Professional Cycling For the Fans - Why Don't Race Drs Wear Gloves?

They're working on bloody cyclists and just using their bare hands. In every other sport - I think - physicians wear gloves. Are bicycling professionals tested for disease before a race?

Team doctors are probably aware of anything that would require gloves and so they fore go them. Otherwise I have no idea. As an EMT, every training scenario in EMT Class starts with "scene safety and BSI" (Body Substance Isolation).

Although these guys are hanging out of a moving car on winding mountain roads, so something tells me they may also ignore the second half as well.

The times, indeed, have changed in the U.S. Americans have come to emphasize the .01% risk while ignoring the larger risks. (PC makes us strain at gnats while swallowing camels.) Race doctors apparently refuse to play along.

I would guess that with the time frame and location of their "office," that it is not really productive to be changing gloves for each instance of service. Maybe they have some type of sanitizer/disinfectant that they are dipping their hands in before each "patient."

It's France; like the TV drivers, they're too drunk to work something as complex as a glove.

It's France; like the TV drivers, they're too drunk to work something as complex as a glove.

Stephenville! I grew up in Wichita Falls and the surrounding area! I have made many a trip to Tarleton State for various school functions. Left in 1989 for Virginia and have no desire to go back. The Metroplex will be on your doorstep in a few years if it is not there now! My father was in Abilene last week and said the drought is really serious!

Sorry for the threadjack!

Even if they were tested for diseases before the Tour, seems like there might be instances of some groupies for "intimate physical therapy" along the tour. Who knows who/what they might pick up?

Stephenville! I grew up in Wichita Falls and the surrounding area! I have made many a trip to Tarleton State for various school functions. Left in 1989 for Virginia and have no desire to go back. The Metroplex will be on your doorstep in a few years if it is not there now! My father was in Abilene last week and said the drought is really serious!

D/FW is moving this way, but it'll likely delay for a few years when it hits the Granbury area. There's still a nice buffer of farmland in there. I sure wouldn't mind a rail-trail connecting to FW's trail system, but the only railroad nearby that's maintained its right of ways is still hauling a lot of freight every day.

The drought is getting pretty bad. Fortunately, the major fires from earlier in the season haven't really made a reappearance; the winds are out of the south, and most of the stuff south of us didn't burn so there's plenty of dry fuel load just waiting to get out of hand.

They're working on bloody cyclists and just using their bare hands. In every other sport - I think - physicians wear gloves. Are bicycling professionals tested for disease before a race?

It might have been incidental that you didn't see gloves, usually I see them wearing them. Unless you have noticed their absence this whole tour on several occasions, in which case, yes that is kinda strange.

I think it's cultural (and legal). What little time I've spent in Europe, I've noticed that Europeans in general aren't as freaked out about general daily germs as Americans. Also, European society is not as litigious as American. I get the feeling that doctor's over there aren't being nitpicked with malpractice actions like doctor's over here. The latter opinion is something I picked up from my sister, an MD for the last 25 years, who has more than a few European medical friends.