As acts of stupidity go, this really has to be right up there. The photos below depict a scene from yesterday's Gent Wevelgem semi classic in Belgium.
With a massive bunch of around 200 riders hurtling down the road in the hard fought WorldTour race, this guy is laying right in the road apparently looking for a close-up photo.
It took all the skill of the bunch to avoid him. You can clearly see the bunch taking massive corrective action to avoid him and some of the riders leaning on those next to them as a result of the sharp correction.
The really bizarre thing is that, at least in the moments captured here, the man in the road seems to think he's in no danger; the perspective he's getting through the lens maybe distorting his awareness of how close the riders are or the safety threat he's posing.
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Sam Bennett took 12th place despite the crashes that nearly wiped out his team; have a look at him in the photos below. And under those shots his manager tells of a day that tested his ProContinental NetApp-Endura squad.
Our photographer friend is laying not only across the bike lane but actually into the road. From the position of the riders on the far right of the shot, near the rear of the group, the bunch has clearly completely corrected its line to keep from riding over the man with the camera. A couple of the riders are wobbling a bit trying to keep their balance as a result of the bunch's sharp realignment. Sam Bennett is just about visible; behind the Movistar rider whose leaning to his left to keep his balance.
The riders are now passing the guy in the road and still he has no idea of the danger he's in. Bennett is more visible now; third rider from the left with green frame on his sun glasses and still behind the Movistar rider.
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Bad day for Bennett's team
The race was crash-hit, with Sam Bennett's NetApp-Endura team losing half of their men to spills, though the Irishman went on to take a very strong 12th place.
Bennett’s sporting director, André Schulze said the race was an important one for the team and he was happy with the result against the backdrop of such bad luck on the day.
“We picked this race so that we could have an especially good showing, but we never would have guessed that crashes would cut our team nearly in half,” he said.
“We completely focused on Sam Bennett and the final stretch. Up until then, our guys were always doing a great job at the decisive points in the race, particularly the Kemmelberg.
“Four to five of our guys were always at the front of the pack. Basically everything was going according to plan until Scott (Thwaites) crashed crossing the Kemmelberg for the second time, eliminating our first rider.
“Then shortly before the final stretch everything was prepared for Sam when lots of riders, including Paul Voss and Daniel Schorn, were involved in a crash going through town.
“That’s when Zak Dempster and Andreas Schillinger tried to get Sam into the best possible position, but Zak ultimately crashed as well. By then, we had lost our entire sprint train and Sam was left to fend for himself.
“He was still too far behind and boxed in, which meant that he couldn’t ride an optimum sprint. There is still a silver lining to the race, since our guys were in tune with one another and worked extremely well together. Unfortunately, the crashes nullified all of that.”
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