Richard Plugge, the manager of the former Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard, has criticised cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for a lack of action following the death of Fin Tarling 10 days ago and said that cycling’s leading teams should take responsibility for ensuring safety in races. The lack of anger about what has happened is very disappointing to me.” Tarling was killed during the Volta a Portugal when he was descending mid-race in pursuit of the peloton and collided with a non-race vehicle coming towards him on the race route, despite the road closure. That a car is suddenly driving on the track in the opposite direction?
This actually does happen in a cycling race. We need to skip everything after the ‘but’. This simply cannot happen.” Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of the EF Education Easy Post team, has also called for a reduction in the number of races on the professional racing calendar.
We don’t need 600 days of racing. Other sports do now want to spread themselves so thin. How about consolidating resources and having 100 days or racing all of which are safe?” While a formal investigation into Tarling’s death is now under way, neither the UCI nor the Portugese Cycling Federation (FPC) have been willing to comment any further, particularly on media statements made by the Portugese police (GNR) which confirmed that Tarling had been isolated and racing without a police escort.
Rolling road closures were highlighted again last week when the Australian rider Maeve Plouffe said that she had nearly been hit by a car while racing in the Tour of Britain Women. The organisers just think if nothing happened, it was fine.” Plugge argued that the serial failures to prioritise athlete safety meant that changes to the structure of many races had now become inevitable. The riders must be certain that they can race on a safe course.”
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