{"id":456474,"date":"2025-09-27T23:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/456474\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T23:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:04:17","slug":"a-year-on-from-muriel-furrers-death-is-cyclings-attitude-to-safety-shifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/456474\/","title":{"rendered":"A year on from Muriel Furrer\u2019s death, is cycling\u2019s attitude to safety shifting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year ago, on September 27 2024, Swiss junior cyclist Muriel Furrer died after an accident at her home World Championships in Zurich.<\/p>\n

Around an hour and a half passed between her crash and the 18-year-old being found and treated by paramedics. Riders were immediately critical of the response, with a police investigation under way into the apparent failings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me very sad to think of a young girl with so much potential left alone,\u201d Australian rider Chloe Hosking told The Athletic last December. \u201cIt\u2019s just heartbreaking, honestly. There\u2019s a time for silence, and there\u2019s a time when you\u2019re meant to be angry. You\u2019re meant to say things need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past 12 months, some concrete changes have been implemented. It is not yet known whether a safety tracker could have saved Furrer\u2019s life, but the delay caused by the absence of such technology in Zurich did nothing to help her prognosis.<\/p>\n

At this week\u2019s World Championships in Rwanda, where Furrer will be honoured and the number she wore, 84, retired from future women\u2019s junior road race events, every rider will have a mandatory tracker installed on their bike. The regulation appears to be a direct response to Furrer\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But progress has not been linear. Just last month, at a test event for the technology at the Tour of Romandie Feminin, five teams were excluded from the first stage following a dispute with the sport\u2019s governing body, the UCI, over its implementation.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, the teams blamed the UCI for a lack of consultation, arguing it was unfair to only ask a single rider per team to carry the tracker. In response, the UCI accused the teams of undermining peloton-wide safety efforts. On Friday afternoon, the affected teams announced they were appealing the disqualification to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).<\/p>\n

Either way, the incident exposed the different priorities of the sport\u2019s various stakeholders \u2014 and raised fresh questions. Over the past 12 months, The Athletic has spoken to riders, team coaches, union representatives and governing body officials. Is cycling truly ready for change?<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s crazy, sometimes you are scared, sometimes you don\u2019t want to be here, but it\u2019s also part of our sport and how it\u2019s growing now,\u201d says reigning Tour de France Femmes champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. \u201cOn the other hand, I also think the UCI can do more for us and safety can be better. We can still make progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard is another of cycling\u2019s biggest stars. A two-time winner of the Tour de France and victor at this month\u2019s Vuelta a Espana, the 28-year-old has become increasingly outspoken on safety issues. When a figure of that standing states that he would not let his children race, it should serve as a siren to the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, if my daughter or son asks that question \u2014 \u2018Daddy, can we race?\u2019 \u2014 the answer is \u2018No\u2019,\u201d Vingegaard told Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad at the Volta ao Algarve in March. \u201cThe way the sport is now, it\u2019s just too dangerous. In general, I would say that everyone in cycling needs to realise the scale of the safety problem. That is still not the case enough. And everyone has a responsibility: the riders themselves, the organisers and the UCI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just under a week after that interview was published, Vingegaard crashed at Paris-Nice. He did not compete for the next two months after suffering a concussion, criticising the race doctors for not providing a head injury assessment after he fell, and allowing him to complete the remaining 84km of the stage. Other riders share Vingegaard\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, 25-year-old Norwegian rider Andre Drege died during a high-speed descent of the Grossglockner at the Tour of Austria. Investigators found that a rear wheel puncture caused the crash.<\/p>\n

German prospect Louis Kitzki, a member of the Alpecin-Deceuninck development team, raced in the same event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had respect for dangerous things,\u201d he says. \u201cBut since the Tour of Austria and the death of Andre Drege, that respect turned into fear. It was probably the beginning of the end of my cycling career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Riders, including Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar, pay tribute to Andre Drege after the rider\u2019s death in July 2024 (David Pintens\/Belga Mag\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Twelve months later, promising Italian junior Samuele Privitera fell and died at the Giro della Valle d\u2019Aosta after hitting his head on a gate. The 19-year-old was a member of Jayco-AlUla\u2019s development team.<\/p>\n

