Pidcock furious after police bike hits team-mates as Widar wins in Varese

Belgium's Jarno Widar won the one-day Tre Valli Varesine race in Varese, Italy on Tuesday, beating Tom Pidcock into second place in a tight sprint.

Widar held off Pidcock and American Matteo Jorgenson in a three-rider dash for the line to take his first professional victory, according to race reports. Pidcock had to settle for second after a chaotic afternoon. BBC Sport

The Briton said afterwards he had wanted to stop racing entirely. Two of his Pinarello-Q36.5 team-mates had been knocked off their bikes by a police motorbike travelling the wrong way on the course.

The incident happened with six laps of the finishing circuit still to ride. Pidcock said Marcel Camprubi and Thomas Gloag were just in front of him, working for him, when they were hit. The vehicle was a police motorbike going against the direction of the peloton, the main pack of riders. Yahoo Sport

Camprubi was able to carry on. Gloag could not continue and needed stitches in his knee. Pidcock stayed in the race but was shaken and angry.

"I was mad," he told Eurosport at the finish. "Things like this shouldn't happen." His account was given in a post-race rider interview published by TNT Sports under the title 'I was mad!'. BBC Sport

Camprubi later posted a picture of his broken bike on Instagram Stories. He wrote that it was sad to risk your life to race, one month after a tragic accident.

BBC Sport said it had contacted race organisers and local police for comment on the incident. No response had been published at the time of reporting.

For Pidcock, the crash overshadowed a strong ride. The two-time Olympic mountain bike champion won his second cross-country world title in August and arrived in Italy in good form.

What makes this stand out is the safety question. Riders trust motorbikes on the course to keep them safe and to carry officials and TV pictures. A bike coming head-on into the bunch breaks that trust in seconds.