Why Are There So Many Deaths In Road Racing?

Professional road cycling is seeing a frightening increase in serious crashes and fatalities. We investigate the complex reasons behind this dangerous trend, from ever-increasing speeds and hazardous road furniture to the “win at all costs” mentality within the peloton. Featuring exclusive interviews with pro riders and UCI President David Lappartient, we ask what’s being done to protect the riders and who is ultimately responsible for their safety.
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⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️
00:00 – An Inherently Dangerous Sport
00:56 – The Human Cost: A Spike In Fatalities
02:32 – Why Is The Peloton Faster Than Ever?
05:52 – A New Mentality: The Battle For The Front
08:40 – Questioning The UCI’s Role
09:24 – In Conversation With The UCI President
12:29 – Are The Rules & Sanctions Working?
16:33 – Rider vs. The Road: Who Is To Blame?
22:29 – The Search For Solutions

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GCN1863

Professional road cycling is an inherently dangerous sport. Enough before that crash of so many riders on the right hand side. Oh, that’s not good news. We hope that Yasper Philips is okay. On descents, speeds regularly exceed 100 kmph or 60 mph. But in the event of a crash, all the riders have to protect themselves is a lightweight helmet and some Lyra. In this sport, there are no roll cages, no airbags. There’s not even body armor or fullface helmets. So when you hit the tarmac, it hurts. Big move to the left hand side. Is he okay? Is he not? It’s something that I know only too well. I had my fair share of crashes in my time as a pro rider. I broke both collar bones. I broke my pelvis and I lost an awful lot of skin. But I am still here. Others are not still here. In a period of just over 2 years, six riders have lost their lives through crashing in UCI ranked road races. Six riders have died competing in the sport they loved. Could any or even all of those fatal crashes have been avoided? What is being done to make road racing safer? What is being done to stop riders dying? We can never never never be satisfied when we have crashes. Cycling is a dangerous sport. Uh we all know that. But where I think where the danger comes from is just the need and want and fight within the palaton to be at the front. That’s that’s the main problem. We have brakes. Yes, we have brakes. But if you want to be in the front, sometimes you need to take some risk. Greater the speed, the greater the the damage will be. Yeah, there’s an incentive to want to win at all costs. We brought bones. We have concussions. Sorry, nobody else in the room has it. I’m very concerned by the multiplication over the last years about obstacles on the roads. I cannot speak for the whole penon. For me, they are not doing enough. Of course, if a rider is willing to take that risk, it’s because, you know, somehow they’re being motivated to do that. What’s the aim of cycling? Go as fast you can and not pointing finger left and right and say, “Oh, yeah, riders always complain.” Yeah, but we are on the ground. Even a one rider will die is is too many. [Music] I’ve been a pro rider myself. I’ve worked in pro cycling for 13 years since. I’ve watched bike racing for three decades, and I’m getting increasingly concerned. Some online databases show a three-fold increase in reported injuries between 2014 and 2025, despite the average number of race days per pro rider having dropped in that time. So, riders are racing less, but crashing more. According to the UCI’s own race instant database, which has worked on with Gent University since 2021, there were close to 500 instance in 2024 alone. Less than half of those instance were described as unprovoked rider error, which means that over half were not down to rider error. Speeds have increased from 40 km/h in men’s world tour races in 2020 to 43 in 2025. But surely that can’t be the only reason behind a dramatic increase in rider injuries. Perhaps the Pelaton does need slowing down though. I don’t know what the answers are. And so I’ve been on a journey to find out, speaking to current pros, former pros, and even the president of the UCI. I began by speaking to rider representative Mateo Trenton pro for 14 years. It’s difficult to say. Uh for sure it go faster and with speed we didn’t really adapt what cycling is in term of uh circuit in term of what we do with increasing of speed. And if you see now, we are actually ticking off boxes of the fastest this, the fastest that, the fastest the other one every single year. And what are those increases in speed down to would you say? Oh, a lot of things. You have like a training point of view, nutrition point of view, material point of view. And these three things together for sure brought cycling into a next level of speed. This one I can say from since I turned professional I always been focused on the classics. So when I turn pro it was still a B and Kelara era and then Greg Vanat and Peter Sagan came in and then Banar Vanderpool and now Pacher comes in again and every time is a step is a step above and if you want to keep on with these guys everybody need to understand what they do, why they do, how they do and and adapt and not not say doing the same but going into a point where you can compete with them. 10 years ago physical abilities were a bigger part of the whole picture. No, because it was so much harder. It wasn’t it wasn’t as important to get into the corner first. No, you knew anyway it’s going to it’s going to be about the legs at the end of the day. Now, many times it’s quite important to start the climb on the front. If you want to follow today’s move on the climb, if you’re not on the wheel, then good luck with that. I remember actually riding next to you in 2012 to Britain