As a professional cyclist, it’s one thing to fall in a racing incident and a completely different one to be taken down by support cars. And while incidents like that happen from time to time, the 2015 Tour of Flanders had two of them only minutes away.
Unfortunately for Jesse Sergent and Sébastien Chavanel, their participation in the 2015 Tour of Flanders was cut short by two of Shimano’s neutral support cars. In two separate incidents, the New Zealander and the Frenchman were hit by support vehicles and had to abandon the race – Sergent with a broken left collarbone and Chavanel because of a “significant right thigh hematoma”.
As you will see in the videos posted below, both incidents were stupid and could have been easily avoided if the drivers were paying more attention. In Sergent’s case, the Shimano car is seen accelerating instead of braking in a corner, as if it was competing with the riders. The car clipped Sergent, sending him on the asphalt.
The second incident was even more stupid: as Team FDJ’s service car stopped to help Chavanel with some technical problems, another Shimano support vehicle smashed into the rear end of the Skoda estate, sending it into the rider.
Shimano apologized for the incidents and said it would launch an investigation. “At Shimano we apologize for both incidents the Shimano sponsored neutral caused today at the Tour of Flanders,” Shimano said in a statement. “The drivers of the neutral cars are professionals with many years of experience in professional cycling races. We will investigate both incidents deeply and take appropriate action,” the statement added.
Story references: Cycling Weekly