Tinkoff-Saxo's sport directors held a meeting with the Vuelta a España race director, a UCI Commissaire and a representative of TV España. A number of concrete safety measures were discussed and agreed upon and as a result, Tinkoff-Saxo's squad took to the start of Stage 12. However, the team will immediately retire from the race if any incident similar to the ones that involved Peter Sagan and Sergio Paulinho reoccurs.
Prior to the start of Stage 12 in Andorra, Tinkoff-Saxo's sport directors held a meeting in the team bus with the Vuelta a España race director, the chief UCI Commissaire at the race and a representative of TV España. Tinkoff-Saxo presented a list of minimum requirements to safeguard the riders while the other parties offered a number of measures.
As a first step towards guaranteeing the safety of the riders, the following concrete measures are taken immediately:
- Race director will issue a radio communication to all vehicles that safety of the rider is the first and paramount objective and that no risk should be taken to get a video or photo of riders.
- The minimum safety distance between in-race motorcycles and riders is doubled from the current 5 to 10 meters.
- The organization will thoroughly review and assess the status of all drivers of motorized vehicles, including their driver licenses, qualifications and experience, in order to ensure they are fully capable of safely performing their job.
Given this first step, the Tinkoff-Saxo squad took to the start of Stage 12.
A subsequent meeting will take place after the end of today's racing in order to further discuss the remaining safety issues and concerns, and find a viable, long-term solution for the safety of the teams and the riders. Hopefully, that meeting will close this case.
Tinkoff-Saxo’s management believes that these initial measures are a sign of attention to riders’ safety and agreed to start today’s stage under the condition that the team will remain in the race as long as safety is guaranteed while it will be forced to retire from la Vuelta a España if another accident similar to the ones that involved Peter Sagan and Sergio Paulinho takes place again.
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