Remco Evenepoel was on his way for a training ride on Tuesday when he was involved in a traffic accident on Kerkplein in Oetingen. He allegedly crashed into the door of a postal truck that had just been swung open. It was a heavy blow and Evenepoel was later taken away by ambulance. The verdict: a broken rib and fractures in his right shoulder blade and right hand.
The accident with Remco Evenepoel is not an isolated case. In September, Luka Mezgec was hit by a car during training in Ghent, just like Lennert Van Eetveldt in May on the Teide. And exactly six months ago, Pieter Serry also suffered the same fate. He was also hit by a car. Evenepoel’s teammate suffered a serious concussion.
Trauma
“This is very sad for Remco,” sighs ex-teammate Tim Declercq when we get him on the phone. Declercq speaks from experience, because he himself was hit several times during training. “But fortunately never with super serious consequences.” Although Evenepoel’s accident did bring up a kind of childhood trauma for the Izegem resident. “When I was about eight years old, I once fell due to a door swinging open while cycling home from school and ever since I have had a kind of panicky fear of it. Sometimes it even goes so far that I push others out of the way when I see someone in a parked car,” says Declercq.
Julien Vermote (right). — © BELGIUM
It is also just one of the dangerous situations that professional cyclists, and cyclists in general, experience every day. “If I had to make a top three of the most common hazards, swinging doors would be number one,” says Declercq. “Especially because in that case you simply have nowhere to go.” “You always have to be careful on roads with side streets,” adds Julien Vermote. “Because drivers often stick their noses out just too far, causing them to end up in the cycle path. That’s why, if possible, I always try to make eye contact with drivers who want to pull out of a side street or a parking lot so that I can be sure that person has seen me.”
Defensive driving is therefore the code word according to Kortrijkzaan. “You have to protect yourself a bit, because you only have to lose in traffic,” said the Visma-Lease a Bike rider. But even then, according to him, you cannot avoid all danger. “Almost every day I think ‘Wow, I’ve done well here’. And it may be strange, but in a way it also makes sense, because if you spend an average of thirty hours on a bicycle per week, you logically find yourself in dangerous situations more often in percentage terms.” Declercq agrees: “Danger lurks around every corner. The fact that there is a danger always lurks in the back of our minds.”
Not holier than the Pope
Yet both riders do not want to point the finger at the car drivers. “Because 95 percent of motorists are actually very careful and try to keep sufficient distance, but then of course you still have that five percent, which ensures that you have the feeling every day that you are somewhere through the eye of the the needle has crawled,” says Declercq. However, it also makes an important nuance. “Let us not forget that the driver who caused the accident with Remco did not want that either. However, it often has to happen quickly. Everyone is always in a hurry these days and you notice that in traffic.”
Tim Declercq. — © BELGIUM
Both men take appropriate precautions for every training ride. “I mean, I’m going to seek out quiet training routes as much as possible. I am lucky that I can cycle from my home quite quickly via quiet roads to the Heuvelland. You also notice that they are trying to tackle the cycling infrastructure and ensure separate cycle paths. That matters a lot. Although this is of course a bit more difficult in urbanized areas, such as in Remco’s training area.” Vermote: “I’m more likely to choose a route along the canal or plan a ride along quiet roads. Especially when we have block training.”
“But,” Declercq also suggests, “In addition, as riders we should not pretend to be holier than the Pope. I certainly don’t want to say that we as cyclists never make mistakes and put everything on the drivers. It is a sword that cuts both ways.” Vermote: “In addition, as cyclists we often travel faster than the average cyclist, which makes it understandable that motorists are slightly more likely to make a wrong assessment or notice us later. But we certainly can’t complain here, because I’m currently training in Italy, for example, and motorists there pay much less attention to cyclists.”
Declercq also ends his speech with a warm appeal. “In any case, it would make a big difference if there was more tolerance in traffic again, because you really notice that this has deteriorated considerably in recent years. And then I speak of tolerance from motorists towards cyclists, but certainly also the other way around.”
