Cyclists Union President Sounds Alarm: “We’re Still Killing People”
“We’re still killing people.”
It was just one of several impassioned quotes from Pascal Chanteur, president of UNCP, the French professional cyclists’ union, who recently unloaded on the state of rider safety.
Speaking with French public news outlet AFP last Thursday, Chanteur asked, “Do we have to wait for the umpteenth death? For a rider to have both legs cut off and lose his life so that people become aware? If that’s the idea, we’re not far off.”
The comments came after a horrific crash at Itzulia Basque Country, the aftermath of which looked more like a combat film than a bike race on television screens and computer monitors around the world. Bodies were splayed everywhere, writhing in pain. Some, like UAE Team Emirates rider Jay Vine, lay motionless, leaving viewers to nervously wonder just how bad the crash really was.
In the wake of the wreck, two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard was hospitalized with several broken bones and lung damage. Remco Evenepoel broke his collarbone. And Vine ended up with multiple fractures in his vertebrae.
Speaking with Belgian site La Dernière Heure, TotalEnergies rider Steff Cras said the crash was “a brush with death.”
Still, the crash sent shockwaves through the cycling community, mostly because many felt it was the culmination of the last few years of crashes getting more dangerous and little being done about it.
Just a week prior to the awful Itzulia wreck, Wout van Aert, a favorite to win the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, crashed hard at Dwars door Vlaanderen, resulting in broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken sternum, potentially jeopardizing the rest of his season.
Immediately following the Itzulia crash, Chanteur asked what was being done on an institutional level to protect the riders.
“I’m not saying that the UCI is responsible, but they do have a responsibility to take the full measure of our recommendations to make progress on safety,” said Chanteur. “For example, we’re perfectly capable of reducing speeds by changing tires. Why can Formula 1 do it, and we can’t?”
Chanteur even went as far as suggesting the very technology modern bike racers used to be put under the microscope.
“Carbon is light and very rigid, so there’s no room for error,” he said. Wheels and tires are nothing like those used in the past. Drama can happen at any moment. Disc brakes in racing are too dangerous. The same applies to the gear ratios used. Today, we use 56x10. They’re going 80 kilometers an hour downhill, even though they’re almost naked. When there’s a fall, you have no way of escaping.”
Chanteur said that riders in the peloton have been upset with the current state of rider safety since Fabio Jakobsen’s life-threatening crash at the Tour of Poland in 2020. However, according to Chanteur, the riders may be unwilling to speak up for fear of upsetting team sponsors.
“It’s not easy for a rider to say what I say,” Chanteur said. “They’re salaried employees, and the main financial backers of cycling are still the cycle brands. I’m pointing the finger at (bicycle manufacturers). It’s up to them to decide whether they want to continue having accidents on their conscience or even deaths.”
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