The closed level crossing incident in the Tour of Flanders could carry potential consequences of fines and short driving bans for those riders who ignored or did not see a red signal at a level crossing and carried on riding, according to Belgian media.
With more than 200 kilometres to race at the level crossing in the town of Wichelen, the light turned red just as the peloton was approaching, with the bunch split as a result. Once the barriers had gone up again after the train had passed, the peloton then regrouped over the following four kilometres as the commissaires ordered riders to slow down.
A 13-rider breakaway, in keeping with UCI regulations, was not stopped and saw its advantage increase by two minutes as a result of the delays behind, but there were no other consequences for the race overall.
Both race winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who finished third, were in the front group when the incident happened. Others like Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) were caught behind and stopped.
"It was not nice," Pogačar said in the post-race press conference. "Suddenly we were riding, and I don't know, Mikkel Bjerg was riding all day and and suddenly three guys jump on the middle of the road and start waving to stop. How can you stop in one second?
"So I think they could prevent this by stopping us before, no? Not 10 meters before the crossing, three guys jump on the road. I was thinking, maybe it's like some protesters or something, like, something crazy is going on. And yeah, then the bunch was split from the crossing."
Normal traffic regulations also state that it is obligatory to stop at red level crossing warning lights, even if the barriers are yet to come down. According to Belgian media, the East Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office has now said that it planned to identify those riders in the front group, estimated at being around 20 to 30 in number, and issue penalties.
“The Public Prosecutor's Office reports that the offenders will be identified and an official report will be drawn up,” Nieuwsblad said, with reports that riders might face a fine of around 320 euros and a ban on driving for eight days. An out-of-court settlement is, apparently, also possible.
As happened at Paris-Roubaix in 2015 when a large group of riders passed through a level crossing when the lights were red, race commissaires opted not to disqualify those involved and nobody was excluded from the Tour of Flanders as a result of the incident.
According to unconfirmed reports from Het Laatste Nieuws, commissaires also believed that stopping the peloton suddenly just as the barriers were coming down could have caused a crash.
"The rule is a little bit weird," Pogačar said. "I don't know why they don't stop the breakaway, stop us and then restart like it should be, but yeah, in the end, yeah, no complaints. We have Mikkel to pull he was so strong that he could control them even two minutes more of the breakaway. It was, in the end, all OK."
The UCI post-Flanders communique regarding penalisations for Flanders did not refer to the level crossing incident, according to Belgian media.
However Pogačar will have to pay a 500 Swiss Franc fine (about 540 euros) for littering outside the stipulated area for throwing away race trash, as well as being docked 25 UCI points. Equally, Evenepoel has received a 200 Swiss Franc fine for a 'sticky bottle' incident.
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