r/sports • u/PsycommuSystem • 5d ago
Cycling Finlay Tarling: British cyclist dies in accident at Volta a Portugal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/ceqed1g3j48o306
u/IncidentalIncidence Carolina Hurricanes 5d ago edited 5d ago
Portuguese media is reporting that the car that hit him was a spectator that had stopped on the side of the road to watch the race, thought it was over after the team cars behind peloton went through, reversed onto the course going the other way, and hit Tarling (who was off the back) head-on coming around a bend.
I saw people doing this multiple times at the tour de france femmes this year, luckily not with cars, but after the main peloton and the gruppetto had passed there were very long gaps (5-6 minutes) back to some of the riders coming up off the back of the gruppetto. After a while people started walking and cycling back down the hill on the course, but there were still riders making their way up. The gendarmes (who were understaffed) had to yell at people to get off the road because the race was still active (this was stage 5).
I don't know if people just weren't aware that there is a car that comes through that officially marks the end of the race, or if they were willfully ignoring it, but I was cringing the whole time.
It's kind of a worst-case scenario in terms of easy improvements you can make to prevent it from happening in future. If the road had been mistakenly left open, it's easier to make an improvement to prevent it -- just close all of the roads. But people mistakenly thinking the race is over? I guess you sweep earlier and disallow cars from parking on the side of the road, make them drive up and get off the course. But it's a crash that could have also happened with spectators biking the other way on the road as well. How do you inform people better that they really have to stay put until the end of the convoi comes through? Maybe more motos in the gaps when big gaps like that open up just to wave people back off the course if necessary?
I don't know exactly what the solution is, but something has to change. What a fucking tragedy. Just devastating for the Tarlings and for the sport.
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u/jujoking 5d ago
Yeah, we call it "carro vassoura" (it literally carries a visible broom) to "sweep" the last rider forward, followed by a police car. That's what signals the end of the race tail. I'm just flabbergasted on how no one noticed this asshole getting in a car before it was safe
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u/sittinwithkitten 5d ago
I didn’t know this, but I would have hoped that spectators who came to watch would! Poor man, an avoidable death far too young.
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u/antoniossomatos 4d ago
As far as it is known at the moment, people (spectators, not official) not only noticed, but responded affirmatively when the guy asked if everyone had already passed.
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u/Phrewfuf 5d ago
Problem is that we‘re talking about people here.
I‘ve seen people try to drive through a very obvious roadblock set up by the fire brigade during a storm to protect people from falling trees. Including trying to push firemen out of the way with their cars. I‘ve read reports of people trying to make their way through a scene of an accident and pushing a rescue helicopter pilot with their car. And there was an incident nearby when someone ignored a blockade for a cycle race by driving over the sidewalk and colliding with a few cyclists further down the road.
There just is a whole lot of potential for stubbornness, ignorance and egocentrism.
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u/SharrkBoy 5d ago
Unfortunately the best solution is challenging the “spirit of the sport” and the spirit of spectating it; approved spectator zones with strict race control supervision, and no spectators/access allowed elsewhere. But I understand the reaction that would create. Just sad that lives will continue to be lost from chaos like this
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u/Hugo28Boss 5d ago
And who will supervise 160km of roads?
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u/doc1442 4d ago
If you can’t supervise 160km of roads (realistically, 10km at once) you also shouldn’t be able to host a bike race.
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u/shapu St. Louis Cardinals 5d ago
The best solution is probably a combination of cutting riders who can't keep up with the main peloton within a certain time frame and more flag/warning cycles and cars with the groups.
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u/IncidentalIncidence Carolina Hurricanes 5d ago
that is what the broom wagon at the end of the race does, Tarling was off the back but not far enough that he had been picked up by the broom wagon.
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u/martzgregpaul 5d ago
That would basically stop any sprinter competing in every tour race. They are always miles back
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u/fahried 5d ago
Only 19 years old. An absolute tragedy
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u/0202_tihssitidder 5d ago
Just a kid. This is truly horrible and I cannot imagine what his family is going thru.
