Tour de France
“Distortion of competition”: Zimmermann criticizes motorcycles
Georg Zimmermann from the Intermarche-Circus-Wanty team. photo
© Jasper Jacobs/Belga/dpa
Professional cyclist Georg Zimmermann has criticized the influence of motorcycles in racing at the Tour de France.
Cyclist Georg Zimmermann has the influence of motorcycles in racing at the Tour de France criticized.
“A huge problem in cycling and, in my opinion, the biggest distortion of competition at the moment is that the motorcycles give slipstreams,” said the 25-year-old from Augsburg in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
The problem is not new, but it always causes criticism from the drivers. “If you’re second and ten seconds behind someone in front of a motorcycle, then you can pant your heart out as you want, you won’t get there,” Zimmermann continued. The mountain specialist has shown strong performances on his third tour so far. He experienced his highlight when he took second place on the tenth stage and only narrowly failed to win the day.
On the current tour, there were mainly negative headlines because two press bikes outbraked Tadej Pogacar before the pass of the Col de Joux Plane and thus prevented the Slovenian from attacking Jonas Vingegaard. The tour organization ASO then punished the two motorcyclists as well as the cameraman and photographer.