The heads of the Giro, Vuelta, and Tour get serious about safety. © Getty Images

The three major stage races in world cycling, Giro, Tour, and Vuelta – Mauro Vegni, Christian Prudhomme, and Javier Guillén came together at an event held in Burgos (Spain), as part of a congress of the International Association of Cycling Race Organizers, and the most important topic of the day was safety.

The aim is to increase safety measures in competitions among the three, with the International Cycling Union as a common denominator, to prevent accidents. The three agreed that the most important thing is to anticipate and establish a framework of rules that can prevent incidents that occur as a result of the competition, and sometimes have fatal consequences. The ordinary assembly was also held during the event. This was the first time the congress was held in Spain.

 Team DSM - Firmenich's French rider Romain Bardet receives medical attention. © Getty Images
Team DSM - Firmenich's French rider Romain Bardet receives medical attention. © Getty Images

Among the issues discussed in the meeting was changing the sanction system to better deter potential offenders. Currently, financial fines are common, but the leaders want to extend these measures to the sporting realm, allowing cyclists, as well as drivers and individuals involved in each race and competition, to be sanctioned without being able to participate in certain subsequent competitions. It would be something similar to red and yellow cards in football; with one of them, a warning of the sanction could be issued, and with repetition, a fine would follow. 

All this alternative and preventive surveillance could be entrusted to independent judges who would oversee the work of the organizers, the drivers of the cars participating in the peloton, and the cyclists themselves under a code of conduct that is under consideration and will take shape in successive meetings.