The death that has shaken cycling and opens the debate on safety

BarcelonaThe cycling Tour of Spain started this Saturday with a time trial in Monaco, won by Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates), a five-time Tour winner. Pogacar dominated the 9.4 km individual time trial held in his city of residence with a time of 10.57 minutes, averaging 50.4 km/hour. Second place went to Briton Ethan Hayter (Soudal), and third to the day's main protagonist, Welshman Joshua Tarling (Netcompany Ineos), 4 seconds behind. Riders from all teams wanted to show their affection for Tarling, who decided to participate in the race despite the death of his younger brother Finlay last Friday in the Tour of Portugal. Ineos had given Josh permission not to participate as planned, but after Finlay's funeral, the older brother decided to be at the race which will end in Granada on September 13th.

Geraint Thomas, the team director, explained that Josh will have psychological support throughout the Vuelta. "He wants to return to his routine. He's a tough guy; he traveled to Portugal, then to Wales. But at all times he maintained the desire to race the Vuelta. It wasn't a decision taken lightly, by him or the team. But he always made it clear that he wanted to be with us," he explained.

Finlay Tarling, a rider for the NSN feeder team, the Barcelona-based team where Andrés Iniesta is one of the investors, died during the eighth stage of the Volta a Portugal after being hit by a vehicle traveling against traffic within the race route. A death that has caused a great impact within professional cycling and has reopened debates about race safety. Tarling had fallen behind the main group in that tragic stage and in a downhill section, and was going at high speed to make up time when he encountered a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. The impact was terrible. Initially, the driver was blamed, but investigations by the Portuguese police, which are still ongoing, indicate that he was waiting for traffic to reopen, when he asked the officials if he could pass. And they, who had seen many cyclists pass, assumed that they had all already passed.

The Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA) published a statement in which they affirmed "being speechless and full of rage. It is not fair that the life of a young athlete ends like this and we are furious that it is still not possible to avoid such serious accidents". "When the breakaway or the main group passes, sometimes drivers think that this is the whole race. But in reality there are riders behind and in some stages the difference can be 45 minutes", explained Adam Hansen, president of the CPA, in statements to BBC Sport. The riders have long been calling for improved safety, as it is not the first time that a dropped cyclist has been hit by a vehicle entering the course when at a crossroads someone believes that all riders have already passed, as happened to Max Schachmann in the 2020 Giro di Lombardia. With long stages in urban areas, closing off dozens and dozens of paths and roads is a real challenge and many times mistakes occur like the one that caused Finlay's death. The CPA also calls for improved helmets, as the speed of the riders continues to grow, which causes impacts to be stronger.