The Professional Riders Association (CPA) has called on the UCI to introduce a new regulation that will ensure crash barriers are in place for all road races in their final three kilometres.
The CPA's request has emerged during the aftermath of Stephen Kruijswijk's and crash and abandon from the Vuelta a España on stage 5 when the LottoNL-Jumbo rider collided with an unmarked bollard, with Sebastian Minard (AG2R La Mondiale) and Robert Kiserlovski (Tinkoff) also quitting from injuries from crashes late in the same day.
CPA council member and Australian riders' representative Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), who is racing the Vuelta a España, told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 6, "If the organisers can't afford so many barriers, that means they can't afford to look after rider safety, and they shouldn't be organising a race."
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According to Hansen, introducing more barriers could reduce the chance of events like Kruiswijk's crash, which resulted in a broken collarbone. Furthermore, he believes the infamous 2016 Tour de France incident on the Mont Ventoux - where Chris Froome (Team Sky), Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) were involved in a pile up that ended with Froome bikeless and running up the slopes - could be avoided in the future, too.
"It [the bollard that caused Kruiswijk's crash] was not pointed out and everything should be. [But] the CPA is trying to enforce a new security regulation, which we're trying to get past the UCI."
"It's a bit like on the Ventoux, they had barriers there in the final 300 metres, so what the CPA is trying to do is change the UCI rules so the barriers are for the last three kilometres because that's where it gets messy."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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