Once again, Kitzki was at the race. Once considered one of German cycling\u2019s rising stars, he announced his retirement, aged 21, one month later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had this feeling that things had escalated,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere was a feeling of things being totally uncontrolled. In some races, the roads are terrible for cycling. Earlier this season, I took part in two bike races where there were cars on the descent coming up the road. We were doing 80kph, and then, all of a sudden, there were the cars. It was completely insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to cycling website Pro Cycling Stats, there have been 340 injuries so far in 2025, up from 323 last year \u2014 both representing record highs. Though some of the year-on-year increase may be put down to better reporting, several cyclists spoken to by The Athletic feel that the data is matched by their anecdotal experience.<\/p>\n

Privatera\u2019s death, coming so soon after Drege\u2019s, majorly affected Kitzki. Though he says the roads were \u201creally bad\u201d at the race, another factor in his retirement was the response of other riders to the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome just seemed not to care about it,\u201d he says. \u201cThey thought that because it hadn\u2019t happened to them, they could continue normal racing. And with that attitude, it\u2019s difficult to see how we will reduce accidents. Some riders will do things that are absolutely insane. I just thought: \u2018What am I doing here?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut another reason was also that, while you can take some steps, it is impossible to make a bike race completely safe. Some things just aren\u2019t possible in road racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Louis Kitzki (front right) has quit professional cycling due to safety concerns (Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In July, Canadian climber Michael Woods, one of the peloton\u2019s most experienced figures, caused a stir with a blog post written midway through his participation in the Tour de France. The 38-year-old heavily criticised the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), the family-run business that organises races such as the Tour, Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Roubaix, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, for its safety record.<\/p>\n

Recalling an ASO briefing in which a representative told riders to \u201ctake less risk\u201d, Woods argued that this does not tackle the root of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the NBA telling Steph Curry, \u2018You need to shoot fewer threes,\u2019\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt does nothing. If the NBA wanted fewer three-pointers in a game, they would change the lines. If ASO and the UCI truly want to make the sport safer, they will have to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, the riders are unhappy. Adam Hansen is the head of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associes (CPA), the professional riders\u2019 union. Does he see why they feel this way?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because they\u2019re right,\u201d he replies. \u201cIt feels to me as if racing is becoming more dangerous than it was when I rode. And I think that\u2019s mostly because of course design, and all the infrastructure in city centres intended to slow down traffic. Organisers are putting more effort, but I don\u2019t know if it is keeping up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe riders are correct to speak about this, because cycling is a lot more dangerous than people think. In my career, I broke 17 bones from crashes, and walked away from the sport thinking I was lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Adam Hansen, in his role as the head of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associes (CPA), speaks to a Lidl-Trek rider at the 2025 Tour Down Under (Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One major issue is that several areas of safety regulation are subject to major disagreement between the sport\u2019s stakeholders, with governing bodies, teams, and riders \u2014 each with distinct priorities \u2014 often at loggerheads over their introduction.<\/p>\n

The UCI has introduced a safety-specific body known as SafeR, featuring representatives from each stakeholder, to discuss issues. Hansen represents the riders on the management committee, alongside officers from the teams, organisers, UCI and commissaires.<\/p>\n

However, one prevailing feeling throughout the sport is that the number of stakeholders involved can lead to significant delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a consensus organisation,\u201d says Soudal-Quickstep CEO Jurgen Fore. \u201cOf course, that\u2019s something you need to go after, but for some decisions, it\u2019s just too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race radios are one example of how the number of stakeholders can lead to dispute. UCI president David Lappartient wants to see their use either banned or significantly reduced, controversially testing racing without them at last year\u2019s Tour de Pologne, already an event with a poor safety record.<\/p>\n

For Lappartient, the reasons for removing radios are threefold \u2014 he claims they leave the sport vulnerable to online betting, damage attractive racing, and make the sport more dangerous by providing riders with information simultaneously \u2014 for example, every rider moving up in the bunch if warned that the road narrows.<\/p>\n