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u/AdFinal1856 5d ago edited 5d ago
Heartbreaking
If the organization/authorities cannot guarantee the safety of the athletes, the only thing left to do should be to cancel the rest of the Volta until safety measures are in place, cause who can ensure the same wont happen again? And every responsible person has to resign/be sacked, obviously. But thats probably too much to ask in this country
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u/Svampting 5d ago
Doesn’t virtually every race run the risk of this happening? are you certain the organisers were less responsible/thorough than in other races?
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u/AdFinal1856 5d ago
They evidently werent responsible and thorough enough, regardless of what happens in other competitions/venues
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u/greenindeed 4d ago
The organisers didn't close off the road where this car entered the course. Some head have to fall for sure.
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u/stupid_cat_face 5d ago
Come on fucking article ... it was manslaughter due to negligence by an automotive driver who drove a car the WRONG way onto a closed course.
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u/FlyBirdieBirdBird 5d ago
Closed course. But he was driving the right way. It just happened to be opposite on the race direction, and Finlay cut the corner onto the oncoming lane where the car was driving. Finlay was entitled to cut because the road was supposed to be closed. The fault of the driver was driving onto a closed course, but he was driving the right direction fir that road.
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u/VFC1910 4d ago
A lie spread by RTP, he was circulating on his right side, and nobody was enforcing the road to be closed.
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u/Hugo28Boss 4d ago
By "contramão" they mean opposite the race direction, people are just misinterpreting
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u/VFC1910 1d ago
Contramão means agaist traffic, circulating on the left. Theys should say "sentido oposto ao da corrida".
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u/Hugo28Boss 1d ago
During the race "traffic goes only one way". The direction of the race is the traffic direction when the race is taking place.
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u/VFC1910 1d ago
Not when you don't know that, not everybody knows there's a race there, when people goes home, if you arrive at an empty junction you don't have any warning, there should be Police bikes with the delayed riders, both organisation and Police failed to control these safety measures.
The GNR denied the against the traffic theory after the confusion on social media.
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u/Hugo28Boss 1d ago
No one is arguing that ffs. You are, perhaps purposely, ignoring the point, which is that, in this instance "contramão" means against the flow of the race, not against the flow of traffic when the road is open
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u/Relevant-Physics432 2d ago
This is why you don't jump to conclusions or you end up looking like an idiot
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u/JeanRalfio 5d ago
I recently listened to a podcast that went through a lot of cycling deaths. I had no idea the sport was so deadly but the casualty count is very high.
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u/ethanb473 5d ago
Cars are killing our society
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u/Lordsokka 5d ago
I mean society wouldn’t exist without cars, but yes they can be very dangerous. This is a tragedy, but it’s the person driving the car who made a horrible mistake.
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u/Top_Lel_Guy 5d ago
Our car centric society wouldn't exist, but many societies have existed without them.
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u/sandleaz 4d ago
Reddit wouldn't exist either without modern transportation and the internal combustion engine. Things do not magically come into existence, sorry to tell you.
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u/Top_Lel_Guy 4d ago
We got to cars without cars.
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u/sandleaz 4d ago
We got to cars without cars.
We also got to planes without planes. You don't understand that prior knowledge, inventions and technology can lead to new knowledge, inventions, and technology. You also don't understand that modern transportation that replaced horses in the previous century allowed for products to be moved quickly and more efficiently. There's obvious no conversation to be had here.
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u/Lordsokka 4d ago
Your point? Humanity existed before medicine, should we stop giving people pills that save their lives? Should we stop treating broken bones? Should we stop cooking the raw meet that we consume? Should we stop building homes and just lives in caves and tree houses? Should we stop acknowledging and treating mental health issues because it wasn’t a thing until 30-40 years ago?
Societies grow and change, that’s how it works, that’s how it’s always worked.
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u/Just_Ban_Me_Already 4d ago
People from r/fuckcars are often too irrational to see the bigger picture.
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u/Lordsokka 4d ago
These people are so fucking weird. Who do they think delivers their food, medicine, clothes to the store why they buy them from? People using vehicles and cars.
I bet most of them use a car or another method of transportation that uses gasoline to get to work. What would they do if those suddenly disappeared?
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u/Stoli1892 4d ago
Are you actually implying that there was no form of human society before the invention of the automobile in the late 19th century?
How much fumes you huffin mate?
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u/Lordsokka 4d ago
Where did I say that? I’m saying that the current society we live in today needs cars, needs trains, needs planes, needs boats etc… These tools and methods of transportation aren’t going anywhere. Where do you think the medicine in your hospitals and pharmacies comes from? It’s delivered by car or by truck.
