IN BRIEF
Meeting on 1 and 2 September in Aigle, Switzerland, the Professional Cycling Council put two safety measures on the table. According to the governing body’s press release, the first, which the UCI describes as an « urgent need », is a dedicated system for tracking the position of riders and vehicles in real time at professional road events, starting with the WorldTour and the Women’s WorldTour. The second aims to guarantee that the barriers used in the final hundreds of metres meet the standards resulting from a study by the Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale Valais-Wallis, with a progressive introduction from the 2027 season. The press release states that these proposals will be submitted to the UCI Management Committee, which is due to decide from 20 to 22 September in Montréal. The meeting opened with a tribute to Finlay Tarling, the British rider who died at the age of 19 after a crash on 14 August at the Volta a Portugal.
Locating riders and vehicles in real time during a race: the UCI writes that there is an « urgent need » here. That said, the decision, according to its own press release, rests with its Management Committee, which meets at the end of the month.
What the UCI is proposing on real-time tracking
The governing body’s press release is direct about the urgency, and about what triggers it: « In the absence of a joint proposal from the different stakeholder groups, the UCI stressed the urgent need to put in place, as quickly as possible, a dedicated safety system allowing the real-time location of riders and vehicles to be tracked at all professional road cycling events, starting with those in the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour ». In the absence, then, of a joint proposal from the various stakeholder groups, the UCI is putting forward a dedicated safety system able to locate riders and vehicles in real time, rolled out first on the two top-level calendars.
The UCI writes that it « will therefore establish protocols and a regulatory framework for the use of real-time tracking systems at races ». The press release adds that such a system « had been implemented by the UCI for all categories at the UCI Road World Championships in 2025 (in Kigali, Rwanda), and will be again at this year’s UCI Road World Championships (in Montréal, Canada), as well as at future editions of the event »: the set-up has therefore already been used at the 2025 Road World Championships and will be used in Montréal. The press release does not, however, announce a start date for professional events: it sets out the principle and the regulatory work, not the deadline.
What the UCI wants for the barriers in the closing hundreds of metres
The second measure targets a specific point on the course: the finish. At the initiative of SafeR, the body dedicated to safety in men’s and women’s road cycling, the UCI « wants to guarantee that the barriers used in the final hundreds of metres of stages and races, meet the standards resulting from the study carried out by the Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale Valais-Wallis ». The barriers in the final hundreds of metres should therefore meet the standards resulting from that study by the Valais university of applied sciences.
The timetable, for its part, is written down: the requirement « will be introduced progressively, starting with UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour races from the 2027 season, before being extended to all other race categories ». A phased roll-out, then, which the press release describes as starting at the highest level before being extended to the other race categories.
A meeting that opened with a tribute
The UCI writes: « At the start of the meeting, UCI President David Lappartient, PCC President Tom Van Damme and PCC members paid tribute to British rider Finlay Tarling, who tragically died at the age of 19 following an accident on 14 August during stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta. »
The Professional Cycling Council brings together the stakeholders of men’s and women’s professional road cycling. Its proposals do not amount to decisions: the press release states that « All decisions taken at the PCC meeting will be submitted to the UCI Management Committee at its next meeting ». That Management Committee meets, according to the same press release, « from 20 to 22 September in Montréal during the 2026 UCI Road World Championships ». It is there, during the Road World Championships, that it will decide.