The majority of cycling appears to disagree with its primary lawmaker. Visma Lease-a-Bike CEO Richard Plugge called the Tour de Pologne \u201ca complete farce\u201d on social media, stating riders \u201ccould not call the team car for basic assistance\u2026 hopefully no one was too badly hurt today\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lappartient responded by accusing Plugge of \u201cfake news\u201d, saying no crashes were caused by a lack of radios, but other figures in the sport have numerous examples of where radios have made a major difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew there was a dangerous point on the circuit (in this year\u2019s Milan-San Remo) and we flagged it in the pre-race briefing,\u201d says Soudal-Quickstep chief Fore. \u201cBut Martin Svrcek was in the heat of the race, trying to make his way back to the peloton, and must have forgotten. He went straight into the low wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d warned the rider, but there was also no protection on the corner. Both he and his bike went over, where there was a fall of three to four metres, so we couldn\u2019t see him. The sporting directors in the car heard someone screaming, but didn\u2019t know who it was or where.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily, they stopped the car when there was a second crash some 500m down the road, and some riders mentioned they thought they\u2019d seen somebody go over the wall. But if Martin had not been able to scream over the race radio, we might have been in San Remo with his empty jacket, asking ourselves where Martin was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Svrcek broke his collarbone, scapula and several ribs in the crash, but avoided a serious head injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater, sitting with him in the hospital, you\u2019re next to a broken body,\u201d adds Fore. \u201cAnd that made a big impact on me. It shows a problem in cycling \u2014 that if something turns out OK, then we just move on, and if something happens, then it\u2019s a big disaster. But we shouldn\u2019t need somebody to be killed to see that it is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane\u2019s rider receives medical assistance during the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia (Luca Bettini\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Svrcek\u2019s crash provides harrowing flashbacks to Furrer\u2019s crash, six months earlier, in which the young Swiss athlete was not found by her team or race medics. While it is not yet known whether a race radio may have saved her life, it could have allowed her team, like Svrcek\u2019s, to hear a scream and react.<\/p>\n

Another contentious safety issue surrounds the sport\u2019s relationship with technology. Speaking to The Athletic in July, the Tour de France\u2019s chief route designer, Thierry Gouvenou, outlined his belief that equipment needed to be scaled back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed of riders has increased a lot in recent years, precisely because of the equipment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are reaching a very delicate moment, we are at the height of our risk. I think it\u2019s time to reverse the equipment, we have to stop the evolution of material because otherwise we will not be able to use the roads that people use every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to cycling to adapt to the roads, because the roads are not going to adapt to bike racing. I am part of the SafeR group. I am busy finding new rules, but there is a chance that we will have to go to motorbike or car tracks. If that happens, our sport will be dead. So it\u2019s up to us to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, such as Fore, agree that there needs to be technological change. One recent piece of legislation has surrounded banning large gears only used to allow pedalling on downhills \u2014 according to SafeR committee member Brent Copeland, there has been an average speed increase of eight to 10 per cent over recent years. However, there have been complaints from larger riders that this change unfairly targets them, while British rider Tom Pidcock, the sport\u2019s top descender, argued that \u201cit will only make things more dangerous\u2026 if we\u2019re all going at the same top speed, we\u2019ll be closer together\u201d. Component manufacturer SRAM has announced its intention to take the UCI to court over the issue.<\/p>\n

Another change, in enforcing a minimum handlebar size, was intended to limit unsafe aero positions, but multiple members of the women\u2019s peloton have argued that this means this outlaws the only size of handlebars that they properly fit. The UCI has somewhat climbed down this week by announcing a 40mm inner measurement decrease on its original plans \u2014 but it shows the divisions at play in any discussion.<\/p>\n

Many argue that blaming speed only covers up poor course design \u2014 in the past two seasons, multiple high-profile incidents involving Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Mikel Landa have been blamed on unsafe roads, while swerves in the final 300m sprint of the Tour de France\u2019s stage three were condemned by the peloton amidst crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCycling is scarily close to its Ayrton Senna moment, and I hope it doesn\u2019t have it,\u201d Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\u2019s head of engineering Dan Bigham, a former hour world-record holder, told The Athletic in June. \u201cWe are one crash away from a significant star of the sport having a life-changing injury, or worse, and then change will be forced upon us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Crashes are a constant reality in professional cycling (Tom Goyvaerts\/Belga Mag\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to point the finger at speed, but speed is not the issue. It\u2019s predominantly course design, equipment design, and rapid and relevant safety response. At the moment, there are subjective, knee-jerk responses which, if anything, could make us less safe. And that\u2019s the scary thing, there\u2019s a lot to be done, but we\u2019re messing around on the fringes rather than tackling a big core problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this famous advert in Australia,\u201d adds Hansen. \u201cSpeed doesn\u2019t kill, it\u2019s the sudden stop at the end. Yes, speeds are getting faster, but the equipment is also getting better and failing less. What worries me is that there\u2019s been a huge distraction, where attention is taken away from the organisers and put towards the riders and the equipment. I think that\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing at the threshold between livelihoods and lives themselves, rider safety is inherently an emotive issue. Particular difficulties have emerged when attempting to tackle the behaviour of riders themselves. From some riders\u2019 perspective, this criticism from governing bodies is a deflection away from poor planning and legislation on their part. For others, rider behaviour in the peloton is recognised as a contributory factor which needs to be improved.<\/p>\n