and we’re coming down this little lane. You said, “Be careful down here. There’s a really narrow bridge at the bottom.” I said, “All right, cool.” And then after I said, “How do you know that?” He said, “It’s on my garment.” And I think that was the first time that I’d seen someone using a Garmin really in that form. Now 200 riders have that. And rather than going this section coming up and it’s poor roads or it’s a narrow bridge or it’s a dangerous descent, rather than it being a warning that right guys, everyone take it easy down there, back off, get down that section and then we’ll carry on as we were, it’s being taken the other way. that there’s dangerous section. Let’s all be at the front so you don’t get caught behind a crash or there’s an issue or there’s a split. Also, there is more and more of um road furniture being built each and every year to regulate the traffic and make it more efficient for the cars to slow down in the city centers and so on, which is not good for racing. We don’t race on a closed track or circuit like in other motorsports. I think we need to push for more to be done as soon as possible because at the end of the day uh things can some things can be changed probably and I think also we need to listen to the majority of all stakeholders no team riders and organizers also we are on the ground we brought bones we have concussions sorry nobody else in the room has it so if we say something in dangerous it’s probably because it’s dangerous because you were a rider before we racing the heat, we race in the cold, we race under the rain, we race in the wind, we race in road, we race in nice road, we always race. And I think we deserve a place which is a little bit better than what we are putting now into this discussion. We if we say it’s not good, it’s because it’s not good. We we create this this sort of mentality again that I suppose is the best word to describe it that you don’t even want to question it. It’s like, oh well, okay, the race is on, so I’m racing. You know, like, but if you don’t feel comfortable, you you have the right to say, I don’t feel comfortable. And you actually have the right to say, I’m not going to start, but we’re too afraid to do that. I can be quite quite fast in the distance and so on, but then it’s down to each each other to to choose if they want to to follow or not. I think some riders, especially the older riders, they are still very used to the way racing was in past when we all give each other more space and we all like came to the corner in one line stretched out and nobody ever passed anyone. But now it’s more like racing and you need to concentrate and focus and uh take care about your position, close the doors before the corner, not let people pass you each and every corner. And some riders are struggling with this more than others. And we know Mahoridge, he is an absolute daredevil because he put himself off the road. He still survived. He still made the difference. Leans into the corner and almost rests on the wall. He’s giving everything. The actual uh not political but uh rule making uh entity of cycling which is the UCI should come in. But they never do. They always do like uh you know the bird that put their head into the sand when it’s time to do something. Whenever there are major crashes, there’s always a fair amount of blame aimed towards the UCI. So I traveled to Switzerland to meet David Leion. As the president of the sports governing body, surely he bears the ultimate responsibility. I wanted to ask him what he thinks is going on with the increase in injuries and instance, what he’s planning on doing about it, and first and foremost, exactly what the role of the UCI is when it comes to safety in road racing. First of all, we we consider that uh we all on the same boat, athletes, teams, organizers and the UCI and we have the common goal that is to ensure the more safety than what we have today and this is what we try to do every day. We want to have safe races not only at the highest level but for all the levels. Our role is just to to put the frame uh the regulation and of course the organizer uh will have the responsibility first to organize the race and secondly is also the one liable to organize his race in the perfect uh way visa the uh the public authorities or the UCI itself. Rider down from Quickstep Alpha Vinyl and that is not good news. It’s Mike Lonor. There’s been six riders that have died in a period of just over two years in in UCI ranked road races. Would you agree that that’s a statistic that doesn’t look very good for our sport right now? You know, even one uh rider will died is is is too many. Of course, we have to look into comparison with the or so with the with the past. Uh but because there is always a lot of emotion, it’s completely normal. uh you don’t race you don’t take part in a race to die we all know that we are not in a in a closed stadium that there are more risk when you are in descent of a call of a montain you know there is more risk that’s for sure however it’s each time how we can reduce uh the speed if I take in photon the crash of genome not from not far away from here you you can have a look uh the road was very very large surface was very very there were no obstacle directly, you know, and and and and it happened. So the UCI are responsible for creating the rules and the regulations that should lead to a safe race. It is then down to individual race organizers to correctly implement them. But what happens if they don’t? What happens if a race is regularly found to be unsafe because the organizers are not following those rules? We started some years ago uh to challenge more the organizers uh to follow the different rules, specifications and so on. And we unfortunately have to take sometimes some decisions whether not to accept some races in the