Giro d'Italia crash chaos as furious Alberto Bettiol taken out by staff member running across road

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that although the crash is 80% the soigneur/mechanic's fault, Bettiol should have figured from the fact that all the cars were stopped both sides of the road and that there was a rider lying in the roadway that something pretty serious was happening and should have slowed down to check it was safe rather than come through at race pace. His behaviour in leaping about in the road in dudgeon afterwards and forcing the INEOS and Confidis riders coming from behind to swerve round him was pretty poor too. As I said, it's mainly the Jayco staff member's fault, but Bettiol could have avoided it with more care.

Bettiol is a racer, and therefore is likely to be taking calculated risks. I don't think any pro racer would have done differently leading up to the crash.

At that point in time, he, like the other riders behind him, were attempting to regroup with the peloton, which takes huge effort. You are likely to be paying attention to what is to the side of you, as well as in front, so may have been briefly focussing on the wrong spot at the wrong moment. Maybe on a car door that he was passing. Also the race cars are instructed under the UCI to ensure they minimise interference with the riders, so it means allowing dropped riders past when stopping.

His post-crash reaction was rash, but highly understandable given the circumstances. Adrenalin is high at that moment.

Matthew Acton-Varian wrote:

I don't think any pro racer would have done differently leading up to the crash.

If you look at the two riders who go through before Bettiol, they are riding considerably more slowly – you can see them getting out of the saddle to start accelerating again, obviously having slowed down – and they are also riding down the white line whereas Bettiol was riding at a higher pace right along the side of the cars, which may have contributed to the Jayco man not seeing him. If he had been riding at the same pace and in the same road position as the two riders previous to him he probably would have avoided the collision. Again, the Jayco man is entirely at fault for stepping out like that, but I would still say Bettiol could have ridden more defensively in the face of the evidence that there was a serious incident up ahead of him.