"I don’t see a solution really for it" - Matteo Jorgenson on fixing the problem of mass crashes in cycling

There has been much discussion of late about crashes, especially following the disastrous mass crash at the Itzulia Basque Country that left the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel among others in hospital.

Vingegaard's Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammate, Matteo Jorgenson wasn't at the Itzulia Basque Country but was watching keenly and concernedly on TV. "Personally, as a rider, you're watching a race and you see a crash, like I did in Basque, and it makes you think, 'Ok, the one thing that I can do to stay safe in a race is to stay in the front as much as I can'," he explains in conversation with Cycling Weekly. 

As the American continues however, problems arise when everyone in the peloton has the same thought and wants to be in the same position. "The problem is, I wasn't the only one who saw these crashes, and I'm sure a lot of other riders have the same reaction," he continues. "We see things are getting dangerous, so we're all now fighting all the time to be in front."

Given the brutal nature of recent crashes, there has also been much talk about how to improve the safety of riders and whether there is a way that the number of crashes in the peloton can be lowered. For Jorgenson, such an outcome is difficult to foresee.

"The fact we're doing that is making it more likely that we’re going to crash again," Jorgenson concludes. "It’s kind of a cycle that I see happening, and I don’t see a solution really for it."