Irish rider Matt Brammeier (Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) has taken to Twitter to express his frustration at the positioning of motorbikes in races. He directed the tweet to UCI President as he asked: “So boys, what can we do about these motorbikes pacing breaks & the peleton? They are ruining our sport. @BrianCooksonUCI can you help us?”

Brammeier is currently racing in the Arctic Race of Norway (UCI 2.HC) and was one of four riders alongside Leigh Howard (IAM Cycling), Steele von Hoff (One Pro Cycling) and Daniel Oss (BMC Racing Team) who formed the main breakaway of the day on the 160-kilometre third stage from Nesna to Korgfjellet.

Unfortunately for the quartet, they were caught towards the bottom of the final climb, with Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) going on to win the stage and the Italian rider now leads the race overall by 15″ from Stef Clement (IAM Cycling) with just one stage remaining. Brammeier finished in 65th place, 5’19” down on Moscon his efforts today have moved him into 5th place in the Mountains classification.

Matt Brammeier Tweet Norway

Brammeier was not alone in voicing criticism of motorbikes pacing riders as German rider Paul Voss also took to Twitter to say: “‘Viking of the day’ should go to the camera motorbikes here in Arctic. They doing a good job in motor pacing riders. #ArcticRace #sarcasm”

Paul Voss Norway Tweet

4 COMMENTS

  1. motorbikes have been waaaay too intrusive in the last few years… Blame it on TV & sponsors’ request for more coverage maybe… But all in all, the sport can definitely do better to respect a race AND protect pro cyclists I am sure…

  2. Surely the motorbikes can sit back and have a drone flying up ahead. Don’t know what I’m suggesting is stupid or not but they can pull 40mph and we never get decent coverage above that on the descents anyway. Would have to suggest propellor shrouds would be warranted.

  3. Looks like they definitely had an influence at the end of the road race in the olympics. But yeah surely with drone technology and gps on riders bikes , we could have something far less intrusive.

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