Pidcock Furious as Teammates Crash into Police Motorcyclist in Italy

Tom Pidcock admitted he nearly quit the Tre Valli Varesine race in frustration after a police motorcyclist drove into the peloton, injuring two of his Pinarello Q36.5 teammates. After finishing second in the northern Italy race, Pidcock recounted the incident: “A police motorbike was going the wrong way down the course and crashed into two of our guys. 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.”

Thomas Gloag, Pidcock’s teammate, had to abandon the race, while Marcel Camprubí, from Spain, continued but finished last. “Luckily Marcel was OK, he could continue,” Pidcock noted. “Tom was also OK, in the end, but he stopped the race, and he has some stitches in the knee.”

Camprubí shared images of his damaged bike on social media, lamenting: “Sad that you have to risk your life to race, one month after a tragic accident.”

This incident follows the death of Welsh rider Fin Tarling in August during the Volta a Portugal, when a rogue van drove against the peloton. That incident is still under police investigation. Pidcock dedicated his recent World Cross Country Mountain Bike Championship win to Tarling and his family.

There have been several near-misses involving non-race vehicles this season. Although police riders are part of the race convoy, strict safety rules must be followed. “Things like this shouldn’t happen,” Pidcock remarked.

According to team sources, the police motorcyclist had been riding ahead and then re-entered the path of the peloton at a roundabout. Gloag, who received on-site treatment, was described as “pretty shocked.”

Recent incidents include one at the Sauerlandrundfahrt in Germany, where vehicles entered closed roads, nearly hitting riders. During the Tour of Britain Women, Maeve Plouffe encountered traffic and nearly collided with a car. Plouffe said: “While the race convoy was still in sight, and I was less than two minutes down [behind the peloton] there were cars from the general public coming at me from all directions, including one that nearly hit me on a roundabout.”

After Tarling’s death, cycling’s governing body, the UCI, faced criticism for its response to safety concerns. Richard Plugge, manager of the Visma-Lease a bike team, noted: “Neither UCI president David Lappartient, nor anyone else, stands up and says: ‘Wait a minute, we really need to think about how we are going to prevent this from happening in the future.’”

Matthew Brennan, a British rider for Plugge’s team who won five stages in the Vuelta a España, criticized race organizers, stating “nothing has changed” since Tarling’s death. “I really think that is disgraceful,” Brennan told the BBC. “Instead of someone somewhere in these organizations saying: ‘OK, this should never ever happen again’, it feels the world has moved on, nothing has changed and there’s events where cars have been on the course still.”