UCI takes next step towards GPS rider tracking in professional cycling

Rider safety was a major focus of the Professional Cycling Council meeting in Aigle on September 1 and 2.

The meeting opened with a tribute to British rider Finlay Tarling, who died at the age of 19 following a collision with a van during stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal on August 14. UCI President David Lappartient, PCC President Tom Van Damme and the council's members paid tribute to Tarling before discussions turned to rider safety.

The UCI said there is an urgent need to introduce a dedicated system capable of tracking the real time location of riders and race vehicles at professional road events, starting with the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour.

The governing body will now establish protocols and a regulatory framework for the use of such systems.

The announcement represents the latest step in a process that Domestique first reported on in March.

In a letter dated March 13 and obtained by Domestique, Lappartient asked the AIGCP, AIOCC and CPA, representing teams, organisers and riders, to work towards the adoption of GPS based rider safety tracking.

“It will need to become mandatory and phased in across event classes,” Lappartient wrote at the time.

Stakeholders were asked to submit proposals covering hardware, software and operational requirements by April 30.

The UCI also made clear in that letter that it did not intend to impose a specific supplier. Instead, teams, organisers and riders would remain free to work with providers of their choice within the technical framework eventually defined by the governing body.

The latest UCI statement says that no joint proposal from the different stakeholder groups was available at the PCC meeting. It does not specify when wider implementation could begin or which technology would ultimately be used.

Tracking systems are already being used at selected races.

Velon, which is owned by a group of WorldTour teams, has developed its SAVE safety system which uses live rider location data from trackers fitted under saddles.

The dedicated safety platform debuted at the 2025 Tour de Suisse and since then has been used by all men’s and women’s WorldTour teams and Pro and Continental teams in races including the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-Sanremo, the Giro d’Italia, Tour de Suisse and most recently, the Tour of Britain.

The UCI, meanwhile, deployed a separate tracking system across all categories at the 2025 Road World Championships in Kigali. The governing body says it will use rider tracking again at the 2026 Road World Championships in Montréal and at future editions of the event.

The wider discussion around rider tracking has included questions about safety, data, commercial rights and team autonomy. A UCI tracking test at the 2025 Tour de Romandie Féminin also became the subject of a dispute between the governing body and several teams over the conditions of the trial.

Following the latest PCC meeting, Lappartient reiterated that stakeholders should work together on rider safety and said safety must never be sacrificed for commercial interests.

The PCC also backed new standards for barriers used in the final hundreds of metres of races.

Subject to approval by the UCI Management Committee, those requirements would be introduced progressively from the 2027 season, starting with UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour events before being extended to other race categories.

The proposals discussed by the PCC will be submitted to the UCI Management Committee when it meets in Montréal from September 20 to 22.