Jonathan Vaughters, manager of the EF Education Easy Post team that is racing in this year’s Tour de France, is the latest high-profile figure within cycling to advocate the use of safety netting on mountain descents.
The call for increased safety precautions comes less than a fortnight after Gino Mäder, of the Bahrain Victorious team, died after going over the edge during a high-speed mountain descent in June’s Tour of Switzerland.
“In the rare situation in which somebody goes over the edge, having a small amount of netting there could save lives,” said Vaughters, who started four Tours de France and grew up racing in the mountains of Colorado. “Safety is a very difficult topic in cycling. I saw a lot of suggestions from people about limiting speed on descents and that doing that would make it safer.”
But Vaughters argued that speed limits would rob the sport of one of its key skills. “Then we are creating races that are really only about uphills,” the American said. “That sterilises the sport. The fact of the matter is that going down descents fast is a skill — and it’s a skill that wins races.
“It’s a skill that is very dangerous, not only for the rider that’s trying to win the race, but also for the riders that are following him. But what could be realistic is putting up some downhill ski racing-style netting on certain corners that have direct drop-offs.”
Vaughters acknowledged that installing netting on every descent was impractical but said that while netting would not stop crashes, strategically placed, it might save lives. “A lot of the worst and fatal crashes often involve going off the edge,” he said. “A few hundred metres of netting won’t prevent the crash, but it might prevent the fatality.”
Meanwhile, Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Emirates team manager, Mauro Gianetti, has confirmed that Britain’s Adam Yates will start the Tour, which commences in Bilbao in Saturday, as co-leader with the two-time champion due to Pogacar’s restricted build-up after a wrist injury.
“Yates won’t just be here to support Tadej,” Gianetti said. “He will be our co-leader. Pogacar has had five weeks off the road due to his wrist injury. There are no miracles in cycling: you have to do the kilometres, the volume of training.
“Yes, Tadej won the Slovenian national title last weekend but that doesn’t mean he’s 100 per cent ready for the Tour start on Saturday.”
For his part Pogacar, who finished second overall to Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard at last year’s Tour, believes he starts this year’s event free of pressure. “This year I have nothing to lose,” said the two-time champion.
Peter Sagan, the former world road race champion and seven-time winner of the Tour’s points classification, has received a suspended sentence for drink-driving in Monaco. The Slovakian will still be on the start line in Bilbao but has said that this will be his final Tour de France.
