Wout van Aert has described as “bullshit” Chris Froome’s
suggestion that TT bikes are so dangerous they should be banned, with road
bikes ridden in TTs instead.
Froome made his remarks after Egan Bernal suffered a
serious crash on his TT bike in Colombia last month. The four-time Tour de France
winner also suffered a bad crash on his TT bike in 2019, during a recon ride at
Criterium du Dauphiné. He has not yet
reclaimed a place in cycling’s top tier.
Van Aert has had his own back experiences on TT bikes,
slashing his thigh open when he clipped a roadside barrier on stage 13 of the
Tour de France during the TT stage in Pau. However, he remains unconvinced that
abandoning TT bikes – and the research and development they drive – is the
answer.
When asked by Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad for his response to
Froome’s idea, he replied: “Very simple: bullshit. You can say: ‘I no
longer train with a time trial bike on the public road, because that is
dangerous’. That’s right, I can speak for myself about that.
“But as a rider you also have to take care of your own
safety. That’s not to say it’s Bernal’s own fault for riding into a
bus. That’s an extreme accident, but I think it’s a bit weird to ban the
time trial bike because of that.
“Time trials are super interesting. It is the only discipline in cycling where you have a bit of the Formula 1 feeling and can really come up with innovation. Where it’s not just steps. Sometimes the price can be more than that.”
With Covid-19 having forced a lot of riders, and even
whole teams, to withdraw from races in the first weeks of the new season, Van
Aert also believed it was time to stop doing so much testing. He said many
riders who tested positive were not ill.
“I understand the
measures that are now in place, but it is a situation that is not sustainable,”
he said. “If omicron remains what it is now – not super dangerous, if I
may say so – then I would be sad if we have to go on for a whole year as we are
now.
“The fear is there now. You don’t even have to be
sick, one positive test and all your preparation has been for nothing. I’m not
going to present myself as an expert or virologist, but just now that everyone
is celebrating that the corona crisis is over, we are going to the craziest
measures we’ve had in two years.
“I think it’s time to let go of the whole test story and
start looking at corona the way we view other diseases. We weren’t tested
for the flu or a cold in the past. Of course, if you get sick, you go
home. But you see how easily the virus goes around in the first races. It
is definitely something that will come into play this spring.”
