss with a member of the public’s car on stage one of the Tour of Britain Women has prompted a formal review by race organisers, with the incident drawing fresh attention to rider safety in the wake of the death of Finlay Tarling.
Plouffe, 27, who rides for O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes, said the incident took place on a roundabout while she was chasing back to the peloton after a puncture on Wednesday’s opening stage. The general public, she said, were approaching from all directions with no awareness of the race still in progress.
Posting on Instagram, Plouffe wrote: ‘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.’
British Cycling Ventures responds to Maeve Plouffe near miss
Jonathan Day, events director of British Cycling Ventures, a commercial entity of British Cycling that organises the Tour of Britain Women, issued a statement to the BBC. Day said the organisation was taking Plouffe’s comments ‘extremely seriously.’
‘Rider safety is paramount and will always be treated as a priority in our planning and how we operate any race,’ Day said. ‘We’re reviewing what happened with Maeve and her team O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes with the seriousness and empathy these comments demand. We recognise this comes at an especially difficult time for the cycling community, so we want to reassure all riders, teams and fans of the sport at this time of how serious we are treating these comments.’
Plouffe’s comments were a direct reference to the death of 19-year-old British rider Finlay Tarling, who was killed last week during stage eight of the Volta a Portugal after a high-speed collision with a van that had strayed onto the road. According to Cyclingnews, a call reporting the collision came in at 3:40 p.m., at approximately kilometre 90 of the 166.8km stage, near the intermediate sprint at Ponte de Lima.
Major Tiago Machado of the National Republican Guard said there had been ‘a collision between the cyclist and a light goods vehicle’ and that an investigation was under way, BBC Sport reported. Tarling had competed on the track and road for Great Britain. Before the Tour of Britain Women got under way, all 114 riders and spectators took part in a minute’s applause, with a photograph of Tarling projected onto a large screen in tribute.
Tarling was the younger brother of Netcompany Ineos rider Josh Tarling, who was announced on Thursday in his team’s line-up for the Vuelta a España three-week Grand Tour, which begins on Saturday.
Stage two disruptions as Wiebes retains green jersey
Wednesday’s Maeve Plouffe near miss was not the only drama surrounding the race. Stage two’s 110.5km route from Clitheroe to Blackpool brought further disruption in wet conditions. The peloton was forced to divert after lorries blocked the course, and the stage was temporarily stopped to allow emergency service vehicles through following a road accident.
The stage featured more than 1,000 metres of climbing early on. A crash in the latter stages involved Britons Anna Morris and Katie Scott, along with Georgia Baker. All three managed to remount.
The Netherlands’ Lorena Wiebes retained the leader’s green jersey with victory, launching her sprint with 250 metres to go and finishing several lengths clear of Canada’s Maggie Coles-Lyster of Human Powered Health and Kim Le Court of AG Insurance-Soudal. Wiebes leads the overall general classification by 14 seconds over Italy’s Chiara Consonni of Canyon-Sram.
The race organisers’ review of the stage one incident is ongoing, with Day’s statement confirming the matter is being examined alongside Plouffe’s team.
