Just one of a number of huge devastating crashes to hit the pro bunch this year. Many people are blaming race vehicles, but it is not that simple.
It appears this season there has been a spike in the number of incidents where riders have been wiped out in bad crashes in the pro peloton.
But the increase in crashes is not only down to race vehicles, despite the bad press they have been getting of late.
The reality is that riders cause far and away the most crashes. But what else is going on in the pro bunch to cause so many spills?
We have a look at five key areas and outline room for improvement.
Motos and race cars
Motorbikes and cars have mixed with riders on the road since the emergence of the motor vehicle and there have always been collisions.
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But there are now more vehicles than ever travelling with races and some of the driving has been questionable, to say the least.
Race organisers need to ensure the drivers being let loose on the race are not only good behind the wheel that they but are experienced at driving in a cavalcade or flitting between groups to perform neutral service or take TV cameramen and press photographers to the action.
Most of them meet the criteria and without them the races would not run. The number of vehicles also needs to be examined and controlled.
Their number needs to be reduced considerably for those stages or sections of stages where overtaking is impossible.
The sight of a rider attacking in the mountains, only to get a couple of hundred metres up the road before he runs into the back of a moto traffic jam - all struggling to speed up without hitting each other and spectators - is all too common.
Races need to examine how they can get by with fewer vehicles, especially on those mountain stages with very narrow roads.
Instead, they could perhaps use emerging technology such as drones so the TV footage and press photos can still be captured if all but the absolutely necessary vehicles are ditched.
Race radio
If every rider in the bunch is being urged to get to the foot of a climb or a section of the parcours where a change in wind direction could be crucial, the speed will ramp up and the fight for position will intensify.
There is only so much space at the front of the bunch and if riders are egged on and put under immense pressure the inevitable result is more crashing.
Perhaps it’s time for race organisers to study sections of races and work out where the fight for position will be fierce enough without the interference of directeurs.
They could take radio contact off the air and out of the ears of the riders for periods during stages or one-day events.
Feeding riders and passing the peloton or smaller groups is only allowed when the road and race situation is adjudged safe enough. The same conditions could easily be applied to race radio, if they must be retained at all.
A lack of respect
When Dan Martin came a cropper on the Vuelta the weekend before last, crashing out on stage 8, he said he had been taken down by others when in great condition to race hard.
Martin believed the apparent recent increase in crashes was something the riders needed to take their share of responsibility for.
He believed riders had less respect for each other now. They were taking more chances and being less cautious.
He did not believe racing should be a procession, but said some in the bunch needed to learn respect-based etiquette and adhere to it.
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Why so many crashes this year? My opinion: guys showing less professional respect/caution, fighting for every position, take more risks
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) August 30, 2015
However, some of the riders in major races and young men working as domestiques with little or no results of their own. Their worth to a team is in the crisp execution of team orders towards helping their leaders.
And perhaps when chasing a contract extension or better conditions, taking chances is understandable.
This is especially so if the management figures who make decisions about their careers are shouting down a race radio at them.
The pro riders’ representative body perhaps needs to step up and educate the riders about the need for respect on the road to keep themselves and everyone around them safe.
For all the talk of motos recently, it must be remembered that riders cause most crashes.
Road furniture
The exponential growth in the use of road furniture to calm traffic and make the driving environment safer has impacted professional cycling hugely in the last decade or so.
At first, many local authorities in Europe agreed to take up speed ramps when races were passing through and to reinstall them afterwards.
But with roundabouts dotted on the approaches and exits to towns and villages more commonplace and features to funnel multi lane roads into single lane to slow the speed of cars approaching urban centres, road infrastructure has changed forever.
In some of the major races, these hazards are padded and officials on motorbikes blow whistles loudly to alert the riders.
But in many, many cases the riders are left to spot these features themselves.
Race organisers need to prioritise warning and protecting the riders and to supply them with very detailed guides to stretches of race routes where road furniture is most likely to cause problems.
Fans
Perhaps the most surprising thing about pro racing is that fans don’t take down riders more often.
This year’s Tour de France was at times difficult to watch, the crowds were so large and so near to the riders in many of the biggest climbs.
As with the proliferation of street furniture, the volume of crowds and the behaviour of a small minority of problematic spectators is perhaps out of the control of race organisers.
Longer sections of climbs have been made safer with the erection of barriers, but this can really on take place for the closing kilometres; doing the same for climbs that can stretch well over 10kms would not be feasible.
Police and soldiers have been deployed along many narrow ascents, especially on Grand Tours, to warn fans to keep back and even push back into the crowds those overzealous spectators stepping too far into the road and running alongside the riders.
One measure not yet tackled that is certainly within the control of race organisers and local police forces is the timing of road closures.
In order to control traffic and the volume of vehicles parked on climbs that will be packed with people on race day, traffic restrictions are now being placed around some major mountains up to a week before a race’s visit there.
And vehicle access to those mountains is sometimes stopped completely a number of days in advance.
While well intentioned, this measure has seen more groups of fans get to the iconic mountains days in advance in order to bring their vehicles with their supplies or in which they plan to sleep and secure their possessions.
Some fill the waiting time with long boozing sessions and by the time the racers arrive they have several days of alcohol in their system.
Of course, many fans who arrive on mountains the night before or even on the morning of a race’s visit will overdo it in the short time they have available.
But it is safe to say that the longer fans are on mountains waiting for the race, the more booze they will consume.
And there is a direct connection between excess consumption and some of the obnoxious behaviour we’ve seen in recent years.
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