World Road Race champion Peter Sagan had a lucky escape during today’s final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, when a woman walking her dog walked in front of him and he had to take evasive action.
Afterwards, Sagan took to Twitter to say: “I love dogs but please respect the safety of the riders!”
The Slovakian was a few kilometres into the 10-kilometre time-trial at San Benedetto del Tront when the incident took place.
A woman walked her dog across the street on a zebra crossing in front of Sagan and appeared oblivious to the race taking place. Luckily for Sagan, there was a gap in the kerb between the road and the adjacent bike path and he was able to divert onto the path and avoid the spectator.
He re-emerged onto the road soon after, looked back at the woman and continued on his way, having lost a number of seconds due to the incident.
“I was lucky there wasn’t an incident with the lady who crossed the road with her dog – it was funny really,” Sagan said afterwards. “I didn’t brake because I was in my time trial position. I saw her really late, so the only way to avoid her was to go off road. Today I was relaxed – it was a rest day for me and I just wanted to get to the finish safe. I’m happy nothing happened and I’m looking forward to Saturday now.”
¡Una de las imágenes de la crono en la @TirrenAdriatico! @petosagan casi atropella a una mujer que cruzaba por un paso de peatones #Tirreno pic.twitter.com/mOObjArDQO
— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) March 14, 2017
Course should have been closed. Period. If it was not, the pedestrian with the dog 100% had the right of way at the crosswalk. Without more information, this sits squarely on the shoulders of the race officials.
Think he could have when the other side of the dog walker
Is she on her phone????