Tom Pidcock said that two of his teammates were hit by a police motorbike driving in the opposite direction to the race during the Italian one-day Tre Valli Varesine on Tuesday.
The Pinarello Q36.5 rider went on to finish second behind Jarno Widar of Lotto-Intermarché in the 1.Pro race, but told Eurosport in his post-race interview that his day could have gone much worse.
“A police motorbike was going the wrong way down the course and crashed into two of our guys,” Pidcock said. “So from this point… well, first of all I wanted to stop racing myself. I was mad. The guys all riding in front of me, for me, and two of them on the floor.”
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The two riders hit were Marcel Camprubi and Thomas Gloag, with the latter unable to finish the race.
“Luckily Marcel was ok, he could continue,” Pidcock continued.
“Tom was also ok, in the end, but he stopped the race, and he has some stitches in the knee.”
“Things like this shouldn’t happen,” Pidcock added.
It is just the latest incident involving vehicles and riders at races. In August, Pidcock’s British compatriot Finlay Tarling was killed when a non-race vehicle hit him after entering the course at the Volta a Portugal, with an investigation still ongoing.
At the Tour of Britain Women last month, Australian rider Maeve Plouffe said she was “nearly hit” by a non-race car driver.
However, Pidcock was able to recover from the incident and finish second, the second time in a week he has finished runner-up at an Italian one-day race, after the Giro dell’Emilia.
“Today was a little bit more unpredictable,” he explained. “I’m happy that we could be fighting for a podium in the end. It was not the easiest race, and we had to ride on our own at the start. We said: ‘We’re not going to isolate ourselves.’
“Mark [Donovan] did a great job controlling by himself, holding the gap. It was quite big: 6-7 minutes, but then UAE came to help. we continued and got back into the race and I’m happy that I could be on the podium. It was a shame I couldn’t win, but I’m so happy. Very impressive sprint by Widar.”
Next up for Pidcock is Il Lombardia on Saturday, which he will go into as one of the favourites.
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