Tiesj Benoot argues Muriel Furrer's crash is the ultimate reason for mandatory race radios: "Maybe she could have asked for help"

Riders, team staff and fans alike almost unanimously agree on one thing: there needs to be an improvement in safety within cycling and it is the UCI's responsibility to ensure this. Race radios and GPS tracking are the most necessary changed according to most in terms of safety at this moment and Tiesj Benoot very strongly supports the idea of mandatory race radios after what has happened at the World Championships.

Many solutions though exist, including crash warnings in the riders' GPS systems that can be relayed to the teams or organizations. "I have seen for myself that it works well. Once we had parked our bikes against a wall when we went for a coffee. One of those bikes fell over and an alarm signal was immediately sent," Benoot told Het Laatste Nieuws. "Technology cannot be the problem. With everything that exists, it should be possible to locate a person who has fallen. We already ride with a transponder under the saddle that measures the time differences. It seems to me only a small step to also track someone's exact location with that."

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Benoot argues something that is often used in the elite peloton; but it is known that under-23 and junior riders did not have the transponder system working at the worlds, at least in a fully functional form. The fact that it took around 1:30 hours - according to Blick - to find the Swiss rider after she fell into an off-road area that was forested is evidence that there was simply no information as to where she was. At the World Championships race radios are not allowed, the reason being for the sake of 'more exciting racing'.

"'I understand that. But some things are more important. If spectacle always takes priority, we are working on the Roman Games," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider adds. "If the UCI is afraid that data is being passed on, they should develop their own, neutral system, then they can monitor it themselves. If I see how much we pay to the UCI, then they have enough money".

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But Benoot does not believe in the first place that racing without radios makes it more exciting, but instead puts the riders in a situation of chaos: "I have to be honest that I used to think that you could race more freely without earphones and that you had to think more tactically yourself, but that is not true. Without earphones, we are often so poorly informed about the race situation that we simply do not know what to do."

"That has nothing to do with tactics and does not necessarily result in better racing. And vice versa: are the one-day races with earphones so boring? I think that many classics are worth watching. I think spectacle is a hollow argument from the UCI". The prime case seems to be that of the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo where amateur rider Anna Kiesenhofer won the elite women's road race, because no-one in the peloton was aware of her presence and the main favourites did not know they were racing for second place.

"In the case of that girl (Furrer, ed.) maybe she could have asked for help, or maybe a colleague could have reported that something had happened," the Belgian further argues, with safety now becoming the main argument for it's use. "Now none of that was possible. Aren't those enough reasons to always use earphones? For me it is simple: what happened in Zurich is a very special case. But if you can save one life by allowing technology, then it is always worth it. Regardless of the disadvantages that may entail".

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