Michael Woods has argued that riders should wear more safety equipment in pro road races as part of a four-part plan to improve rider safety.
Writing on his blog, the Israel-Premier Tech rider says: “Just look at the elbows, knees, hips, and hands of every rider in this peloton.
“It’s clear that it’s foolish that the governing body of this sport has not already forced us to wear protective gear.”
The comments come after a crash-marred start to the 2025 Tour de France, which saw green jersey holder Jasper Philipsen crash out in a chaotic sprint at the end of stage 3.
Woods explains that, in the pre-race presentation to riders, one of the heads of the ASO (the organiser of the Tour de France) said that riders were to blame for crashes, and that they would be “forced” to wear protective equipment in races.
This, Woods claims, is a significant misunderstanding of what riders want: “When the green jersey crashes out of the race, and you see what I have seen the past few days, it is hard to push it out of your mind.”
“If you dropped anyone outside the pro peloton… they would think, ‘why the hell am I not wearing hockey equipment right now?’,” he argues.
Woods reiterated his view in an interview with ITV before the start of today’s stage: “Look at the bodies of all the riders – we're all scarred up, it's silly. I'd love to wear [safety] equipment.”
While XC mountain bike racers are as scantily clad as a typical roadie, knee pads, full-face helmets and – depending on rider preference – other forms of protective equipment are commonplace in enduro and downhill racing.
“Garmins are a distraction”
Outside of protective equipment, Woods argues that reducing the speed and size of the peloton, a rethink of the relegation system, and decreasing distractions for riders are key steps in improving rider safety.
On the final point, he singles out bike computers and race radios as key issues: “One only needs to watch a race to see how often we are looking down at [our computers]... If you removed these distractions, I believe you would place far more emphasis on experience and create a much safer environment.”
Speaking to ITV, he added: “You wouldn't do that when you're driving down the street… so why are we doing it?”
This is a view held by Groupama-FDJ general manager Marc Madiot, who said in a recent interview that banning race radios, power meters, and bike computers would improve race safety.
There’s no question the Tour de France is getting faster. This has led some riders, including Chris Froome and Wout van Aert, to call for gear restrictions, although the likes of Dan Bigham argue it won’t make a difference.
Regardless, the UCI is pressing on with a ban on big gears, which could significantly impact SRAM-sponsored riders.
For his part, Woods says of Bigham’s argument that reducing gear size won’t improve safety – more to follow on this – that he “agrees with him”, saying that other measures would have a greater impact.
