Tour de France: Fuglsang calls for a minimum 50 metres between motorbikes and riders
A delegation of reporters was waiting for Jakob Fuglsang when he returned to the Astana bus after signing on for stage 9 of the Tour de France in Saint-Étienne. The first topic of discussion? His criticism the previous evening of the television motorbike that rode ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) in the finale of stage 8.
"Surprise," smiled Fuglsang, who joked that ASO's protection of their content meant he had been unable to watch the footage overnight. He remained of the opinion that Alaphilippe and Pinot had benefited from the slipstream of the motorbikes but stressed that the riders themselves were not to blame.
"I haven't had a look at the video – everything is restricted from the Tour so it's not so easy to find – but I'm still of the same opinion. If you go over the top full gas and the guys in front get just a little bit of draft that can make the difference. I don't blame the riders. For me it's the motorcyclists that need to get out of the way, and they have the engine to do that."
Media motorbikes are nothing new on the Tour – witness photographs of the flotilla of vehicles that surrounded Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor as they went elbow to elbow on the Puy de Dome in 1964 – nor, indeed, are concerns about their impact on the race.
Tour de France technical director Thierry Gouvenou told L'Équipe that no formal complaints had been made about the motorbikes in the finale of stage 8. "I heard the criticism, but no complaints were lodged, and the behaviour of the vehicles seemed irreproachable to me," Gouvenou said. "We issued a little reminder at the start of the stage, but nothing in the finale seemed subject to polemic to us."
A recent study carried out in Eindhoven University of Technology indicated that riders can experience a reduction in drag of 7% even when a leading motorbike is some 50 metres away. The UCI's specifications for organisers of WorldTour races state that "camera motorbikes must carry out their work without disturbing the proper functioning of the race." A precise minimum distance between motorbikes and riders is not listed in the guidelines.
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