A video of a rider in the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope road tour narrowly escaping a possible collision with a truck went viral on social media today.
In the video, a truck can be seen passing the rider’s following support vehicle in the left lane moments before the cyclist was about to turn left. At the time, both the cyclist and support vehicle had veered into the right lane, seemingly creating the impression that there was space on their left.
Following the incident, organisers issued the following statement:
We would like to give some perspective on the incident involving Rohan du Plooy that occurred during today’s Buffet Olives individual time-trial at the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope.
In the video that is circulating on social media the rider can be seen narrowly avoiding a collision with a truck.
Unfortunately, some members of the public are criticising the organisers for the situation.
The facts are:
The roads are open to normal traffic and the rider should never have moved into the right-hand lane with the impending left-hand turn coming up.
It is the responsibility of the support vehicle to ensure the safety of the rider. And hence to take all necessary steps to improve situations that could impact on the rider’s safety.
In this regrettable situation, with the truck coming from behind, the onus was on the rider’s support team/vehicle to protect him from traffic that could lead to a dangerous situation. The correct procedure would’ve been to stay in the left-hand lane to block the truck from catching up and crossing the path of the rider before his impending left turn. There was no way that the driver of the truck would’ve known that the rider was about to turn across the left lane from the right-hand lane.
Four marshals were on duty at the turn and there was nothing that they could have done to avoid the situation.
We would like to reiterate that we have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the riders and have ticked all the boxes that are required of an event of this nature.
Wynand de Villiers
