“Tour of the Alps” from April 15 to 19, 2024
Source: https://www.tourofthealps.eu/en
| The safety mission never stops at #TotA The Euro-regional stage race’s Safety Plan has been further reinforced and implemented ahead of its 47th edition. “Organizers have an important responsibility: our commitment is to raise the bar year after year“ |
| If there’s a topic that’s on the agenda in every latitude of world cycling, it’s undoubtedly that of race safety. The beginning of the 2024 season has seen an unprecedented number of racing incidents: falls that have left a mark on some of the biggest names in world cycling, also challenging their teams, often forced to revise their short and long-term technical decisions. Scheduled from the 15th to the 19th, the Tour of the Alps arrives at a delicate moment: not only it comes on the threshold of the year’s first grand tour, but also in the wake of a month full of racing incidents with serious consequences. Nevertheless, the mission of safety is one that GS Alto Garda, the organizing company of the Tour of the Alps, has undertaken with determination and responsibility for many editions, managing to raise the bar and safety standards for competing athletes year after year. The #TotA technical team works on the Euregio routes practically all year round, examining and monitoring the roads set to welcome the race. The latest reconnaissance has taken place just a week ago, with the 47th edition approaching. It’s an intense and multi-layered job, whose result is not only addressing – in collaboration with local authorities and stage committees – themes such as road surface issues, obstacles and urban furniture, but also the mapping of the most delicate and technical passages, the so-called hotspots, reported in a technical guide that gets more detailed every year – now also enriched with video contributions available via QR code – and much appreciated by both the teams and the race officials. |
| On race days, the Tour of the Alps Safety Team operates in two different units: the first precedes the race by about an hour, placing specific protections on the previously mapped attention points, and on any other possibly emerging as dangerous due to the weather conditions. The second team, positioned at the end of the caravan, is tasked with removing the protections after the passage of the end-of-race vehicle, restoring the situation to full normality as soon as traffic is reopened. “Cycling has changed a lot in recent seasons, not only in pacing but in the dynamics of the race itself,” explains #TotA General Manager Maurizio Evangelista, “and the latest events show that a standard approach to this theme is arguably no longer enough.This year our technical staff has conducted as many as six inspections, and we believe this kind of commitment is essential to guarantee the athletes and teams choosing to compete in the Tour of the Alps the level they now expect from us.” In addition to the operational teams of the Safety Team, the valuable deployment of forces from the Road Police, both Italian and Austrian, and the 30 motorcycle escorts engaged on the routes, the Tour of the Alps safety plan also counts on the Servizio Corse Vittoria, which will provide neutral technical assistance to the riders again in 2024, with the usual professionalism. Two UCI International Race organizations will be present at the Tour of the Alps to study its organization and functioning – about safety and beyond: “We are pleased to welcome the organizers of the Czech Tour and the CRO Tour,” explains Evangelista. “Over the years, our organizational team has taken every opportunity to understand and study the best international benchmarks, while working to implement original and innovative solutions, which today are recognized as part of our identity.“ |
