The Professional Cycling Council has proposed the implementation of GPS tracking at all pro races.
The Professional Cycling Council, a group that includes representatives of the UCI, teams, riders and race organizers, has proposed updates to the UCI rules on safety that will see better finish line barriers and the more widespread implementation of GPS trackers, pending approval by the UCI Management Committee at its upcoming meeting at the Montréal World Championships.
The PCC met at UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, this week and the UCI put out a statement on Friday outlining the various outcomes of that meeting, which came at a time when safety is in the spotlight in the aftermath of Finlay Tarling’s death at the Volta a Portugal. The 19-year-old Welshman, a member of NSN’s development squad, was struck and killed by a motorist unaffiliated with the race.
“Against this difficult backdrop, a large part of the meeting was devoted to rider safety, in particular GPS rider safety tracking,” read the statement from the PCC.
The UCI has already trialed GPS tracking at races in the wake of Muriel Furrer’s death at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich; medical personnel did not reach Furrer for 82 minutes after her crash. Although a dispute over a trial of GPS tracking at last season’s Tour de Romandie led to the disqualification of several high-profile teams, GPS tracking was implemented for all participants at Worlds in Kigali, Rwanda, later that year, and the system will be in place once again at Worlds in Montréal this month.
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