{"id":531100,"date":"2026-03-10T13:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531100\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:22:08","slug":"vingegaard-doubles-down-on-safety-concerns-as-paris-nice-organisers-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531100\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard doubles down on safety concerns, as Paris\u2013Nice organisers respond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Safety remains one of the biggest talking points in professional cycling. The sport keeps getting faster, while many riders feel the roads are not getting any safer. Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> raised the issue after the chaotic opening stage of Paris\u2013Nice, where he was highly critical of the course. After stage 2, the Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a> leader returned to the subject once again, while race organiser ASO also felt compelled to respond. A frustrated Vingegaard had already voiced <\/a>his concerns after stage 1. Speaking after his season opener, he said the route was not up to WorldTour standard. \u201cI didn\u2019t think today\u2019s course was very good,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was suitable for a WorldTour race. Bad roads, constantly turning left and right, holes in the road surface. Especially the last descent, which we rode three times, was not good enough for a WorldTour race.\u201d Those remarks were also reflected in IDL Procycling\u2019s earlier coverage of the stage.After the second stage, Vingegaard appeared slightly calmer, but he made clear that speaking up still matters. In comments carried by TuttoBiciWeb<\/a>, he said: \u201cSometimes it\u2019s like banging your head against a wall. But somehow I feel responsible for improving things in cycling. If we don\u2019t say anything, nothing will happen. I want to be the leader of the peloton not only for my results but also for safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the picture<\/p>\n

In recent years, rider safety has become an increasingly urgent issue in the peloton. Riders and teams have repeatedly sounded the alarm after a number of major crashes, including several with fatal consequences. The deaths of Gino M\u00e4der, Muriel Furrer and Andr\u00e9 Drege have all intensified the debate around how races are organised and how the sport should better protect its riders.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard also stressed that responsibility does not lie with organisers alone. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of reciprocity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that we riders also have a huge responsibility, but that also applies to the organisers. We cannot just point the finger at others. Yesterday too, there was a lot of discussion in the peloton about how people behave. In general, we need to show more mutual respect in the bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s words inevitably carried weight. ASO, the organiser of Paris\u2013Nice, gave a brief response to the criticism. \u201cWe work closely with the CPA, with the three rider representatives appointed by the CPA for Paris\u2013Nice and with the commission members, and we have not received any negative feedback,\u201d the organisation said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Safety remains one of the biggest talking points in professional cycling. The sport keeps getting faster, while many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,188598,85,23372],"class_list":["post-531100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-paris-nice","tag-sports","tag-visma-lease-a-bike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}