I’d helped Andrew Talanksy and Dan Martin stay fresh for a mountaintop finish at the 2014 Tour of Catalunya, so my job was done with 10k to go. I squinted through the snow, unable to see how they were doing up the switchback. Before he passed to get to the front group with the team car, director Johnny Weltz handed me a thick Castelli Gabba jacket and gloves that I never thought I’d wear unless I signed up for the Iditarod. Well within the time cut, my groupetto stopped to put on shoe covers and leg warmers, but we were already soaked and frozen underneath, so there wasn’t much point.
I laughed and got Weltz good with a snowball in his chest after the finish, and I thought the whole thing was fun at the time. Despite the weather, crowds came out to watch, and when I looked up at a castle in the hill, I saw a ledge where knights in the middle ages would pour boiling oil on invaders. We don’t have it so bad, I thought.
But as I lived the life of a working pro cyclist that year, I gained some perspective. I’ve seen people get needlessly hurt. You feel bad for them, and it gives you goosebumps, because it could have been anyone. So I was glad to see the CPA and the ANARPC working to improve rider safety. I was at some of their first meetings, which took place soon after Taylor Phinney was taken out by a motorcycle that had stopped on a descent, so I don’t know why we didn’t bring up the vehicles in the races. Weather protocol was obvious and seemed doable, and it’s hard to judge what the biggest dangers are until something happens.
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At the Tour of California last year, the time trial was cancelled due to snow and moved to a safer location, rather than racing on icy roads, or making us put snow chains on the team cars and stand around for a last-minute cancellation. This year, snow led to cancelled stages in both Tirreno and Paris-Nice, but riders clashed over the definition of “unsafe conditions.” [Vincenzo] Nibali expressed frustration that a stage was cancelled, where he thought he could have won. Riders responded with vitriol towards Nibali, whose comments were seen as short-sighted and selfish at a time when we’d finally made some headway towards rider safety.
I remember when radios were outlawed, because they wanted the races to be more interesting. Think about that: removing a safety measure to make the race interesting. During Criterium International last weekend, Bingen Fernandez, Cannondale’s director, was following Moreno Moser in the breakaway.
“Boys, there is some sand on this descent,” Bingen warned, to those of us in the pack behind. “Be careful in the turns.”
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