{"id":415589,"date":"2026-01-17T15:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T15:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415589\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T15:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T15:41:08","slug":"cycling-airbag-adopted-by-dutch-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415589\/","title":{"rendered":"cycling airbag adopted by Dutch team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crashes are part of cycling – that much has always been accepted. But rider safety has become an increasingly urgent topic in recent years. The death of Muriel Furrer, along with repeated mass crashes in races, has fuelled an intense debate about how the sport can be made safer. What needs to change? One team, Team Picnic PostNL<\/a>, is at least willing to explore a daring new solution.<\/p>\n

Enter the Aerobag, an airbag for cyclists, as the name already suggests. The system is worn on the rider\u2019s back and consists of a compact control unit combined with CO\u2082 cartridges. When deployed, the airbag is designed to protect the hips, ribs, collarbones and neck. In other words, it aims to cover many of the body parts most vulnerable in a crash.<\/p>\n

According to its developers, the Aerobag could represent a new revolution in rider safety. \u201cIt\u2019s all fired by an algorithm,\u201d Quinton van Loggerenberg, Aerobag’s development manager, explains to BikeRadar<\/a>. \u201cThere are XYZ sensors, inertia sensors, impact sensors, and there are magnetic fields to give you a fixed zero \u2013 the system is very clever\u201dVan Loggerenberg demonstrated the Aerobag on a mannequin dressed in Team Picnic PostNL<\/a> colours. The airbag itself was integrated into the shorts. That does require a small adjustment to the team kit, but nothing drastic. \u201cThat\u2019s only because we need to control where the tubes go so that the inflation happens in the right place,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

Death of Bjorg Lambrecht prompted airbag<\/p>\n

The original idea dates back around seven years and was triggered by another fatal crash. \u201cWhen Bjorg Lambrecht crashed and died, we decided that there had to be a better way of sending riders down the road,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t send them down the road in just Lycra at 70km\/h.\u201d Lambrecht died during the 2019 Tour of Poland as a result of a crash.<\/p>\n

The fact that the Aerobag was tested in a Team Picnic PostNL<\/a> kit is no coincidence. The Dutch squad is already training with the system, and there is a possibility it could even be used in races. ‘\u201cNalini has made these for Picnic PostNL and is the early adopter for us. Nalini has committed to working with us for the coming season for more general availability to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could the Aerobag bring about a safety revolution comparable to the introduction of helmets? The coming years will tell. What is already certain is that the project has the backing of cycling\u2019s governing body. \u201cWe are already in discussion with the UCI through a number of projects, and the UCI have been broadly supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crashes are part of cycling – that much has always been accepted. But rider safety has become an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,174601,124793,82],"class_list":["post-415589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-cycling-material","tag-picnic-postnl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}