He is so, so lucky…
During the individual time trial at the Tour of Good Hope in South Africa, pro rider Rohan du Plooy had a very near miss.
During this event, roads remain open to the public so riders must be wary of traffic during the race.
Du Plooy went to veer into the lane next to him without checking to see if there was something coming behind him and narrowly avoided a horrific collision with a lorry.
Probably my closest call ever….
Greatfull to be alive#TOGH pic.twitter.com/SLoPZMltzH
— Rohan_du Plooy (@RohanduPlooy) March 7, 2017
In a statement the race organisers said:
“The roads are open to normal traffic and the rider should never have moved into the right-hand lane with the impending left-hand turn coming up.
“It is the responsibility of the support vehicle to ensure the safety of the rider. And hence to take all necessary steps to improve situations that could impact on the rider’s safety.
“In this regrettable situation, with the truck coming from behind, the onus was on the rider’s support team/vehicle to protect him from traffic that could lead to a dangerous situation. The correct procedure would’ve been to stay in the left-hand lane to block the truck from catching up and crossing the path of the rider before his impending left turn. There was no way that the driver of the truck would’ve known that the rider was about to turn across the left lane from the right-hand lane.
“Four marshals were on duty at the turn and there was nothing that they could have done to avoid the situation.
“We would like to reiterate that we have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the riders and have ticked all the boxes that are required of an event of this nature.”
