'90% of races are not making money' - Former pro Fabian Wegmann warns the costs of improving race safety could see races disappear

Former pro rider turned organiser Fabian Wegmann has joined the debate about race safety, warning that higher safety standards and increased costs could lead to races disappearing.

"You can create standards, and the races have to listen to that standard. But, and now I’m talking from the eyes of the organiser, it’s fucking expensive, right?" Wegmann told Road.cc in their latest podcast.

"90% of races are not making money. If you put the standard that high then you’ll have no races anymore. That doesn't work."   

Wegmann was a pro for 15 years and is involved with the organisation of the Deutschland Tour with Tour de France organiser ASO and organises the Münsterland Giro race.

Riders highlighted the need for better race safety by organising a protest before the start of the recent Il Lombardia. A few days before at the Tre Valli Varesine race, a police motorcyclist reportedly travelled against the direction of the race, causing the Pinarello-Q36.5 riders to crash.

The tragic death of Finlay Tarling at the Volta a Portugal in August, especially raised riders' fears.

"We cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured and are literally dying while doing what we like the most," Remco Evenepoel said during the Il Lombardia protest.  

Wegmann spoke after Road.cc had also interviewed Tour de France route designer and official Safety Manager Thierry Gouvenou.

“No race organiser can ever guarantee that an incident will not occur during their event. The true nature of cycling is that it takes place in an open environment, not within a stadium,” Gouvenou suggested.

"We invest a significant amount of money into safety, yet maintaining the financial balance of these events remains extremely difficult. After all, you cannot station a police officer in front of every single house or on every corner. People, humanity in general, are becoming less and less respectful of the rules."

The Tour de France has fully closed roads, with thousands of French police stationed along the road to stop traffic entering the route. That is simply not possible in other nations and at smaller races.

"In the past at the Deutschland Tour, we had 40 police motorbikes, and now we have maybe 20. It’s getting less and less because the police said ‘it’s not their job to make races safe,'" Wegmann explained.

"At the Tour de France, they have 30,000 policemen working on the event. If you have to pay them, it will never work.

"In every country it’s different. Even if the UCI said ‘we need it, want it like this’, the countries are the owners of the streets."

“It’s also a question of cost. One of the races I do is Munsterland Giro and we have 1200 people standing there, and they all get money for it. So you can imagine how expensive it is to secure a race."

As a former pro, Wegmann understands the riders and called on everyone in the sport to learn from any safety problems.

"From every crash we have to learn. We all make mistakes, but we have to learn from these mistakes and get better. Some things we can never change," he said.

"For me, as an organiser of a race, I always want to have a race where I think I did everything I could to make it safe."