calendar the year after or sometime uh they have a fine with also we provide a safety manager the year after to implement correctly safety at their own cost. But we we hire directly ourself you know supervisor in in a way or uh there can be also a relegation from it happens also from a pro series to class one or to from world tour to for example to proer and sometime for one year sometime for three years. So yes uh we took some decisions like this and we also had some fine for some of them but we we always tried first of all to prevent uh the goal is not only to take sanctions if it’s not right it’s more to to say how can do not to have this or not to have it again in terms of demoting a race in terms of its UCI ranking then because they have not adhered to the safety rules that the UCI uh are governed by does That not then imply that you’re saying it’s okay for lesser ranked riders to compete in races that have been deemed not safe enough for the highest ranked riders. I would say first of all that for us safety is a priority not only for the top riders but for all the riders worldwide. So you know the value of the life of a rider of class 2 is the same as the rider of of world tour. So we want to have safe races not only at the highest level but for all the levels. However, it’s true that there are there is less pressure uh on category 2 because you have less vehicles, you have less motorbikes. So that the pressure is is is is less important. So racers can be fined, struck off the calendar completely or demoted in ranking if they’re found to not meet UCI requirements. But I wanted to find out from the riders if that’s actually being implemented in races that they don’t feel are safe and if it is whether they feel that’s helping. I think it’s improved over years um slightly, but only at world tour level of world tour races. And then you go to.1 point2s and it’s like there’s cars on the roads in certain races and there all still pro races and there’s just such a drop off and it’s like you know welcome to the jungle. It’s a mess. I have to say there is like a small let’s call it a small safety rule book for organizers and you see constantly every single time that rules are broken or are not respected and constantly every single time you don’t see any acting by the UCI official which are the the jury because of of course the the UCI office people are not at the races but the official so the the commissers I never see a a fine against the race organizer because the final wasn’t straight, because the bar were not well places because this or that part of the race were not safe enough. When I turned pro in 2011, one of the races everybody was speaking about being a dangerous race was the last stage of the pan. And it’s always been like this. It it’s like that. And nobody do anything to make it better. That’s that that’s the main problem. We have breaks. Yes, we have breaks. But if you want to be in the front, sometimes you need to take some risk. The thing is when you have 20 guys taking the same risk for the same corner because the course design doesn’t allow you to move up later and before is a mess anyway. That that race is super dangerous from many many many years and nobody do anything about it. It just keeping on every year. So this year there were wor probably the worst amount of crashes and guess what going to happen next year? Nothing. In some ways, the UCI is an easy target, an easy place to aim the blame. However, they are trying to make changes that they hope will make things safer. Uh, this year, they announced a new minimum handlebar width rule that will be implemented on January the 1st and a gear ratio limit that was supposed to be tried out at this year’s Tour of Hangi. Both were controversial for different reasons and the latter was eventually scuppered by component manufacturer Stram through the Belgian Competition Authority. But those new regulations were not made up on a whim. They were suggestions made by SAFER, which is an independent entity established in 2023 by the UCI and all professional stakeholders to implement a structured and systematic approach to improving safety. SAFE’s purpose is to use data and statistics to do that. Although it’s in its early days, I want to know why the data shows that more than half of the incidents are not down to rider error. I mean surely there should be fewer external factors that are causing riders to crash. The goal is to reduce what is uh what are the uh external reasons uh for example if you protect more obstacles if you uh ensure that surface will be good. you know you have a lot of thing that are in the ends of the organizers and also for example if I take the yellow card is also to improve rider’s behavior uh and sometime I’ve been a cyclist also myself not highest level but you are in a bunch sometime you look at the right and something will go on the left and and uh yes uh it can happen uh we know that so uh we can’t pretend that we will reduce this to to 0% because they will still be uh riders behavior sometime on the because they took um yes I think my point is it all crashes should be as a cause of rider behavior because what we’re saying is that 50% at the moment are not because of riders. So then it’s not their fault. All crashes should be really their fault if they’re in the correct environment for a race. Yeah. But for example, if you have a puncher, if you are a puncher with your tire, it’s not directly the rider’s behavior. But if it’s in the descent, then you can crash because uh it can happen, you know, and and it’s not then you still have your ventures. However, uh what is more difficult today is also that uh more and more uh municipalities are uh you know moving or making some adaptations uh on their roads to make uh them more peaceful maybe for the cars or for pedestrian or for but uh