Over the last few years, several of the top riders in the sport have had horrific crashes in racing and training, breaking bones and suffering internal organ trauma. This is nothing new to cycling, but crashes seem to be more frequent and the injuries worse than they once were. When I rode the 2005 Giro, there were rider protests over course safety. Back then, veteran riders were complaining about the decrease in respect in the peloton and the increase in crashes.
Adam Hansen fires back at TV crews filming Jonas Vingegaard and others after crash
Steve Bauer, who raced in the 1970s–1990s, told me broken bones were few. Now, it seems almost every professional rider has broken a bone at some point.
Some crashed riders are able to return to their previous level, while others struggle in their recovery and have never had the same results. All will have been traumatized. Races have become faster than ever due to a multitude of reasons, from aerodynamics to nutrition to training techniques. Speeds will only increase as technology—and therefore the peloton—continue to evolve. With increased speeds has come higher gearing. No longer is 53×11 the norm, but larger rings and smaller cogs are often used to outpace the peloton.
Gear restrictions to slow the peloton down?
Recently, two of the sport’s stars, Wout Van Aert and Chris Froome, spoke about race safety and proposed the idea of limiting the maximum gear ratio to slow the peloton down—essentially, with lower gears riders would be limited by their pedal revolutions, so they couldn’t keep accelerating to higher speeds. Talk of gear restrictions sparked debate in the cycling media, but the lede had been buried: two of the sport’s stars, who have both suffered significant injuries in crashes, want the cycling governing bodies to make racing safer. Complacency among race organizers and governing bodies has led to slow implementation of safety studies and protocols, which is eclipsed by bike tech development.
David Lappartient: ‘50 per cent of crashes are due to riders’ attitudes’
Gaslighting its greatest assets, the governing bodies and race organizers have publicly criticized the riders for not racing more cautiously to avoid crashing. If the riders are racing on courses designed by organizers, checked by the UCI, and following the rules that are both implemented and policed by the UCI, surely, they shouldn’t be blamed for the crashes. It’s easy to criticize from the sidelines, while…
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