The SafeR-SafeRoadcycling venture that goals to enhance security in males’s and girls’s races is in turmoil after the stakeholders {of professional} biking voted to oust Chief Executive Officer Jaap Van Hulten lower than a 12 months after he was chosen for the place.
SafeR is managed and funded by the completely different stakeholders within the sport: the UCI, the AIOCC race organisers group, the AIGCP groups affiliation, the UNIO ladies’s workforce affiliation and the lads’s and girls’s CPA riders affiliation.
After the latest high-profile crashes at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Itzulia Basque Country and elsewhere, UCI President David Lappartient instructed Cyclingnews that “security is clearly crucial matter for the game in the meanwhile.”
Lappartient mentioned that 38 WorldTour riders have been out of motion as a consequence of severe crashes.
These embody Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, who suffered a fractured collarbone, ribs and a pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax. His Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wout Van Aert fractured his sternum, collarbone and ribs, whereas Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) fractured his collarbone and so will miss the Ardennes Classics, together with Liège-Bastogne-Liège that he gained in 2022 and 2023.
“Crashes wreck our sport,” Visma-Lease a Bike workforce supervisor Richard Plugge instructed Cyclingnews final week.
“There’s been an urgency about security for years, however what number of wake-up calls do we want?”
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The improve within the variety of severe crashes and accidents has sparked enormous concern and debate concerning the causes for crashes and damage, with some blaming excessive speeds, highway furnishings, gear similar to disc brakes, and fewer respect amongst riders.
“50% of crashes are as a consequence of rider behaviour, with 50% as a consequence of different elements, similar to obstacles that aren’t signalled or the pace of the peloton,” Lappartient mentioned, apparently citing knowledge from a examine of crashes by consultants at Ghent University.
“I’m not right here to say it is all their fault; it might simply be a short second of inattention. That’s why we need to introduce a precept of yellow and purple playing cards, like in soccer, in order that harmful behaviour is best punished.”
Race organisers and native authorities are, in idea, legally chargeable for race security, however it’s just about not possible to completely defend the riders throughout a whole bunch of kilometres of race routes.
SafeR is meant to start the complicated job of enhancing security however continues to be not operative.
Van Hulten had given up his function as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on the Visma-Lease a Bike workforce to take the function of CEO at SafeR after taking part in a big half in creating the semi-independent physique. SafeR was introduced earlier than the 3023 Tour de France however was solely anticipated to be operative for the 2025 season.
Cyclingnews understands that a number of stakeholders have been not glad with the work completed by Van Hulten as he divided his time between SafeR and Visma-Lease a Bike till he labored for SafeR full time from May 1.
A better profile and a extra unbiased determine was deemed essential for the function, particularly with plans to introduce purple and yellow playing cards to punish riders and a variety of different necessary however maybe controversial security guidelines.
Van Hulten was obliged to step down throughout a heated SafeR Supervisory Committee assembly final Thursday, attended by representatives of all the game’s stakeholders.
“The UCI confirms that at its assembly on 11 April, the Supervisory Committee of SafeR took the choice, unanimously agreed by all of the households represented (AIOCC, AIGCP, UNIO, CPA, CPA Women and the UCI) to reorganise the organisation’s administration,” the UCI instructed Cyclingnews vis a press release.
“As a end result, Jaap Van Hulten will likely be stepping down from the place of CEO of SafeR that he has held since February. This determination was made after it turned clear that the work carried out up to now has not lived as much as the goals set, significantly in a context by which too many accidents have occurred.
“The recruitment of a brand new individual on the head of SafeR will start within the coming days. In the meantime, all of the households will proceed to collaborate carefully and in a coordinated method on all issues referring to security. The UCI and all of the biking households want to reaffirm that the security of riders stays their absolute precedence.”
Cyclingnews has contacted Visma-Lease a Bike for a response from Jaap Van Hulten.