it’s not always the case for a bicycle race. Sometime you had wonderful race a wonderful roads where we were used to have some races and the year after you you the same road will be with many obstacles but there is still no B plan to escape this road for this race. Okay. Uh you can even protect the obstacles but it’s better not to have the obstacles and and the organizer has no opportunity to sometime to make some modification on this. are very concerned by the multiplication over the last years about obstacles on the uh on the roads. Not because they are not well indicated, not because they are not well protected, but just because at 50k per hour, even if it’s well protected or well indicated, uh it’s it’s there is a wave in in a bunch and the first 10 will go through and uh and then you will touch the wheel of the of the guy in front of you. Mhm. Uh so it’s not directly riders behavior but it’s uh not directly the responsibility of the organizers. There is no doubt that road furniture has been an increasing issue in road racing and there’s no really easy solution to that. There’s also no doubt that the riders have to take at least some responsibility for the safety of themselves and those around them. I mean they all have access to brakes so they can all slow down if they want to. However, they’re paid to race bikes, which means going fast. If you’re a sprinter who starts pulling on the brakes every time there’s danger, you are not going to be winning any bunch sprints. So, it’s a bit of a conundrum. And so, I wanted to hear from the riders as to whether the Pelaton should be looking more at themselves and their own actions if they really want to make racing safer. Haskell Akaman also crashed out on a day where he was one of the top favorites for the sprint. Ultimately, we are bike racers and uh yeah, it is mostly rider error that causes crashes. I can be quite quite fast in the descent and so on. But then it’s down to each each rider to to choose if they want to to follow or not. He’s giving everything and look at it. every single centimeter of the road being exploited. Now my bad mooric. So of course if a rider is willing to take that risk, it’s because you know somehow they’re being motivated to do that are the stakes too high, you know, like if I’m not there in first position, I don’t win the race or I don’t get a result. I don’t have a contract. I don’t my future might be at risk, you know. So sometimes, you know, the UCI fail us and and roads aren’t fit for purpose or looked after as well as they should be a lot of the time it’s just it’s is rider stress I think the riders themselves have to understand their part um in in the safety you know um you know at the end of the day we also need to you know man up or woman up um and realize that a big part of our safety is in our own hands. hands and we are totally entitled to make decisions for ourselves, you know. Um, and I think that it’s a mentality in a way that that needs to change because, you know, I even have to say this, it’s only in the latter part of my career that I’m really actually understanding that, you know, I I can say I’m not comfortable to do that. You know what I mean? But we we create this this sort of mentality again that I suppose is the best word to describe it that like we you don’t even want to question it. It’s like oh well okay the race is on so I’m racing you know like but if you don’t feel comfortable you you have the right to say I don’t feel comfortable and you actually have the right to say I’m not going to start but we’re too afraid to do that. Trying to get an entire pelaton of riders to race more responsibly when adrenaline is flowing and there are high stakes on the line is always going to be a challenge. But what if they had no choice but to slow down? Would it make things safer if there were new equipment regulations designed to do just that? And beyond that, should they be slowed down when the whole idea is to get from A to B as quickly as possible? The essence of the sport is to go as fast as you can. That’s like you take it back football. What’s the what’s the what’s the aim of the game? Put the ball in the net. What’s the aim of cycling? Go as fast as you can. You know, that’s that’s essentially what it’s about. Win the race. How do you win the race? You’re the fastest. So, you’re kind of reverting back on the whole ideology of the sport. You need to sit down with people who knows what they are talking about and and find a way to make it I don’t say fair because it’s impossible to make it 100% fair for everybody. For me this gears whatever is just because then you look at the gear ratio and the RPM and you find out that with a little bit of increase of RPM you’re going to go the same speed anyway. Probably the most simple and effective solution would maybe be to put all the riders on a a slower tire. Ideally, that’s also wider for it to be more stable and have better braking abilities and uh better ability at corners, more grip and so on. There are a lot of ideas on the table. For me, one of the ideas is going back into rolling resistance. That’s one of the things that actually make us faster in an easy way. Tires get faster and faster and faster. Just set up like a minimum rolling resistance for every tire. This is a very inconvenient for smaller, lighter riders because for them, if you regulate it somehow, this increased rolling resistance is a bigger proportion of their overall power compared to a rider like I don’t know what one for him would be beneficial. I guess we already have that with the minimum weight limit, right? Is there we have the same? Yeah. Yeah. This is the same problem actually. I think it maybe idea is maybe to I don’t know have different classes or something. I don’t know. So if we take a decision, it’s maybe to say okay look uh the maximum tire