"We are not at the level we should be, but we are on the right path" - David Lappartient on state of UCI's fight against climate change

As the world crumbles under the pressure climate crisis, cycle racing - like every other component in life - is caught in its crossfire. Racing in summer is becoming so hot that this August a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir was forced to start in the morning for riders’ safety. Other races have been affected by flooding, landslides and high winds that are too frequent to not be a direct consequence of a changing climate.  

UCI president David Lappartient knows he has to address the situation. The head of the sport since 2017, last year he released the UCI Agenda 2030 mission statement in which he sets out how all of the sport’s stakeholders - teams, races and the UCI themselves - must reduce their carbon emissions by 50% in 2030, and be carbon neutral in the same year.

"There is no other choice but to change," the Frenchman tells Cycling Weekly. On a scale of 1-10, how would he grade cycling’s current sustainability? "Four," he shoots straight back. "We are not at the level we should be. We are on the right path, but our starting point was not good and there’s a lot of effort to do. Our ambition is really high, to get a score of 10, and we’re getting better. We’ve started sharing goals, a vision, but I think we have to develop more, and it has to be a truly common goal for everybody."

"We have a young generation very strongly into sustainability and fighting climate change, but I don’t believe all our athletes are at that same level. We have such big ambassadors and we need them to take the floor on this, to tell the whole peloton to change. You see riders throwing bidons in a forest and this behaviour affects our collective credibility. We need strong sustainability leaders, everybody on the same journey. We need education, regulation and obligations."