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Giro d'Italia crash chaos as furious Alberto Bettiol taken out by staff member running across roadAlberto Bettiol Giro crash (GCN/Eurosport)

Giro d'Italia crash chaos as furious Alberto Bettiol taken out by staff member running across road

The helper was attending to the crash of Lukas Pöstlberger when he ran in front of the Italian, causing another fall
by Dan Alexander
Tue, May 16, 2023 15:44
6

The crashes of this Giro d'Italia sadly keep on plaguing the peloton, stage 10 interrupted by a farcical incident that saw Alberto Bettiol brought down after a member of staff — believed to be from Team Jayco AlUla, attending to a different crash — ran across the road and into the path of the Italian.

EF Education–EasyPost's home rider had no time to react as he filtered past the team cars, hitting the helper and sending both parties to the ground. Thankfully, both were back on their feet as quick as they had fallen, Bettiol furiously gesticulating about the staff member's dart across the road.

The crash came seconds after an earlier fall involving Jayco AlUla's Lukas Pöstlberger and Michel Ries. All three riders, including Bettiol, were soon back on their bikes.

> Want to catch all the unmissable action from the Giro d'Italia? Watch live racing on demand with GCN+

Moments later, Warren Barguil, a teammate of Ries, was also seen sat on the roadside holding his wrist, the Frenchman looking in discomfort but able to continue.

Alberto Bettiol Giro crash (GCN/Eurosport)
Alberto Bettiol Giro crash (GCN/Eurosport)

As the camera cut back to the live pictures the staff member was seen running back to the Team Jayco AlUla car to put Pöstlberger's Giant bike back on the roof.

Alberto Bettiol Giro crash (GCN/Eurosport)

It has been another miserable day for the Giro peloton, with near-freezing temperatures and heavy rain as they climbed to the day's highest point atop the second-category Passo delle Radici. On the descent many riders were seen shaking their arms, trying to get feeling back to their fingers.

Before the day's start there was talk of a shortened stage, president of the CPA riders union Adam Hansen saying talks were in place due to the low temperatures and high winds.

Ultimately, the original route was taken, the Covid-depleted peloton (three more riders tested positive and left the race this morning) setting off for Viareggio, Bora-Hansgrohe leader Aleksandr Vlasov the latest to fall foul of illness, abandoning mid-stage.

In the end it was Bettiol's teammate Magnus Cort who won the stage from the breakaway, Derek Gee again finishing second behind an EF Education–EasyPost rider, with Alessandro De Marchi third.

Alberto Bettiol
Giro d'Italia
Giro
2023 Giro d'Italia
Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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6 comments

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sizbut | 11 months ago
1 like

Bettiol has to take some of the blame; apart from the whole fleet of halted team cars, if you listen to the video you can hear the siren of the ambulance coming through. 

And keep watching, since to cap his anger, he then wanders into the path of several other racers, causing them to swerve. 

Maybe not 50:50, but certainly he's not wholly innocent either. 

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Matthew Acton-Varian | 11 months ago
2 likes

What utter carnage. What was the team mechanic thinking? He looked, saw riders coming through, hesitated and then still ran out into the road. No wonder the EF rider was cheesed off. Didn't know which way to swerve. I know in real time it was quick but it looked like a slow mo car crash. 

I think this clip needs to be shown to the minority of pedestrians who think it's a good idea to block out all sound and just wander around with their eyes on their phones, not bothering to look properly before crossing the road. 

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Rendel Harris replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 11 months ago
3 likes

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that although the crash is 80% the soigneur/mechanic's fault, Bettiol should have figured from the fact that all the cars were stopped both sides of the road and that there was a rider lying in the roadway that something pretty serious was happening and should have slowed down to check it was safe rather than come through at race pace. His behaviour in leaping about in the road in dudgeon afterwards and forcing the INEOS and Confidis riders coming from behind to swerve round him was pretty poor too. As I said, it's mainly the Jayco staff member's fault, but Bettiol could have avoided it with more care.

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to Rendel Harris | 11 months ago
1 like

Bettiol is a racer, and therefore is likely to be taking calculated risks. I don't think any pro racer would have done differently leading up to the crash.

At that point in time, he, like the other riders behind him, were attempting to regroup with the peloton, which takes huge effort. You are likely to be paying attention to what is to the side of you, as well as in front, so may have been briefly focussing on the wrong spot at the wrong moment. Maybe on a car door that he was passing. Also the race cars are instructed under the UCI to ensure they minimise interference with the riders, so it means allowing dropped riders past when stopping.

His post-crash reaction was rash, but highly understandable given the circumstances. Adrenalin is high at that moment.

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Rendel Harris replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 11 months ago
1 like
Matthew Acton-Varian wrote:

I don't think any pro racer would have done differently leading up to the crash.

If you look at the two riders who go through before Bettiol, they are riding considerably more slowly – you can see them getting out of the saddle to start accelerating again, obviously having slowed down – and they are also riding down the white line whereas Bettiol was riding at a higher pace right along the side of the cars, which may have contributed to the Jayco man not seeing him. If he had been riding at the same pace and in the same road position as the two riders previous to him he probably would have avoided the collision. Again, the Jayco man is entirely at fault for stepping out like that, but I would still say Bettiol could have ridden more defensively in the face of the evidence that there was a serious incident up ahead of him.

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NotNigel | 11 months ago
0 likes

A bit hypocritical saying the more vulnerable person on the road took out the cyclist...[joke]

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