What happens when a rider punctures or crashes in a road race?

• Who may help: "the technical personnel of their team or from one of the neutral support cars or else from the broom wagon".
• Where: "only to the rear of his bunch and when stationary", on the side of the road where traffic drives.
• After a fall: the commissaires may relax that.
• Bike changes: allowed. The abandoned bike must be picked up by a vehicle following the race.
• Fixed points on the course: wheel changes only, except on circuit races with authorised zones.
• Nothing held ready: no equipment may be prepared or held outside the following vehicle, and nobody may lean out of it.
• Moving repairs: greasing a chain from a moving vehicle is forbidden.
• Team cars: one vehicle a team at race level, in a set order behind the car of the president of the commissaires' panel.
• The last 10 kilometres: no vehicle may overtake the riders.
• Team-mates: a team-mate may hand over a wheel or bike.
• Giving up: a rider who drops out rides in the broom wagon unless injured or seriously ill.

The glossary has the neutral service entry, the broom wagon, the domestique and the recognised mishap.

Punctures and crashes are part of racing on open roads, and the convoy of cars exists so that bad luck costs seconds and not the whole race. Requiring the rider to be stopped keeps mechanics from leaning out of moving cars beside the bunch, where a mistake would bring riders down.