“We have all done more or less limited things”: is sprinting the jungle of cycling?

The victory of Belgian Wout Van Aert in the Strade Bianche? Julian Alaphilippe's mine in the Poggio on Saturday during Milan-San Remo? The demonstrations of Remco Evenepoel at the Tour de Burgos or Jumbo-Visma on the roads of the Ain? The most striking images of the return of cycling after the Covid-19 crisis are not to be found in there. On Wednesday August 5, the general public discovered with dismay the images of what must have been a trivial finish in the Tour of Poland sprint in Katowice. We see the Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen crush his compatriot Fabio Jakobsen, who came to challenge him for the final victory in the final meters, against the security barriers.

A blink of an eye later, Jakobsen crosses the obstacle and some of the other sprinters end up on the asphalt. Seriously affected, the Dutchman from the Deceuninck-Quick Step spent nearly two days in a coma. Recalling the dangerousness of these disputed arrivals at more than 70 km / h.

Massive crash on the finish line in stage 1 of 🇵🇱 @ Tour_de_Pologne! # TDP20 (📺 @ sport_tvppl) pic.twitter.com/mwvDwS9Y3i

“You have to be a little cracked to do that,” believes the sports director of Cofidis training, Alain Deloeil. Guys need to unplug their heads to get into a sprint optimally. "" As soon as you are a little afraid, you cannot play for the win, maintains Jean-Patrick Nazon, the last French winner of the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysées in 2003. You stress, you put a little brake, and you find yourself in the second curtain. "

"Somewhere, it's a suicidal gesture"

In the peloton, the sprint specialists are a separate caste, that of runners who live with the pressure of concluding their team's efforts on the flat. Cars that are snapping up: Nacer Bouhanni, with emoluments of 1.5 million euros per year, was the best paid French cyclist when he was with Cofidis. One of the specialists in this jungle of “warm-blooded” runners, says Jean-Patrick Nazon, where many strokes are more or less allowed. “There are more sprinters than at the start of my career, notes Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), professional since 2012. It’s playing for nothing now: a little nudge or a little braking from the opponent … ”

“Your goal is to find ideas to fuck others, loose Frédéric Moncassin, ex-sprinter and winner of two stages on the Grande Boucle in 1996. We come to close doors in front of some, we just touch the shorts. of the guy in front just to get annoyed and leave you a little room to pass. It's the sprint game, and that's what happened on Wednesday. Patrick Lefevere (Editor's note: the manager of Deceuninck-Quick Step) who says that it is a criminal act, it is shameful. It's a sprint, where Jakobsen knows that if he can get through that hole, he will win. He also knows that if the other crushes him a bit, he ends up in the barriers. Somehow it's a suicidal gesture. The other makes a mistake, he must be sanctioned, but from there to talking about sending him to prison, it's nonsense. "

In recent years, incidents have multiplied in sprints, between shoulder strikes, elbows or runners dislocating in front of others, these "waves" so dreaded at high speed. In 2017, Mark Cavendish had flown in the barriers of the Tour de France in Vittel after contact with Peter Sagan, excluded from the Tour in the wake. A shame, as the Briton is famous for his not always very clear shots. But, in the sprint, we quickly go from victim to executioner.

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“The first wave Groenewegen puts in Jakobsen, OK. You don't always have to sanction. I was trapped or I trapped with that too, describes the Groupama-FDJ rider Arnaud Démare. It is the second which is inadmissible. "" We have all done more or less borderline things. Sometimes it's played down to the millimeter, but you have to know how to adjust the cursor, says Jean-Patrick Nazon. Sanctions must be taken and they must be firm. We're too afraid to downgrade, but it works better than fining the runners. "

In the last few meters of a sprint, the temptation is great to get rid of the competitors. LP / PDP  

In 2019, the Italian Elia Viviani was downgraded by one stage in the Giro after having made a clear gap in a final sprint, an attitude prohibited by the regulations of the International Cycling Union. Last March, the Irishman from Deceuninck-Quick Step Sam Bennett was fined for having elbowed in the finish of a Paris-Nice stage. Sanctions that are too isolated for some.

“It's like those who drive more than 130 km / h on the highway, the culprits are too infrequently punished. The last kilometer must be systematically analyzed by the stewards, slips Alain Deloeil. I also hope that this accident will change mentalities. Saturday on Milan-San Remo, Michael Matthews (Editor's note: third after winning the sprint of the peloton) found himself in the fight with another rider that he could have packed into the barriers. And he didn't… Maybe he thought about what happened on Wednesday. ”