Despite anger on social media and critical comments from CPA president Adam Hansen and CPA Women’s Manager Alessandra Cappellotto, Kathrin Hammes and Audrey Cordon-Ragot have defended and forgiven a photographer’s motorbike that touched Hammes and passed riders closely during stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Speaking to Cyclingnews at the start of stage 5 in Onet-le-Château, Belén López, the CPA Women rider’s representative at the race, revealed that Hammes spoke in favour of the motorbike rider after the stage.
“After yesterday's stage I talked to Kathrin Hammes because our first option was to exclude that motorbike. But she and her sports director told me that they think an exclusion would be too much because this thing happens in races and that a fine would be better. I then spoke to the jury and we agreed that the fine was the best thing,” López told Cyclingnews.
The incident happened on a narrow road when two motorbikes tried to pass the breakaway. The first passed Hammes but the second clipped her handlebars with its large rigid plastic panniers.
“I've really enjoyed watching @LeTourFemmes, but in what universe is a motorbike allowed to push a rider out of the way??” Hansen asked on Twitter late on Wednesday.
“Or is it just to let her know the next motor is about to take her out? If you can't pass safely, don't pass. We need better education for some motorbike riders…”
Cappellotto asked: “Motorcycles wider than cars! Are you going on vacation?”
Hammes, who rides for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, talked about the incident at the sign-in for stage 5 in Onet-le-Château.
“The motorbike wanted to pass, but the road was really small, I was tired and didn’t move far enough to the left, so it hit me, but it wasn’t a big issue. It took me out of rhythm a bit, but it was fine,” she said.
“It's a shared responsibility. It's on them to leave enough room for us, but also on us to make room for them to pass. If we want a safe race, live coverage, and pictures of really hard moments, sometimes they have to pass.
“All I have to say is that it shouldn't happen. But at the same time, it's a tight sport and it can happen. I don't think he did it on purpose and I also don’t feel like it was a super-aggressive move of the motorbike. I'm happy there are enough motorbikes to keep us safe and also to provide the coverage, so it's a fine balance.”
Audrey Cordon-Ragot, who rides for Human Powered Health, was also part of the breakaway on stage 4 and was the virtual yellow jersey for most of the race.
Cordon-Ragot took charge of the negotiations between the peloton and the race organisers at the Tour Féminin Pyrénées in June when the lack of safety concerned riders enough to halt the race on stage 2 and agree to a neutralisation to the foot of the Hautacam climb while stage 3 was cancelled completely.
Cordon-Ragot agreed with Hammes about Wednesday’s incident.
“Everyone is human. Mistakes happen,” Cordon-Ragot said.
“The Tour is far from what we experience in some of the other races. It also happened in the men’s Tour, we saw it in the mountains with the leaders. No one is doing it on purpose, they just need to apologise, and then we move on.”