The SafeR committee meets to analyse the cause of that week\u2019s crashes on every Monday during the season. According to its latest figures from the 2025 season, analysing over 500 incidents, 27 per cent of crashes were caused by a rider\u2019s own mistake \u2014 by far the highest proportion.<\/p>\n

The flip side, of course, is that 71 per cent of crashes were caused by issues outside the riders\u2019 own control. For example, eight per cent were caused by traffic infrastructure, six per cent by narrow roads, four per cent from bad road conditions and two per cent from vehicles in the race. When some of this data was released in July, both sides had fuel to add to their arguments.<\/p>\n

The 2025 season is the first year that a yellow-card system has been introduced for unsafe riding, with riders banned for repeat offences. In June, Alpecin-Deceuninck\u2019s Oscar Riesebeek received a seven-day suspension, the first cyclist to be punished under the new rules. He accepted this, calling his actions \u201cwrong\u201d and having \u201cput other riders at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oscar Riesebeek served a suspension earlier this year for yellow-card offences \u2013 a new disciplinary system (Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But even the riders do not act as a cohesive body. While several riders on high-profile WorldTour teams \u2014 such as Mathieu van der Poel and Michael Woods \u2014 have called for the size of the peloton to be reduced, riders on smaller teams want to resist these changes to protect their own opportunities.<\/p>\n

It demonstrates how on almost every issue \u2014 radios, trackers, technology, rider numbers \u2014 there are deep divisions between the interested parties.<\/p>\n

SafeR has managed to make some headway over the past 12 months. After commissioning studies, a new form of barrier will be introduced from next year, which will be fully implemented from 2027 onwards. The \u2018three kilometre rule\u2019, which allows riders to drop back during the high-risk conclusion of sprint stages without losing time, has been extended up to five kilometres. Another proposal is particularly futuristic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agreed to fund a mapping of course design, in which a radar system can scan the course and map out automatically where the marshals should be, what padding should be used, what signage,\u201d Hansen agrees. \u201cBecause it\u2019s done by a computer system, it amounts to a standardisation. If something is deemed too dangerous, it\u2019s flagged, and it doesn\u2019t come down to the subjectivity of a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The body has still attracted criticism from some quarters. In theory, SafeR was initially intended to be an independent entity which could overcome those issues \u2014 but there was disappointment amongst some teams that it ended up falling underneath the UCI\u2019s umbrella, which they see as limiting its effectiveness and neutrality.<\/p>\n

There has also been frustration that SafeR pursued a UCI-manufactured tracker rather than an existing product from Velon, a business group made up of the majority of WorldTour teams, which these teams see as both an unnecessary delay and damaging to their own commercial data rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, we look into the wrong things because we are protecting our own interests as stakeholders,\u201d Visma chief Richard Plugge told The Athletic last November. \u201cThat\u2019s not just the organisers, but also teams and riders. When you\u2019re in a political body, the truth is never really on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly the reason why we need an independent body, a real independent body, like, for example, the ITA (anti-doping organisation), where experts dictate what needs to be ruled. It is my strong opinion that we should have the same for safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

His view has been echoed by other team bosses, such as Fore, who says that discussions have already taken place between major teams over potentially funding such a body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as teams have already looked into the idea of an independent organisation which would inspect race circuits to give an independent assessment with suggestions to the race organisers of what can be done to make them safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it isn\u2019t a role that the UCI should be in, because they need to maintain a balance between teams and organisers. It should be in everybody\u2019s interest that there are clear guidelines on how to organise a race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we all put money together and find somebody independent who is interested in that role, that would be a good solution. If some of the things that we have been doing for 100 years need to change, then we need to change them. We need to become a safer sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of ideas but there is a shortage of consensus. Steps are being made, haltingly and contentiously. Counter-intuitively, by ridding themselves of personal responsibility, and all the biases and interests that come with it, cycling\u2019s stakeholders have the power to make further improvements.<\/p>\n

But over recent seasons, there has still been an average of two deaths per year in the professional ranks. Change cannot come quickly enough.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Marco Bertrello, Getty Images, Dario Belingheri, Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year ago, on September 27 2024, Swiss junior cyclist Muriel Furrer died after an accident at her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,6869,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-456474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-global-sports","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115278768995870458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}