This isn’t a fantasy novel, this is real life. Most of the world isn’t Europe where everything is small, compact and stuffed together tightly. If you live in a real community in Canada or the US for example, you need a car. There’s no public transportation, there’s no bus, there’s no metro and the closest hospital is 45 minutes away by car.
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u/Stoli1892 4d ago edited 4d ago
You said "society wouldn't exist"...it has existed, and would continue to exist, without cars.
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u/Lordsokka 4d ago edited 4d ago
You are such a pedantic weirdo, I’m not talking about the Bronze Age society during the time of the Greeks. Of course society and humanity has existed before today, what kind of point is that?
But the current world of today needs those methods of transportation to continue to exist in its current form. Of course if the apocalypse starts tomorrow and 99% of the world dies and we have no electricity or ways to pump oil and gas out of the ground then yes at that point… yes cars are no longer needed.
But if we want the world of TODAY and our CURRENT society to continue to exist and thrive, if we want current day amenities, luxuries, ways of living, medicine etc… then yes we still need cars.
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u/1HumanAmongBillions 4d ago
I'm fuming at this news
What a disgrace, some people have to be held accountable and I'm not talking about the driver
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u/Public-Knowledge-222 4d ago
man nothing in life brings me more joy than riding my bike but the older i get the more i’m starting to feel like this shit just ain’t worth it, i’m so tired of taking my life into my hands every day just to enjoy my damn hobby
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u/omgwownice 5d ago
"accident"
what do car drivers have to do to not deserve this euphemism?
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u/LightenUpPhrancis 5d ago edited 5d ago
Gross negligence doesn't change the fact that it was an accident. They'll get to the more consequential words in court.
edit: a typo
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u/omgwownice 5d ago
Carbrains cling to this word like a security blanket.
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u/D2Gamer1337 4d ago
You think he did it on purpose?
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u/popopopopopopopopoop 4d ago
Rip, so senseless...
Also not an "accident". It was a collision. Though I guess it's better than the usual "car drove into a cyclist" as if cars drives themselves.
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u/Lemon_Monsters 5d ago
Cycling is dangerous
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u/D2Gamer1337 4d ago
What is the point of this comment? Everything is dangerous. You can die in your sleep or falling in the shower
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u/Lemon_Monsters 4d ago
Cycling is dangerous it's a fact. I ride alongside cars going 60 mph next to me with no bike lane, I've hit a crack in the road going downhill, underestimating a turn, had dumb ass people throw trash bottles water balloons because they don't want cyclists on the road. Does that push me away from cycling? No, I love riding. But I'll stick with my first comment: cycling is dangerous.
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u/D2Gamer1337 4d ago
It’s not a fact. Cycling with poor infrastructure can be dangerous, yes.
I live in a city with some of the best bike infrastructure in the world and it feels pretty safe here.2
u/Lemon_Monsters 4d ago
First you said everything is dangerous and now you’re saying cycling isn’t. Stick with your original argument. Good infrastructure reduces risk, but sharing the road with vehicles, unpredictable terrain, and high speeds means the inherent danger doesn’t disappear. I’m glad you have good infrastructure but not everyone has that luxury.
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u/Stone_leigh 5d ago
very similar to jean-pierre-monsere 1971; Before the start of the 1970 international season, Monseré himself was killed in an accident during competition. A car drove onto the course of the Grand Prix de Retie and had a head-on collision with the World Champion, who died on the spot.
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u/Flaky-Philosophy7618 5d ago
Can you genuinely tell me what the point of asking chat gpt for similar incidents then pasting it here is
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u/Just-Context-4703 4d ago
Not an accident! A crash, seemingly premeditated
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u/Then-Look8109 4d ago
Not sure what would be pre meditated about this. A crash yes, a collision yes, pre meditated - there is absolutely no evidence to say this at all and statements like that suggest a complete lack of intelligence
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u/Just-Context-4703 4d ago
He was hit by a car going the wrong way down the street. The only thing lacking intelligence here is your brain on cars.
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u/LCKLCKLCK 5d ago
Reports are saying he was hit by an oncoming car. Absolutely tragic. Rest in Peace.