Ambulance and rider nearly collide during World Championships time trial

Concerns raised after German rider and ambulance nearly collide, then rider appears to be in slipstream of race vehicle
Nigel Wynn

An ambulance came close to colliding with Marco Mathis (Germany) during the under-23 men’s individual time trial event at the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Monday.

Television coverage of the event showed the ambulance, a motorbike and race vehicle in front of Mathis. The ambulance then passes to the left of the red race vehicle, as the race official tries to wave them through.

However, the ambulance appears to start slowing down as they near a roundabout. The race vehicle then accelerates ahead with Mathis behind.

>>> Anouska Koster suffers big crash in women’s team time trial (video)

Just as Mathis is passing the ambulance on the right-hand side and into the roundabout, the ambulance starts moving right – into Mathis.

Mathis manages to move ahead of the ambulance and then up behind the race vehicle.

Despite the incident, Mathis went on to win the race. This prompted Irish rider Ryan Mullen to question the benefit Mathis received from ‘drafting’ behind the race vehicle – something which is against the rules.

“No coincidence that this rider has the current fastest time…? #drafting,” wrote Mullen on Twitter.

The incident has added to controversy surrounding the 2016 UCI Road World Championships, with high temperatures affecting the riders and a visible lack of spectators at the road side.

Rabo-Liv’s Roxane Knetemann said that it was “like riding in a sauna” after she took part in the women’s team time trial event.

The UCI has said that it is monitoring the weather conditions closely, and may shorten the length on the road races is temperatures rise above acceptable levels.