The finale of the 3rd stage in the Tour de France garnered a lot of criticism from riders and cycling followers alike. Wasn't it irresponsible to put another bend at the very end? Parcours builder Thierry Gouvenou explains why there was no other way.
Did Jasper Philipsen deviate from his line in yesterday's sprint? The right turn in the last 100 meters made it almost impossible to assess. Moreover, that finale encouraged dangerous situations, such as with Wout van Aert.
"We have to admit that the finish was indeed not straight, that's obvious," said course builder Thierry Gouvenou to Sporza. "The Bayonne people had first made 2 other proposals, both of which I refused because it would be too dangerous. In the end we agreed on their 3rd proposal."
"It's true that that finish was not ideal, but in my opinion there are more often crashes with a straight finish than with a curve. We shouldn't reason too strictly. Straight finishes are no guarantee of no crashes." Gouvenou also noted delicately, "They didn't crash at all yesterday either, which is pretty rare for a first bunch sprint in the Tour anyway."
How do you find space for a finish line in a big city?
According to the parcours builder, it does become increasingly difficult to still organize a safe finish in larger cities. "In this case, it just wasn't possible to finish on a straight. You also have to take into account that at the finish we need different technical zones and space for the public. So you need enough space. People don't think about that very quickly."
"We could also have driven to a city further away, where it might have been safer. But the riders might not have liked that after 2 tough stages in the Basque Country."
Safer boarding for the finale? "Bad for ecological footprint"
In the Tour, they also still use the wafer-thin nadar fences at the finish line. Among other things, that caused Wout van Aert to hit someone in the crowd in a full sprint. Still, the wider fences by the Belgian company Boplan and others are not an option, Gouvenou said. "Each country has its own means of providing security," he said. "We put heavy emphasis on signage and other safety measures are also improving every year. Our resources are at least as good as Boplan's."
But wouldn't those thicker fences increase the distance between the riders and the public and thus still make it safer for the riders? "Maybe. But if you want to make your whole finale with that kind of closure, you need 6 to 7 more trucks. We also have to think about our carbon footprint." In any case, the stage finish in Bayonne seems at odds with the ambitious SafeR safety plans unfolded last Friday.
"I'm on the SafeR working group," Gouvenou said. "But for now they are only ideas; the plans have yet to become concrete. Only then can you draw conclusions about whether it works effectively."
