Experienced Italian Luca Paolini took to Twitter on Monday night to voice his concerns about the Paris-Roubaix level crossing incident.
The 38-year-old Katusha rider is one of the voices of the peloton and he says that while the riders should not have crossed, Paris-Roubaix is such a big race that the trains should be stopped while the race is on, so as to keep the riders safe.
Both the UCI and French national railway company SNCF have asked for investigations into the incident with the SNCF statement saying that the riders actions were "extremely grave and irresponsible actions which could have been tragic."
"It is everyone's duty to make sure that our beautiful sport of cycling is not tarnished by incidents that appear to have been avoidable," the UCI statement said.
Cyclingnews has translated and collated Paolini's 14 tweets for clarity. There has yet to be any official response to his tweets from the UCI, Paris-Roubaix organiser ASO or team and rider organisations.
"Enough is enough... I've read over and over about a race being "falsified" because of poor organisation at a railway crossing. It's absurd and it hurts. We're talking about one, if not the most spectacular race on the international cycling calendar, and we're here discussing who is right or wrong!!!"
"We're talking about an event seen in 186 countries with millions of spectators... And we're discussing whether or not to stop the riders. Already at an early stage, not a key stage of the high level race... After having done the Arenberg Forest and another 2/3 sectors… precisely where the most selection occurs and the riders are not at as lucid!"
"A question has been tormenting me since yesterday!!! Faced with such a spectacle, where every rider risks, (not to mention their lives), traumas to their own body and to the continuation of his own career… is it so difficult and extremely complicated to think of giving precedence to a show that has no equal (?) and evaluate/organize over a year, how to block (the trains), for our protection and for the spectacle that only Roubaix can offer (?)."
"Two carriages of an unlucky TGV of 2/3 carriages which served no real purpose? We're in the usual situation, where organizers that are not keeping up with things (not up to date) …and us poor goats, at the mercy of crazy speeds and unheard of risks, just so the show must go on…."
"A show that would seriously needs a lot of work, not just a turn of a screw but a few turns with a fully-charged Makita screwdriver."
"Anyway, I stand by my ideas!! There are races where the stakes are so high that it obfuscates the lucidity of the circus that is cycling! And regarding this, we must reflect once and for all and take the time to put in place rules that have a set of balls!"
"To put things in a few words: In certain cases and in particular races like Roubaix, the 'riders should have the precedence'. Good night my friends."
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