{"id":690732,"date":"2026-07-14T07:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690732\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T07:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:39:31","slug":"how-dangerous-is-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690732\/","title":{"rendered":"How dangerous is the Tour de France?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro cyclists ride fast and for long periods, often in a tight-knit bunch, over tricky roads and regardless of whether it\u2019s wet or dry.<\/p>\n

Crashes are common<\/a>, with riders clothed in a thin layer of Lycra, which is easily shredded by a fall. Bikes have sharp edges and if you\u2019re hit at speed by a rider, the impact can have considerable force. Of 184 riders who started the 2025 Tour, 24 abandoned, principally as a result of injury or sickness.<\/p>\n

Riders can fall hard on their heads, so a helmet<\/a> is now mandatory, but concussion<\/a> is still a problem, with cyclists sometimes forced to retire from the race if they\u2019re judged to be concussed after a fall. <\/p>\n

Across a season\u2019s racing, it\u2019s estimated that around 20% of pro cyclists experience a bone fracture as a result of a crash, with broken collarbones making up a significant proportion of injuries, due to the force of a fall.<\/p>\n

Danger in the bunch
\n\"\"Wet roads can increase the risk of a crash in the bunch. A.S.O.\/Billy Ceusters<\/p>\n

Crashes are most common in a bunch, where a touch of wheels can cause a rider to lose control and bring down multiple others, with following riders often hitting those ahead of them at speed. Fatigue often plays a part, too.<\/p>\n

Wet roads increase the risk, because a tyre can lose grip and skid out. White lines, manhole covers and other metal street furniture are also slippery when wet.<\/p>\n

\"\"Although riders can reach speeds in excess of 100km\/h on descents, they’re usually well spread out, so there’s less danger of a collision. A.S.O.\/Billy Ceusters<\/p>\n

Tour de France cyclists reach their highest speeds when descending, often exceeding 80km\/h and in some cases 100km\/h. Crashes here are less frequent though, as riders are more spread out and are skilled at choosing a line and judging their speed through bends.<\/p>\n

The high speed means the effect of a miscalculation is likely to be greater. Deaths are mercifully rare, but a bad fall can put a cyclist out of competition for months or finish their career.<\/p>\n

Prominent cyclists who have in the recent past been injured significantly in a fall, although not at the Tour, include Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert.<\/p>\n

Average speeds in races have increased and cycling’s governing body, the UCI, is now planning measures it hopes will reduce the risk, such as limits on maximum gear ratios<\/a>, although these are contentious. <\/p>\n

There are also experiments with lightweight airbags<\/a> that are built into riders\u2019 clothing and deploy in a crash to help protect the upper body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More Tour de France questions answered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro cyclists ride fast and for long periods, often in a tight-knit bunch, over tricky roads and regardless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}