you can use is 27 or you know these kind of things but it will apply to all the teams but they will still be free to use they want. uh because otherwise we’ll have problems with the teams. We’ll have problem with the industry and it’s not like Formula 1 when they they have only one provider for all the tires. Um yeah, that that is something that they FIA implemented which was one tire for all the drivers before. It’s also part of this business model. Now it is. Yeah. But it I mean they obviously had their their center moment where I don’t know the sport inside out but from what I’ve read there were lots of people calling for the FIA to make significant changes for the safety of drivers and it was only when one of the most famous drivers in the world lost his life that they then started to and I think a lot of people are wondering is that what the UCI is waiting for? You perhaps the names that have died are not quite big enough yet to make these like really big changes. It’s not at all because as I said the value of the life of all the riders is the same for us. So we we don’t make any difference in between the top rider than the other one and we want to have a safe environment for all the uh all the riders. One major shift in a Pelaton in recent years is the average age. 10 years ago it was almost unheard of for riders to turn pro straight out of the junior ranks. And even when they did eventually turn pro, they would then spend a few seasons learning the ropes from the established champions and road captains of the time. And those champions were more often than not in their 30s. Now, many riders are turning pro as teenagers and then immediately winning at the very top level of the sport. But just because they have incredible physiology doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to race in a safe way. So I wanted to know whether a new more formal type of education could be introduced for youngsters entering the prop pelaton. It’s an interesting question because I also know like if I if I think back to being younger version of myself and the most annoying comment is like when people go when we were younger or you know when I was younger there is no doubt that as you get older you become somewhat wiser you know and our um risk assessment changes you know what I mean and that’s I mean cycling is all about calculated risk. Yeah, I I do believe that as you get older, um yeah, the way in which you view risk is maybe changes. You become mature about it. Um and also through experience. So through years and years and years of experience um like you learn, you have a better concept of risk. Does that make sense? You know what I mean? If I think back generally to when I started, Ena Tatenberg really stands out as like one of the riders in the Pelaton that you didn’t dare want to get on the bad side of because um you know, not that not that she would be um totally rude or or out of line, but you know, she was firm. Um and that kept everyone kind of in line. And I sometimes feel like maybe we’re missing these kind of figures. the youngsters kind of almost sometimes I feel like the mentality of the younger generation is we can do things faster, we can get there faster, you know what I mean? Like we don’t need to go um earn our stripes or um go through the same steps or methods of the young of the older generation. But I almost feel like a bit of a missing link is now the kind of education that could be offered to riders to better understand, you know, risk and the dynamics of speed. If you were to be in charge of the UCI for a couple of years, what would be like the first two things that you would do based on your experience to try and improve rider safety? I would implement education you know so as I’m talking about so I mean I’d have to think exactly how but probably an online course um would be the first first way of introducing it is there like a certain process that needs to be fulfilled to get a UCI license for example one thing I do straight off the bat is any rider who gets a pro cycling license so whether that be world tour or you know proont whether you put cont in the mix I don’t know but has to pass a written exam uh I would take it back to the bare roots of that and then I mean something which has already to a certain extent been implemented obviously we have the safer organization now which is a body looking just at safety I think maybe I would look at trying to create something that’s quite like that’s totally independent cuz I feel maybe that’s still a place where where there’s a bit of a missing link you know although we have safer um the at the end of the day they advise eyes, but they they don’t really have control uh from what I understand in terms of, you know, stopping a race from including a certain part um on the course. So, I think maybe there could be something that has a bit more authority um and is a bit more independent. As David Leon said, one death in road racing is too many. Six deaths in just over two years is frankly unacceptable. But just like other aspects of pro cycling such as revenue sharing, it feels like there are too many key stakeholders who are all as concerned with protecting their own interests, their own piece of the pie as working together for the greater benefit of the sport as a whole. The UCI race organizers, teams, riders, even equipment manufacturers, they’ve all got a role to play. Whether they can all work together to improve safety is a different matter. I just hope it doesn’t take an unimaginable catastrophe to make that happen. Incidentally, if you want to watch the full interview with UCI President David Leon, you’ll soon be able to find that over on our Gin Racing YouTube channel. Thanks for watching everyone, and please let me know your thoughts on this very sensitive topic in the comments section below.