{"id":586679,"date":"2026-08-16T19:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/586679\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:04:10","slug":"cyclists-criticise-catastrophic-safety-measures-after-finlay-tarlings-death-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/586679\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclists criticise \u2018catastrophic\u2019 safety measures after Finlay Tarling\u2019s death | Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The professional cycling community has reacted with fury to the death of the teenage Welsh rider, Finlay Tarling<\/a>, in the Volta a Portugal, with a leading former professional describing the race\u2019s safety measures as \u201ccatastrophic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tarling, the younger brother of the Netcompany Ineos professional Josh Tarling, was in collision with a non-race vehicle driving towards the peloton while he competed in the Portuguese race\u2019s eighth stage. The 19-year-old\u2019s death on Friday has led to a surge of anger, with the rider\u2019s union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associ\u00e9s (CPA), describing itself as \u201cfurious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are speechless and filled with anger after the news of Finlay Tarling\u2019s death at the Tour of Portugal,\u201d the CPA posted. \u201cIt is not right that a young athlete\u2019s life should end this way, and we are furious that even today it is still not possible to prevent such serious accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former French professional J\u00e9r\u00f4me Pineau was one of those to criticise the levels of security in place at the race, which he labelled \u201ccatastrophic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pineau, who rode multiple Grand Tours between 2002 and 2015, described the lack of other incidents in the race as \u201ca constant miracle\u201d and added that \u201cthe finishes are not worthy of a race of this level\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the result of the lack of resources to organise major cycling races which are becoming increasingly expensive,\u201d Pineau said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this should primarily concern the authorities in charge,\u201d he said, referencing the sport\u2019s governing body, the UCI. \u201cThey must implement approval processes, and if security is not guaranteed, if the organisers are not capable of it, they should not be authorised to organise the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the Volta a Portugal organisers and the UCI have been contacted for further comment.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of Tarling\u2019s death are now subject to a police investigation, but the Portuguese police stated that while \u201cmore evidence will be gathered,\u201d it is thought unlikely that the driver will face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

The Volta a Portugal does not benefit from full road closures, as is the case with Grand Tours such as the Tour de France, and instead uses a rolling road closure, effectively a \u201cbubble\u201d of security that encloses the race convoy, from front to back.<\/p>\n

Carlos Catanario, of the Portugese police, told RTP that Tarling was racing to catch up on a downhill section, with the peloton ahead of him and split into three groups. The \u201cbroom\u201d wagon, the van signifying the rear of the convoy and the end of the rolling road closure, was behind him.<\/p>\n

Catanario said that the GNR (National Republican Guard) police escort \u201ccould not keep up with Tarling\u201d. Further ahead, the driver involved had been stopped at the roadside for some time, to allow the race to pass.<\/p>\n

After waiting, the driver is understood to have asked bystanders if he could join the road, and then drove on to the course, before the broom wagon had passed.\u00a0\u201cIn that specific location, we know there were no officers present because it was not one of the locations prioritised in the assessment that had been carried out,\u201d Catanario said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vehicle was going in the opposite direction to the direction of the race. The cyclist [Tarling] cut across the curve on the left lane \u2013 as is natural, as [racing] cyclists do \u2013 and that is what caused the cyclist and the vehicle to collide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarling\u2019s loss is the latest in a sport increasingly beleaguered by safety issues. As racing speeds increase and traffic intensifies, costs for event security rise, meaning race organisers are coming under increasing pressure to implement more effective measures.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s becoming increasingly expensive to organise races, and some organisers are abandoning the safety principles that govern the entire cycling bubble,\u201d Pineau said. \u201cThe Volta a Portugal is a second-tier race; they have to find race officials, staff to organise it, and funds for the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial for Finlay Tarling before the ninth stage of the Volta a Portugal on Sunday. Photograph: Nuno Veiga\/EPA<\/p>\n

Tarling\u2019s team, NSN Development, withdrew from the race on Saturday, but the race otherwise completed its final stages over the weekend as planned. Riders observed a minute\u2019s silence at the start of the ninth stage, the leader\u2019s jersey worn by Alexis Gu\u00e9rin was changed from yellow to black and the peloton wore black armbands.<\/p>\n

Tributes were paid and black armbands worn at other races including the Czech Tour and the Arctic Race of Norway.<\/p>\n

On Sunday Tarling\u2019s\u00a0father, Michael, posted a message on social media. \u201cThis has been the hardest couple of days of our lives and it\u2019s taken us a bit of time to be able to post this. Hearing how lovingly and fondly Fin was thought of has been a huge help to us. We simply can\u2019t thank you all enough for the support we\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how we carry on from here, but we\u2019ll figure it out with the support of all our family, friends, and community. Whilst our broken hearts will never be fixed, he was not only our son and brother but our best mate. Gentle, loving with the driest sense of humour, we will miss him terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The professional cycling community has reacted with fury to the death of the teenage Welsh rider, Finlay Tarling,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-586679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}