The riders in Bergamo stood with their bikes for five minutes on Saturday before the start of Il Lombardia, one of cycling’s five Monuments. The protest was organised by the peloton itself, after a run of vehicle incidents on the roads of recent races.
Remco Evenepoel spoke on behalf of the riders at the start line.
“Unfortunately, we lost the life of a brother and of a colleague of us, so we want to make this statement to just show to the whole world that we cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured and are literally dying while doing what we like the most,” he told the crowd in Bergamo.
Finlay Tarling, a 19-year-old British development rider, was killed on 14 August when a car entered the race course on the eighth stage of the Volta a Portugal.
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Michael Tarling’s thanks
Later on Saturday, Finlay’s father Michael Tarling wrote publicly to the peloton.
“We are so thankful, moved and proud of Fin’s fellow cyclists today for making a stand at the Tour of Lombardy. Things need to change and no other family should ever receive the phone call we received on 14th Aug.”
Richard Plugge, the CEO of Visma | Lease a Bike, replied directly to Michael Tarling.
“I’m sorry that still nothing really happened. We think of you and your family often. And hope with you that real action will be taken. It’s sad it is necessary that riders have to do this.”
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Plugge turns on SafeR
Plugge also criticised SafeR, the independent safety body set up in 2023 to coordinate rider safety across the sport.
“SafeR was set up as an independent body that could have made a start, but unfortunately became a political construct with no material changes,” he said.
He called for a genuinely independent organisation to oversee routes and race management, rather than the current stakeholder structure in which the teams, race organisers and the UCI sit around the same table.
Seixas wins his first Monument
The race itself produced a historic result. Paul Seixas, the 20-year-old Frenchman riding for Decathlon CMA CGM, attacked on the Civiglio climb around 20 kilometres from the finish and soloed to his first Monument in a time of 5:49:28.
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Enric Mas of Movistar came in 48 seconds back, with Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek a further 17 seconds behind in third. Evenepoel, who had led the pre-race protest, finished fourth at 1 minute 20 seconds.
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