A track cyclist could do a whole qualifying time trial in the time that passed between the last cyclist crossing and the train coming through. Only in Britain could that possibly be considered a "near miss."
Some of those who went through actually did the right thing, the alternative being to be brought down in a big pileup spread all over the crossing. There is a lot of communication that goes on in a group of cyclists riding together to keep each other from coming down in a bunch stack, if there are riders behind you you need to call "stopping" before grabbing a fistful of brake.
For the record, the UCI does have rules on how to resolve the impact on the sporting outcome of a race if cyclists in the lead of a race are held up by a level crossing:
Level crossings
2.3.034 It shall be strictly forbidden to cross level crossings when the barrier is down.
Apart from risking the penalty for such an offence as provided by law, offending riders shall be eliminated from the competition by the commissaires.
(text modified on 1.01.05).
2.3.035 The following rules shall apply:
1. One or more riders who have broken away from the field are held up at a level crossing but the gates open before the field catches up. No action shall be taken and the closed level crossing shall be considered a mere race incident.
2. One or more riders with more than 30 seconds' lead on the field are held up at a level crossing and the rest of the field catches up while the gates are still closed. In this case the race shall be neutralised and restarted with the same gaps, once the official vehicles preceding the race have passed.
If the lead is less than 30 seconds, the closed level crossing shall be considered a mere race incident.
3. If one or more leading riders make it over the crossing before the gates shut and the remainder of the riders are held up, no action shall be taken and the closed level crossing shall be considered a race incident.
4. Any other situation (prolonged closure of the barrier, etc.) shall be resolved by the commissaires.
This article shall apply equally to similar situations (mobile bridges, obstacles on the route, etc.).
2.3.035 (4) allows the commissaires to hold the front part of a group which is broken up by the crossing closing when they are partway through, if they judge that as necessary to prevent it affecting the race outcome. This was not necessary tonight (no serious contenders were held up in this incident, which happened well after the sorting out of the Arenberg sector) but I do remember one funny case a couple of years ago where the crossing closed mid-pack with two teams having almost their whole squads ahead of the split and everyone else delayed
One must have a route with no railwaycrossings at all. It is not the first time it has happened. Tour de France 2013 >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_tz0D24FE
Or just organise for no trains to go through during the passage of the race over those crossings - like we manage to do for the Tour Down Under where I'm a race official despite up to four different rail infrastructure operators being involved over the course of the week. Just like the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, the Tour Down Under is also part of the UCI WorldTour which is cycling's equivalent of Formula 1 and so serves as a good example that races at the same level can be properly coordinated where there is the will to do so.
For the amount of money that it brings into the region, such a measure should be fairly reasonable. It would also be fairly easy to organise, given that the progress of the race leaders can usually be predicted within a +/- 5% margin.
Three years ago, the Steamranger heritage railway on the south coast even negotiated to turn the TDU into an advertising opportunity. They organised for one of their level crossings to be deactivated so a steam-hauled train could be sitting right next to the crossing awaiting the passage of the race and (more importantly) the TV cameras sending it to over a hundred countries around the world.
also seen it on Eurosport. Are there legal consequences for the riders/teams/organisers?
The UCI commissaires may disqualify some of those riders they identified as going through, which will consequently cause them to lose prizemoney and (if in the top placings) points towards the UCI individual rankings, the team rankings that have some bearing on team promotion/relegation, and the national rankings which determine the size of teams for the Road World Championships in September.
The SBS commentators (who know the sport better than the Eurosport morons) were keeping fairly close track of the main contenders and believe they were in the group which went through the crossing before the group which had the barrier come down on them, so there shouldn't be any change to the top 10 results.
The local police will probably decide that the financial consequences of the sporting penalty are good enough without any action on their side.
They may not even have the jurisdiction to hand out traffic penalties, given that it was a race taking place on closed roads.
Pressure should be placed on the race organisers, the local government authorities (major sponsors of the event in their own right) and the rail operator to sort out some better coordination for such a major event - ideally prior to the passage of the Tour de France through the region in July.