"It is absolutely infuriating to me how these fat cats, who have never raced throw the blame of safety issues in cycling on the riders" - EF boss lashes out against UCI & ASO
Cycling
The talk of safety in cycling and the amount of crashes has arguably never been more of a hot topic than in 2024, after much-discussed incidents involving some of the most high profile riders in the entire peloton. The question of how best to fix the issues also remain a controversial subject.
In a recent interview, Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme called the racing of the riders themselves into question. "Beyond the behaviours of the athletes and the work of the organisers, it is absolutely necessary to reduce speed by appropriate measures: The riders are going too fast," Prudhomme explained. "The faster they go, the greater the risk and the more they endanger themselves and others."
It's fair to say though, this response hasn't been welcomed by all. On his official X (Twitter) account, EF Education-EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters reacted particularly fiercely, lashing out at the Tour de France race directors comments.
"#MakeRacingSlowAgain," Vaughters posts in an opening tweet before elaborating further. "To be less glib: It is absolutely infuriating to me how these fat cats, who have never raced so much as a child’s tricycle, turning tens of millions in profit off the backs of others; squarely throw the blame of safety issues in cycling on the riders."
To be less glib: It is absolutely infuriating to me how these fat cats, who have never raced so much as a child’s tricycle, turning tens of millions in profit off the backs of others; squarely throw the blame of safety issues in cycling on the riders. https://t.co/xsZ7MENoHk
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) November 25, 2024
It's a race. It's ludicrous for the event organiser to suggest that competitors should race slower!
Completely agree, that said I’m sure what he meant was slightly nuanced (and maybe lost in translation). Obviously there are places and moments you can go full throttle but there are some you can’t and an experienced peleton should not be getting into overly dangerous situations when there is absolutely no gain to be achieved. That said, this obviously becomes a contentious pount when race organisations and even the UCI do nothing or very little to help the peleton recognise these spots. Even in amateur and youth races you will often see marshals warning at critical points, this seems to have been completely abandoned at the pro level in many races. When individual riders pount out black spots to organisers months in advance, it is INEXCUSABLE they don’t evaluate and put in place measures there. This has happened more than once in 2024 alone. Another solution if riders are to be completely responsible is to send a few scouts and have a rider representative meeting before each race/day to transmit information to each team for riders in due time. In this way, they could sll agree to take it easy in bunched groups in such places.
I agree there has been an increase in violent crashes, but there’s more than one reason (very few can be attributed to the UCI or promoters): Aerodynamics overrule safety (Stephan kung’s crash because, according to him, he couldn’t see more than 10 meters in front of him) Increased yaw making bikes into flying wings (Enric MAs’ near crash in the vuelta where the wind lifted him off the ground) Chloe dygert over-cooking a corner when should could have almost coasted to victory. Less emphasis on group riding skills Deteriorating road conditions - at least where I live
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