{"id":940791,"date":"2026-10-25T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940791\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T20:58:09","slug":"youll-have-no-races-anymore-deutschland-tour-director-warns-organisers-cannot-afford-tougher-safety-rules-after-rider-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940791\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019ll have no races anymore\u201d \u2013 Deutschland Tour director warns organisers cannot afford tougher safety rules after rider protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Riders protest \ud83e\udea7 Il Lombardia begins with riders taking a stand over safety concerns following incidents throughout the season \ud83d\udeb4 https:\/\/t.co\/T3imCRCZe8<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) October 10, 2026<\/a>
\nFrom 40 police motorbikes to \u201cmaybe 20\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past at the Deutschland Tour, we had 40 police motorbikes, and now we have maybe 20,\u201d Wegmann said, without specifying when the reduction occurred. \u201cIt\u2019s getting less and less because the police said \u2018it\u2019s not our job to save races\u2019. It\u2019s their job to be there if something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wegmann also works on the Munsterland Giro, where he says 1,200 people are paid to help secure the event. \u201cSo you can imagine how expensive it is to secure a race, and 100% we need a standard for the races. But I\u2019ve always said we don\u2019t need it just for the pros. We need a standard for every race.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cautioned against expecting identical arrangements across national borders. \u201cIt also depends on the rights of the countries where you are,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if the UCI<\/a> said \u2018we need it, want it like this\u2019, the countries are the owner of the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing cars entering the closed time trial circuit at the Sauerlandrundfahrt, Wegmann calculated that fencing both sides of a 14-kilometre route would require 28 kilometres of barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not possible. It\u2019s not doable,\u201d he said. \u201cYou will never ever find a sponsor who pays 1 million euros just in fences and not have something from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the crashes are because the riders are risking too much\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the crashes are because the riders are risking too much,\u201d argued the former German champion. \u201cEven if the manager says it\u2019s a dangerous descent, and there are some roundabouts and traffic islands, you want to win as a rider. When it\u2019s wet and you are a good descender, you think, \u2018Now it\u2019s my time, and then you go, and then things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wegmann also invoked Paris-Roubaix: \u201cYou can try to create a new race which is super safe, and it\u2019s maybe also in a nice city and with a good course. You will never ever get Paris-Roubaix. It\u2019s never on the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Paris-Roubaix is not safe at all,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s super dangerous to ride 60kph on cobblestones when it\u2019s wet. So that\u2019s part of our sport, and that makes it so interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

His own route preparations involve repeated reconnaissance, checking traffic islands and roundabouts and identifying where marshals, barriers and padding are needed. Even then, he acknowledged that \u201cif somebody comes out of a house with their car, it\u2019s always still a problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the end from every crash we have to learn,\u201d Wegmann said. \u201cWe\u2019re all making mistakes, but we have to learn from these mistakes and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost of changing a finish<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we remove traffic islands, or the city have to do it, but it\u2019s really expensive to put a traffic island away and then rebuild it,\u201d Wegmann explained. \u201cAnd when the city have to pay it, they also have to tell their citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

He illustrated the political difficulty with the example of explaining that \u20ac30,000 of taxpayers\u2019 money had been spent removing and rebuilding three traffic islands.<\/p>\n

Wegmann says he has also rejected offers from prospective Deutschland Tour host cities when he has been unable to design a safe sprint finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Riders protest \ud83e\udea7 Il Lombardia begins with riders taking a stand over safety concerns following incidents throughout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,63786,85,39556],"class_list":["post-940791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-deutschland-tour","tag-sports","tag-uci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940791","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=940791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}