Cyclist call for musette ban - "Almost every time riders collect musettes, a crash happens 99% of the time"

Just two months into 2023 and there are already significant calls to modify regulations to improve the safety of riders. This time it is musettes which is being targeted.

Previously, the Super-tucks and puppy paws position was prohibited, and now some cyclists are advocating for regulation of musettes, small packets of food and drinks that are distributed to riders during the course of the day.

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One rider who is particularly outspoken about musettes and the attempts to control them is Tosh Van der Sande. “For me, this needs to change. Almost every time riders collect musettes, a crash happens 99% of the time. Or if they don’t crash, they are close,” he told Cyclingweekly.

He further added, “Under 140km, you do not need a musette. You take your stuff before the race and go back to the car - that’s more safer than musettes. In a long stage you can’t take everything with you, but in short stages I see teammates with musettes and I ask them why. You see it too often that something happens with musettes and for me it’s just a situation that creates danger.”

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Matej Mohoric agrees with Van der Sande to a certain extent. “In the races where everyone has a feed zone in the same place, it’s always messy, and there’s always crashes and stress," he said.

However, Matej Mohoric did not agree with Van der Sande's idea of banning musettes for races less than 140 kilometers in length.“In big, important races there’s no time to go back to the car, and when it’s super warm we use musettes to give out bottles," he argued. "We take one every 20 minutes, so how many extra feed zones do you want if you don’t allow musettes to cover it,” concluded Mohoric.

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