Lidl-Trek manager calls for cycling airbags amid rising crash numbers

Guercilena believes the sport will only move forward when it starts treating safety as a scientific problem instead of an emotional one. The first step, he argues, is accepting that crashes are unavoidable. 

Crashes will always happen. They are part of our sport,” he told bici.pro. “I would invest in technology to create an airbag in the helmet or jersey that saves your head and spine when you hit the ground.”

For him, the real danger is that performance keeps rising while the parcours do not improve. Barriers, islands and roadside objects have not evolved at the same speed as equipment. 

“Speed is inherent to performance technology,” he says. “If you limit one material, research and development will simply develop another that is faster.” In other words, restricting gears as proposed to be tested by the UCI is a short-term illusion. Protection needs to be upgraded, not engines turned down.

Guercilena also sees a cultural shift inside the peloton. With younger riders entering the WorldTour straight from junior categories, the balance between talent and judgement is not always there. 

“The bravado of an eighteen-year-old clashes with the maturity of older riders,” he says. “At some point you can brake, but not everyone recognises that moment.”

Inside Lidl-Trek, he has already changed the message. “Between losing you for three months and finishing second, go for second,” he tells his leaders. “If you need to risk something to win, fine. But crashing in a corner seventy kilometres from the finish makes no sense.” 

For him, the rider’s long-term value outweighs any single result.

What frustrates him most is the absence of real data. The sport talks endlessly about crashes, yet has no long-term statistics that explain where or why they happen. 

“Opinions cannot give solutions,” he says. “We need scientific analysis.” Early data collected by team doctors suggests that the number of fractures has not increased. What has changed is the number of riders involved in each fall. “Everyone is fitter, the peloton is tighter, and when someone goes down, everyone goes down.”

This, he argues, is exactly why cycling must rethink protection rather than speed. He compares it to the evolution of motorsport, where safety jumped forward not by slowing cars but by innovating helmets, suits and barriers. “The starting point should be identifying what truly protects you, then addressing everything else,” he says.

For Guercilena, airbags are not a gimmick but a logical next step. And in a sport where the peloton keeps getting faster and crashes keep getting bigger, he believes the question is no longer whether cycling can afford such innovation, but whether it can afford to wait.