I thought a red flag was for the whole course too.

The instruction is the right thing for safety, and I'm not arguing against it, but does it mean that if a major incident happens like last night where the course was re-opened in sections this can no longer happen and the roads remain fully closed until all riders have returned to the pits in course direction?

Surely there could be other contingencies for returning riders (without going in the 'wrong' direction around the course) to save them from potentially being stuck out there for 3 or 4 hours (or longer).