'We cannot keep accepting that riders are dying' - Evenepoel leads safety protest ahead of Il Lombardia

The peloton delayed the start of Il Lombardia by five minutes on Saturday morning to protest the UCI and race organisers’ failure to improve safety standards in the months since the tragic death of Finlay Tarling on the Volta a Portugal in August.

Tarling was killed when he was struck by a motorist who entered the course on stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal. He was 19 years old.

This week, two races in Italy have been blighted by incidents involving vehicles encroaching on the course. At the Coppa Bernocchi, a DHL delivery van turned onto the route from a side street and spent some time driving behind the breakaway before pulling over.

At Tre Valli Varesine, Pinarello-Q36.5 riders Marcel Camprubì and Thomas Gloag crashed after they were reportedly struck by a police motorcyclist who was travelling against the direction of the race.

In Bergamo on Saturday morning, the peloton mounted a protest on the start line of Il Lombardia, pausing for five minutes to pay tribute to those who have been involved in crashes and to lobby for an immediate improvement in safety standards.

World champion Brandon McNulty, European champion Remco Evenepoel and the other national champions in the peloton stood in the front row for the protest, holding discussions with RCS Sport’s general director of cycling Luca Guercilena.

Evenepoel acted as the spokesperson for the protest, and he took the microphone to explain their action.

“In the name of the whole bunch and not only for the guys that are here but for everybody pro cycling, we want to make this statement because there’s too many incidents happening with vehicles in the race,” Evenepoel said.

“Unfortunately, we lost the life of a brother and of a colleague of us, so we want to make this statement to just show to the whole world that we cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured and are literally dying while doing what we like the most. 

“This is why we want to stand for five minutes more, to make our statement towards organisations, to the public, to everybody that is following cycling and accepting the fact that people are dying. This is why we stand still and we want to pay our tribute and respect to everybody that was already involved in the incidents.

“To the organisers who will organise races in the future, please make sure that we can race safely and that we can just do what we like to do without being worried about cars, motorbikes, all that stuff coming into the course.”

Evenepoel’s words were greeted by warm applause from the spectators on the start line, and the peloton set off after a pause of five minutes to tackle Il Lombardia.

Domestique understands that the protest was organised on the initiative of the riders themselves rather than under the auspices of the CPA, though union president Adam Hansen took to social media to post a statement that had also been published by a number of riders, including Tom Pidcock.

“We did not want to affect the race, only to show what riders can do when we stand as one. We love this sport,” concluded the statement. “We respect the race organisers. We want to race hard and put on a show for our fans. However, most importantly, we want to come home safe to our loved ones.”