Ineos Grenadiers rider Laurens De Plus has sent a safety message to drivers, telling them to “Think twice or wait five seconds” when there are cyclists around after he was knocked off his bike by a motorist during a training ride this morning.
The 26-year-old from Flanders, who is due to ride the Vuelta a Espana which begins in Utrecht a week tomorrow, was riding near Geraaardsbergen when the incident happened.
Sharing pictures on Twitter with his arm and buttock showing road rash and the wheels of his bike crumpled, the Belgian said: “Thanks to the driver for driving [into] me from behind. Fortunately with a better outcome than my colleagues last week. Please be careful with the vulnerable road user.”
De Plus, who joined Ineos Grenadiers at the start of last season from Team Jumbo Visma, added the hashtag #safetyfirst to his post.
He added: “I'm happy to get out of the bruise and the bump," the rider added. “It was a very sad and unfortunate accident. A car tried to pass me in the Onkerzelestraat where there is no bicycle path and took me from behind.
“I have had an official report drawn up, but it remains to be seen whether anything will come of it. I urge drivers to think twice or wait five seconds.”
His comments come after Jumbo-Visma rider Tiesj Benoot sustained fractured vertebraafter a rider crashed into him when he was training in Livigno, Lombardy, on Monday.
> Tiesj Benoot hit by driver while training — suffers fractured vertebrae
“I was descending and driving on a long straight”, Benoot said after his crash, which happened as he was descending and a driver pulled out of a car park in front of him.
“I wasn't even riding that fast. I went to look back, I reached something like 67 km/h. Suddenly the car crossed a parking lot.
“Did he not look, or did he think he could pass quickly? I don't know.
“I’ve ridden it full on and I've barely even been able to brake. The door of the car was dented, the mirror was off, the windows were broken.”
He continued: “I must have been unconscious for 15 minutes because when I came to, the ambulance was already there. I immediately called my girlfriend Fien and forwarded the location. She arrived quickly on the spot.
“For a while I was very fuzzy, I didn’t immediately know where I was and how long I had been in Livigno, but luckily that came back quickly.
“I don’t remember everything, but I can still see such a flash of the car entering the road ahead of me,” added Benoot, who was airlifted to hospital and is now out for the rest of the season.
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7 comments
"wait five seconds"??!!! - are you quite mad??
I was out in my car today and joined a queue that followed a tractor with a trailer of "big bales" for about 5 miles today. I was too far back, but what really amazed me was that nobody at the front attempted to overtake it. Certainly no "punishment passes". From my position, I saw several occasions in when several of the cars in front of me could have safely overtaken the tractor, yet none did. I didn't take a detour as I was fascinated by this passive behaviour by a queue of slowed down motorists.
Why can't they behave like this when a cyclist is ahead of them?
Simply because many drivers don't see farm vehicles as "The Enemy", as they do with cyclists.
Tractor big, bicycle puny
HulkDriver Smash!If the overtake of a cyclist goes wrong and there's oncoming traffic, drivers will think "hey-ho, 3 abreast is fine and I can just squeeze the cyclist into the gutter." Not so much with n tonnes of tractor which has nothing to lose.
Because a driver has quite a bit to lose if they f*ck up a dangerous overtake on multiple tonnes of heavy farm machinery.
On the other had, a driver has nothing to lose if they f*ck up a dangerous overtake of a cyclist and kill them. Maybe a day out to visit their local court so a judge can call them a very naughty boy and to think very hard about what they've done - but that's okay, they can do some shopping on their way back, and it's an excuse to wear that suit they bought for thier sister's wedding again...