This footage, below, of the final kilometre at Tour de Pologne yesterday shows how lucky Sam Bennett was to avoid a crash and how the placement of the crowd control barriers caused a pile up on the other side of the bunch.
When the final 1km barriered section begins, the barriers on the riders' left swept out into the road, clearly catching off the guard the men on that side of the bunch.
Bennett was on the far left - as he tried to follow final lead-out man Jordi Meeus - and was one of a number of riders forced to correct their line very suddenly in order to miss the obstruction created by what were supposed to be safety barriers.
The movement in the bunch, from left to right, caused a mass crash within the peloton. It was the second time in three years the opening stage in Poland had been marred by a bad crash with poor safety structures at the centre of the incident.
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Two years ago when Dylan Groenewegen, riding for Jumbo Visma at the time, closed the door on QuickStep rider Fabio Jakobsen in the sprint, it cause Jakobsen to crash. The safety barriers then failed, with Jakobsen crashing through them.
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He suffered life-threatening injuries and also hit a race official. When the barriers failed, they turned into projectiles that flew into the road as the riders were sprinting for the finish line at full speed. However, it was Groenewegen who carried the can for the incident as he was banned for nine months while no action was taken against the Tour de Pologne race organisation.
In the second video below, which shows the full final kilometre, it is clear to see a major piece of road furniture in the path of the cyclists with 500m to go - its four minutes into the footage.
