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The head of the Professional Cyclists Association has slammed the actions of a team director after he crashed into a rider in the closing stages of a race in France.
Riders Amandine Muller and Célia Gery were competing in the under-19 women's race at the Championnats de Cyclisme de l'Avenir, "the race of the future".
With 31 kilometres remaining of the 81.9km course, Muller and Gery were leading the race when Gery dropped back to talk to her Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes team car.
While the pair were talking, the driver of the car crashed into the back of Muller, causing her to crash in front of Gery, who also went down.
The commentators on France TV3 gasped at what they had seen before trying to explain the situation.
Both riders were able to remount and finish the race, with Gery finishing first and Muller trailing home in second place.
Adam Hansen, the former Australian professional who won two grand tour stages and is now president of the Professional Cyclists Association, was scathing of the incident in a social media post.
"We are so grateful Amandine fell on the left side and not the right, as the car couldn't stop fast enough and it could have been fatal for her," he wrote.
"We will watch this final outcome of the DS [Directeur Sportif] very closely.
"I hope whatever the outcome is, he realises a car can be a weapon in the wrong hands."
Accidents between support vehicles and cyclists are rare, but have occurred at the highest level.
In 2022 New Zealander Jack Bauer crashed into the back of Team UAE's car on stage 18 of the Tour de France after a crash occurred on a downhill section of the route.
"It was either head off to the left and hit a building or maintain trajectory and hit the UAE car," Bauer told Cycling News at the time.
"I hit the Shimano car a couple of days ago and I know how soft the panels of a car are compared to either a road or a building."
Far more dramatically, Johnny Hoogerland was sent flying into a barbed wire fence by a television car during the ninth stage of the 2011 Tour de France.
Fellow rider Juan-Antonio Flecha was struck by the car as it attempted to pass the riders in a breakaway, causing Hoogerland to career into the barbed wire with shocking and graphic consequences.
The Dutch rider needed 33 stitches to close the large gashes on his legs but was, incredibly, able to continue the race.
In 2021, Team BikeExchange sports director Gene Bates was kicked off the Giro d'Italia after a car he was driving crashed into the back of Belgian rider Pieter Serry.
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