'It's enough of the talk, we have to make the action'- Hushovd on cycling's safety problem

Thor Hushovd says cycling has spent long enough talking about rider safety and now has to act on it, with the burden falling on everyone in the sport rather than any single party.

The Uno-X Mobility general manager, who raced for sixteen years and scored huge victories, including the world title in Australia and famous Tour de France stage wins, describes the responsibility of running a team with fifty riders under contract as something that changes how he looks at a road.

"We all know that cycling is a dangerous sport. Today, when I go down a hill, because I'm getting older and I have fifty riders on a contract, I think, because that's the worst phone call you can ever get," Hushovd said on the Domestique Hotseat podcast. 

"I look at all the things on the road. Road furniture, trees, cars, traffic islands, houses. Every ten metres there's something where you can hurt yourself very badly."

The reminders of cycling being a dangerous sport have been stark, as in recent years the sport has seen the lives of several riders cut tragically short, including Muriel Furrer at the 2024 World Championships in Zürich, where she remained undiscovered for more than an hour after her crash, and Finlay Tarling, who died after a vehicle entered onto the course at the Volta a Portugal in August.

There are sports that cycling can learn from, and Hushovd makes the comparison with alpine skiing, which in itself can see athletes face similar conditions to those in cycling, however, alpine skiing is better protected due to its closed nature with it simply 'impossible' to protect every inch of a cycling route.

"If there's a dangerous corner, you have A and B nets, so you have more nets due to safety. In a road race it's impossible, because you have 200 kilometres and two sides of the road, so that's 400 kilometres."

At the end of the day, it's the economics of cycling races that are the obstacle. Organisers cannot make every kilometre safe without cost, and pushing them too hard risks losing them, with races below the WorldTour facing constrained budgets. But it's not only that; riders themselves also play a part, sometimes taking huge risks, as the Norwegian says. 

"Many of the crashes are not because of the organiser or the UCI, but due to riders taking risks. We have to explain, or monitor, or guide the riders to take less risks. To find a perfect balance is difficult, but it's something we have to work at, because unfortunately we have had too many incidents over the last few years."

Hushovd is very clear about what he considers unacceptable safety levels in races, with several near-misses happening often and tragic deaths; more must be done before it's too late and that has led to riders' families calling up Hushovd to receive reassurances.

"We see races where you have traffic inside the peloton, inside the race, and that's not acceptable," he said. "I've had phone calls from parents on my team. Are you sure what you're doing here with your riders is healthy and safe? These phone calls are not easy to take, and I understand the parents. That's before something bad happens. When it's too late, it's too late."

Sanctions are applied to teams or riders if they are perceived by the race jury to have completed an action that was deemed dangerous or unsafe; Hushovd thinks that the same could be applied to race organisers if they have failed to ensure race safety.

"If we do a mistake as a rider or a team, we get fines or warnings or suddenly a red card. Maybe it should be the same for the organisers," he said. "If we make these steps, we have to be 100 per cent sure that the race we race on is safe. Because if we come around a corner and there is a car on the road, there's not much to do."

There are now, however, steps being taken in the right direction. The UCI Management Committee approved new barrier standards for the final 200 metres of WorldTour and Women's WorldTour races from 2027 at its meeting in Montréal last week, and stressed the need to deploy GPS tracking of riders and vehicles at professional road events, though without setting a timeline. Hushovd welcomes the direction while wishing it moved faster.

"We're moving in the right direction, and on some topics we move too slow, but at least everybody is aware that something has to be done," he said. "You cannot change the rules suddenly, apparently. So we also have to understand that things take time, and when you first do something, we have to do it correctly and properly."

Listen to the full Hotseat episode with Thor 👇