The 2024 Cycling World Championships will go down in history as an event remembered forever. Sadly though, despite the brilliance of Tadej Pogacar and Lotte Kopecky, it's the tragic death of Swiss junior Muriel Furrer that the Championships will be remembered for most.
Furrer suffered serious head injuries after crashing on a slippery and rain covered descent in the women's junior road race and was taken to a nearby hospital in a very critical condition by an emergency helicopter. Heartbreakingly, Furrer could not be saved and eventually passed away from her injuries. The third high profile cycling death in the last couple of years following Gino Mader and André Drege, Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly doesn't believe the UCI is doing enough to keep riders safe.
“I think it’s tragic,” Kelly says in conversation with Velo. “There is a lot of talk about it, and safety and the parcours, the route. When you look at a world championships, you can go out and put up netting in any place where it is dangerous at all. If it’s on the descent and there’s a risk, you can do something about it. Whereas in a race like a Tour de France or a Giro, it’s not possible because you just cannot do it on every downhill and every dangerous piece of road.”
As such, the Irishman is asking the UCI to do more. “Certainly on a world championship circuit where it’s laps, that’s something doable. If you really look at the safety part of it, [that element of risk] is probably avoidable. So make it more safe," he demands. “That’s something I think the UCI should be looking into quite a bit more seriously.”
One of the main talking points after Furrer's death was the lack of race radios in World Championship races. “There is the debate about the radios. Are they good? Are they bad? I have often said, for the racing end of it, maybe they are not the best thing, because they [the riders] are controlled by the DS’s. But for a safety point of view, it is always very, very important that you have them there,” Kelly analyses. “If something happens and you are not too seriously injured, maybe you can make that call. Maybe you can alert the DS.”
“If you have GPS tracking, you should be able to follow where everybody is at the moment,” continues the former Vuelta a Espana champion. “But it is more complicated at a world championships. I believe she was living not too far away from the circuit. If riders stop at the worlds, they sometimes just go to their hotel, or they might stop off somewhere on the circuit. If you see the GPS location is still out on the circuit, you might think, ‘well, maybe they’re out there with friends or something.’ Are they monitored enough to see exactly where everybody is all through the races? These things do need to be looked at.”
“There are a lot of things to be really looked at from the safety point of view now, because of the aero bikes and aero kit,” Kelly concludes. “And because of the fatal accidents we’ve been having in the last two years.”
🇨🇭Swiss authorities confirm crash site of Muriel Furrer. "The rider fell near Küsnacht, during a descent from the hamlet of Schmalzgrueb in a gentle left bend." Blick media believes the crash occurred at 11:03 and that Furrer was found after the race ended (12:33) 📸 UCI
