The subject of security in skilled biking has been a sizzling subject on the Tour Down Below, with a number of UCI guidelines already newly put into place for 2025 and additional laws designed to cut back speeds within the peloton additionally into consideration.
Having suffered a extreme concussion that stored him out of competitors for 502 days, security can be essential to Intermarché-Wanty‘s Taco van der Hoorn. However he drew the road on the dialogue of limiting riders to sure gear ratios.
“Personally, I haven’t got a very excessive cadence, so I at all times experience a much bigger gear,” Van der Hoorn advised Cyclingnews on the Tour Down Below, the place he ran a 58-tooth chainring and cassette happening to 11 enamel. “I prefer it to experience with 70 rpm on a regular basis. So I am used to having the next gearing than different folks. So for me personally, it will not be useful.
“I believe going quick can be a part of biking, so I believe it is a troublesome dialogue, as a result of if you happen to restrict gears, will we additionally ban skinsuits or aerodynamic bikes since you go too quick?
Different guidelines he agreed with. “I believe [the ban on] sitting on the highest tube [aero tuck] was an excellent choice from the UCI. It was getting a bit harmful, I’ve to say.”
Van der Hoorn was much less of a fan of the brand new laws that eradicated any roadside hand-ups exterior of the feed zones.
“I really feel just like the feed zones are extra harmful … each rider is in all places, attending to their soigneur, going from left to proper, braking, so truly, it is fairly chaotic.
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“A number of crashes occur in feed zones as a result of it is messy. Individuals get bottles, and all people is shut to one another. When all people is unfold out, it is a lot simpler to take your bottle and you do not affect the opposite riders a lot. The blokes I’ve spoken to assume it is worse. I believe it is extra secure to unfold it round. They assume it is safer however I do not assume so.”
Concussion restoration
Van der Hoorn suffered a concussion in a crash in the course of the Tour of Flanders in 2023, and whereas there was speak of him returning to competitors earlier final yr, a start-stop restoration meant he did not come again till August. Racing by way of to the final WorldTour race of the yr, the Tour of Guangxi, Van der Hoorn accrued 20 days of racing and a confidence-building victory within the Elfstendrace on October 2nd.
Returning to the Tour Down Below for the third time, Van der Hoorn is totally settled into the professional peloton. “Final yr, coming again after this harm, my first race was actually particular, however now it is simply again to enterprise. It feels virtually like I by no means left,” he mentioned.
Van der Hoorn needed to take on a regular basis life very gently throughout his layoff, in any other case he would endure mind fog and crushing complications. He discovered to construct up steadily however mentioned it was a irritating course of.
“It simply took a very very long time to heal, and each time you wanted to make actually small steps – it does not actually assist to only do nothing – it will not heal if you happen to simply relaxation. You should actually slowly construct up, each time giving your mind somewhat bit extra stimulus. The steps are so small that it makes it actually troublesome to get a setback.
“That was why it took so lengthy – begins, stops – the steps had been simply so small. And a whole lot of instances you do good for a month, after which in the future you perform a little bit an excessive amount of, and then you definitely return the place you had been a month in the past, and that is actually irritating.”
The trials of his prolonged rehabilitation are actually firmly within the rearview mirror and he is been in a position to race with out feeling apprehensive about it.
“In fact, I’d quite not crash on my head. However I’ve talked with the specialists about it, and so they say there’s the prospect [recovery from another concussion] will take longer – somewhat bit greater than with individuals who by no means had a concussion. However it does not should be that method. It will also be that you simply get a concussion and in three weeks, you are good once more.
“So I maintain on to that message. If the specialists say that is the way it works, who am I to evaluate their opinion? So I simply observe that and hope I do not crash on my head. And if I crash on my head, I’m fairly assured that I’ll come again in a great way.
“You at all times have dangers. Biking is a harmful sport, and you’ll have a number of issues [happen]. You may also break your hip or one thing like that. It is a massive a part of it, sadly.”
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