Last Thursday, during the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, Gino Mäder and Magnus Sheffield launched themselves down the winding descent of the Albula Pass with their eyes fixed on the finish line, located less than 10 kilometers away. The road, wide and in good condition, allowed Juan Ayuso to show off, who was flying ahead in pursuit of victory. However, in a section of linked curves, Mäder and Sheffield lost control of the bike and plunged down a ravine.. Sheffield was able to save his life, but the Swiss, treated urgently after rushing into a stream, would die the next morning in hospital. The tragedy of Mäder, fourth fatality since 2011 after an accident in the middle of the race, has fueled a controversy as old as cycling itself. Can this sport coexist so naturally with death?
“It won't be easy, but cycling will continue. It will always remain a dangerous sport, although we will soon find a way to improve and reduce the risks. Among all we have to make it safer, ”ditch Adam Hansen, president of the World Association of Corridors (CPA), the majority union in the peloton. These are the most distressing hours for the Australian since he took office last March, replacing Gianni Bugno. However, despite his busy schedule, Hansen attends EL MUNDO with the intention of delving into the analysis. When the journalist raises the possibility of radical changes, such as the elimination of downhills, the union leader is blunt: “Downhills are part of this sport. That's clear. We have to keep them, but with extreme safety: improving road safety education for cyclists or finding a way to slow them down”, adds Hansen.
According to Strava data from Sheffield, at the time of his terrifying fall he was rolling, along with Mäder, at 97 km/h. Nothing strange for two courageous cyclists aged 21 and 26 in the Swiss Alps, where speed records are broken every season. In line with what was exhibited by Tom Pidcock during his descent from the Galibier in the last Tour, when in a four-kilometre section he led the peloton by 35 seconds. One of the feats, so much to the taste of fans, that captures the recent Netflix series about the Grande Boucle.
A worrisome increase
“It is a misunderstood heroism. Cyclists are not gladiators, nor robots, nor should they risk their lives for our enjoyment”, says Thijs Zonneveld, with authority to approach the matter from a double perspective.. Because Zonneveld, a prestigious journalist for the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, also competes in the Continental Tour, the third division of the UCI. Totally reluctant to assume fatality as something inherent and inevitable, Zonneveld does not hesitate to underline the “immense risks” assumed by cycling.. Nor when pointing out, in conversation with this newspaper, a point of no return after Mäder's death: “We can no longer continue like this.”
According to the specialized website Procyclingstats, over the last two years, injuries to cyclists who are victims of accidents have experienced a worrying increase. If in 2014, when the count began, 118 cases were registered, in 2022 they rose to 247. And this year, with four months of competition still to go, there are 188. The majority continue to be clavicle fractures, although concussions appear in fourth place.
These figures have been one of the focuses of attention of the last meetings of the CPA with the International Cycling Union (UCI), the organizers and the teams. «They tell us that there is less and less respect and this is perhaps because there are more cyclists who take greater risks. They are getting younger and less experienced, they have much faster wheels and frames than before.. So each accident is at a much higher speed,” reveals Hansen.. In his opinion, the key to success lies in “everyone rowing in the same direction”. However, not even the professionals seem to trust excessively in the decisions of those at the top.. Neither in those of the UCI, nor in those of his own union.
Van Emden's proposals
In August 2020, just two weeks after the horrifying accident that left Fabio Jakobsen in a coma, Jos van Emden was one of the first to speak out.. So, the veteran Jumbo time trialist proposed 10 concrete measures to increase safety standards. Among them, the rigorous inspections of the route, the publication of the road book several weeks in advance, a penalty system of red and yellow cards for offenders, the regularization of motorcycle overtaking, or a series of airbags on both sides of the finish lines.
