Rider 'nearly hit' by car on day one of Tour of Britain Women

Australian rider Maeve Plouffe said she narrowly avoided being struck by a car on the opening stage of the Tour of Britain Women in Cumbria. The incident occurred on a roundabout as she chased back to the peloton after suffering a puncture on Wednesday. Plouffe, 27, who rides for the British continental team O'Shea Red Chilli Bikes, was participating in the stage that started and finished in Cockermouth. In an Instagram post, Plouffe wrote: "While the contention convoy was inactive successful sight, and I was little than 2 minutes down, determination were cars from the wide nationalist coming astatine maine from each directions, including 1 that astir deed maine connected a roundabout." She added: "Later on, the moto escort was fantastic and I felt overmuch safer. But considering the caller devastating events successful our cycling community, it's scary to spot situations similar this, erstwhile we cognize that this tin person horrific consequences, particularly truthful soon aft suffering specified a tragedy." Plouffe’s comments referenced the death of 19‑year‑old British rider Fin Tarling, who was killed last week in a high‑speed collision with a van that had drifted onto the road during the eighth stage of the Volta a Portugal. A tribute to Tarling preceded the Tour of Britain Women, featuring his photograph projected onto a large screen and a minute’s applause observed by all 114 riders and spectators. Tarling is the younger brother of Netcompany Inoes rider Josh Tarling, who was named on Thursday in the squad’s lineup for the Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour, which begins on Saturday. Jonathan Day, events manager for British Cycling Ventures—the commercial arm of British Cycling that organises the Tour of Britain Women—responded to Plouffe’s social media post with a statement to the BBC: "We enactment Maeve Plouffe's comments astir her acquisition during yesterday's race, and we're taking these highly seriously. "Rider information is paramount and volition ever beryllium treated arsenic a precedence successful our readying and however we run immoderate race. "We're reviewing what happened with Maeve and her squad O'Shea Red Chilli Bikes with the seriousness and empathy these comments demand. "We recognise this comes astatine an particularly hard clip for the cycling community, truthful we privation to reassure each riders, teams and fans of the athletics astatine this clip of however superior we are treating these comments."