Professional rider safety has been a huge topic of discussion in recent years, with countless stakeholders and commenters having their say on where they believe the problems lie.
Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, said in late 2024 that he believed pro riders are simply “going too fast”.
Likewise, the sport’s governing body (the UCI) has sought to implement numerous regulatory changes that attempt to improve race course design and clamp down on technical innovations, such as banning the use of time trial helmets and ultra-narrow handlebars in road races.
Two interest groups we hear from less frequently on this subject, though, are the riders themselves and their sports directors (often former pros themselves).
Given this, and the fact BikeRadar’s roving reporter, Ashley Quinlan, is on the ground at the 2026 Santos Tour Down Under, we had a simple question for them – what’s the one thing they’d change to improve rider safety?
George Bennett (NSN Cycling Team): “It all comes down to the roads we race on”
GB: If I was to outline one thing, it's always just course recon.
Obviously, you can blame riders for a few crashes, but I think a lot of the time you just get ridiculous courses, and changing gear ratios, and this and that, that’s not going to help.
So yeah, it all comes down to the roads we race on, and there's a reason that you always crash on some races and other races are safer.
AQ: Is that to do with road furniture?
GB: Yeah, road furniture, but often surprising corners – you know, corners that suddenly tighten up – or narrowings, I would say, is a big one.
Narrowings cause more crashes than anything, especially on high-speed roads, when you go from two lanes to one. It's that fight in the first 50 [riders to] get through, everyone brakes, and then the last guy just doesn't brake in time and you're caught in the effects.
In my experience, that’s been the biggest cause of crashes and no amount of worrying about aero tucking and handlebar width and all that [is going to change things].
I think that’s a bit of a red herring, going away from the thing that’s actually causing a lot of the crashes.
Jack Haig (Ineos Grenadiers): “A lot of the time, we arrive to the race and then an issue arises just before the start of the stage”
JH: [There should be] more attention put on courses before we arrive at the race.
A lot of the time, we arrive at the race and then an issue arises just before the start of the stage, for example.
Or it's something that happened in hindsight, where we do a stage and you look back [and think] that was a bit silly.
Whereas I think if there's a bit more time and effort put into reviewing the courses, this could be quite useful in the future.
AQ: And how might that manifest itself? Better briefings on the teams' side or more information from race organisers?
JH: There are certain rules that are in place from the UCI, about corners and sprint finishes and stuff like this, and sometimes those rules aren’t adhered to.
And then everyone sort of kicks off about it just as everyone's looking at VeloViewer [a race course analysis tool used by many WorldTour teams] two days before the race, for example.
Whereas if someone goes back and reviews it, they might say, “There’s a corner here, it’s against UCI rules, can you please change this months in advance?”.
Jake Stewart (NSN Cycling Team): “When you're on the limit and not thinking straight, some guys take more risks than others”
JS: The main thing that it comes down to more than anything is barriers [in sprint finishes].
Now, with the new UCI rules, they require the barriers without feet and stuff like that, and I think that’s been the biggest safety improvement in terms of sprinting in the finals.
But, as we all know, it’s a dangerous sport, and when you’re on the limit and not thinking straight, some guys take more risks than others.
Also, accidents happen. We have to be aware that it is just part of the sport and we can’t do everything to mitigate the risks.
AQ: Is there one thing in particular that could be done?
JS: I think the UCI is doing everything they can do in sprints to minimise the risk and minimise accidents.
Obviously, a big part of it is course planning, and making sure that the finish lines are suitable for 140 guys coming in at 60kph.
James Knox (Team Picnic PostNL): “The riders have got to step up sometimes and start looking at themselves”
JK: It would be very hard to put in place, but realistically, where we're at now with the equipment, it would probably be like standardised [bikes and kit] or something to make us go slower, but it would be pretty hard to come to an agreement to use a deliberately slow tyre or something like that.
Otherwise, I think the riders have got to step up and start looking at themselves, alongside route organisers and planners.
But there are so many working parts and different parties to make things happen that it's never going to be an easy discussion.
Jussi Veikkanen (directeur sportif at Groupama-FDJ United): “If there's only one thing to choose, it would be the respect between each rider”
JK: It’s not an easy question, of course.
If there’s only one thing to choose, it would be the respect between each rider – that they don’t take so many risks.
The speed [of races] is getting higher, that’s for sure, and there’s a lot to win.
But on the other hand, the riders need to take care of themselves and others as well, and I think that’s the first thing to think about.
AQ: What’s the attitude of the peloton to some of the things that have been tried or proposed, like gearing restrictions?
JK: Well, the gearing restriction, we didn’t have to do it at the Tour of Guangxi in the end, so there was a lot of discussion about it, but in the end, nobody knows. Personally, I don’t think that would have been the key for security.
There’s been a lot of discussion about race safety and things, and what is good is that the [race] organisers are making a lot of effort to bring safer roads, safer finishes, with better barriers and things like that.
That’s already the first step to take.
Matthew Brennan (Team Visma | Lease a Bike): “Increase drag – that’s how you do it”
MB: Increasing drag. That’s how maths works, I think.
I saw Dan Bigham [head of engineering at team Red Bull – Bora – hansgrohe] do something on this and I completely agree – the only way to slow down something is to increase drag, not limit something.
So yeah, with the wider bars, I agree. Maybe not for the women, I think that doesn’t work, but with the men, I think that’s one step closer to slowing us down.
I rode the aero helmets last year – I think that’s a nice step to try to slow us down.
So there are measures being put in place, but I still think you can do a lot more.
What you do, I don’t know. That’s not up to me! But yeah, increase drag – that’s how you do it.
Matt White (co-head of the racing department at Movistar Team): “Sometimes you wonder how these courses have been passed”
MW: Good checking of course design. It’s important and sometimes you wonder how these courses have been passed [by the UCI].
That’s the biggest worry, because you can do a lot with the course.
I get it, cycling is a technical sport, but there’s certainly some aspects you can avoid or definitely make improvements in.
AQ: What sort of aspects are we talking about here? Road furniture?
MW: Road furniture, which I know is a difficult one, because every year there’s more road furniture in all towns – especially more in Northern Europe.
Every single town has bike paths, roundabouts, road furniture that wasn’t there maybe 10 or 15 years ago, which makes it harder for the organisations.
But, you know, at the end of the day it’s people’s lives, isn’t it?