These initiatives are now joined by Zonneveld, who has compiled a very extensive list among cycling families, as full of good intentions as it is in need of consensus. «Not to mention curves in the last 500 meters; prohibition of arrivals downhill; more signaling -and better located- in the black spots; protections with meshes in the dangerous descents; Mandatory clothing made of Kevlar or other protective fabric; mini airbags in the helmet or clothing; mobile street furniture provided by cities; clearer rules in the peloton about what is allowed and what is not; stricter measures against those who endanger their colleagues; a more regulated system of punishment for repeat offenders; radio communication only with the judges and not with the team cars; a safety car that neutralizes the route in the event of a massive fall; record of the time in the flat stages at five or 10 km from the finish line; a small fee from attendees to install more guardrails…»
The great objective is to put an end to the list of deceased. Without addressing the cases in races of a lesser nature, it is enough to recall Wouter Weylandt -in the descent of the Passo del Bocco (Giro 2011)-, Antoine Demoitié -hit by a motorcycle (Ghent-Wevelgem 2016) and Bjorg Lambrecht -after hitting his head with the asphalt (Tour of Poland 2019). Last fall, Van Emden warned that he would not return to the Tour of Croatia, lamenting the lack of safety of its urban circuits, which included passages through tram lines, narrow alleys and dangerous street furniture.. Hours before the fatal outcome of Mäder was known, the world champion Remco Evenepoel expressed his hope that his case would help “the organizers to reflect” and “we think about the risks we assume going down a port.”
Lotto runners, after Lambrecht's death in Poland.
However, no actor can boast as much power as the UCI itself, the body that last September almost deprived Annemiek van Vleuten of her rainbow jersey in Wollongong because the height of her socks exceeded the established maximum.. Some time ago, around 2018, the institution chaired by David Lappartient already reduced the squad from 198 to 176 units in the grand tours, under the hypothesis of a proportionality between the risk and the number of people involved.. From then until today, it hardly introduced more news than those approved in February 2021 by its Management Committee and the Professional Cycling Council (PCC).. Those “ambitious changes” pointed rather to the cyclists themselves, forced to part with their bottles in specific areas, located every 30 or 40 km, and penalized in case of adopting dangerous postures on the bike during descents.
Regarding the care of the finish areas, the new guidelines were limited to the placement of barriers, avoiding any space between them. And the obvious dangers of urban furniture were resolved with concepts as vaporous as “modernization”, “improvement” or “harmonization”. Of course, to tackle any task, the UCI created a new position: Richard Chassot, organizer of the Tour de Romandie, would be its first Security Manager.
We are a little fed up with so many bills.
More than three years after that appointment, Zonneveld confirmed last week the imminent creation of SafeR, a new independent body that will oversee safety on the WorldTour.. After pressure from Jumbo, INEOS and Quick Step, the UCI had accelerated its implementation, which will even advance the Tour de France. Julián Eraso attended one of the videoconferences to specify each detail. I don't know if it will be more effective. What I do know is that they have created a company that we will all pay for. And the organizers are already a bit fed up with so many invoices, ”says the director of the Tour of the Basque Country.
“A joint effort”
Six months before its last edition, held in April, Itzulia had to video record every meter of its six stages for the relevant review by the UCI, which works in collaboration with the University of Ghent.. “We notice few advances. If I'm honest, the only one capable of adjusting every detail is the Tour”, admits Eraso. The mandatory three-day courses organized by the UCI at its headquarters in Aigle do not escape their skepticism either.. “They forced us to appoint a security officer and pay for their stay there.. Finally, it came down to telling him what he already knew.. My conclusion is clear: there is no magic solution, but when someone kills each other, they all riot.
In the coming weeks, the UCI will publish its new safety guidelines and protocols. A text, logically, prepared before Mäder's death and in collaboration with the CPA. “These are internal issues that have been worked on confidentially,” slips José Luis de Santos, president of ACP, the Spanish union present in the process.
«Together we must make an effort. There is a firm commitment to implement solutions that give the best response to the new ways of running and the new urban environments”, completes the former national coach. Between guardrails, trees, signs, bollards and speed bumps, De Santos offers a ray of hope in his final statement: “Full safety in a sport like this is very difficult, but we are on the right track.”