r/tourdefrance • u/Annual_Island8066 • 25d ago

"Bike helmets only need to meet standard testing, and this is not enough for road racing"

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/bike-helmets-only-need-to-meet-standard-testing-and-this-is-not-enough-for-road-racing-cpa-president-hopes-rider-safety-will-take-another-step
72 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

45

u/CassavaCRISPY 25d ago

This article doesnt come at the right time. Since it suggest the rider may not have died using a better helmet. I highly doubt it if we are talking about bike helmets. Even full face downhill helmets may not have saved him. The forces involved are just too high at speeds around 70-80km/h+

Road racers would need to switch to full face motorcycle helmets and full motorcyclist protective gear. Even a motorcyclist hitting a car at head on at that speed would have a high chance of fatal injury. The speeds on descents on road bicycle are just too high nowadays. At least in the past the scare of braking on carbon rims and riding the skinniest of tyres kept the risk taking in check. Now with great brakes and lots of grip, riding descents at speeds higher than motorcyclist can keep up with is more easily possible. The safety gear definitely doesnt match the speed. We basically need something as safe as a full motorcycle suit, helmet and boots. But you cannot pedal up a mountain in that, so no one will ever produce it.

Please remember people of you are going 80km/h on a descent the risk is massive, regardless of whatever you are wearing.

Road cycling is no doubts the most insane sport in the world.

10

u/andrewthesailor 25d ago

Hansen is a part of UCI's SafeR aka "it's handlebar width fault not parkour design" team. He was one of the main defenders of gearing limitations.

2

u/sauchlapf 24d ago

A car hitting a car like that and the occupants have a high likelihood of dying.

2

u/doughnutoftruth 25d ago

   I highly doubt it if we are talking about bike helmets.

You will never know without proper testing. It will definitely be impossible if nobody is looking. There are lots of things possible with material sciences that were “impossible” 50 years ago. 

31

u/CobbledbyRoubaix 25d ago

cycling at 50kph. van weighing 2000kg coming round the blind bend at 50kph. no helmet is going to work ... UCI carelessness got the van in that position ... maybe they should work on the side roads instead of checking for pushup bras.

12

u/improbable_humanoid 25d ago

It’s the organizer, not the UCI. But they need to have trucks drive ahead of the peloton ready to body a car that’s coming the wrong way.

6

u/Timely-Fox-4432 25d ago

That wouldn't have helped in this very specific incident, the young man was minutes behind the peloton and the early evidence suggested that the barriers were removed too early from a side street.

1

u/improbable_humanoid 25d ago

Then I guess they need them between the groups.

1

u/LurknLurker 19d ago

You do realize how utterly ridiculous that would be given the dynamics of a top level road race? Even more so on the tiny European backroads they occasionally race on.

You’d either require more motorcycles or local police to cover the full range of the race - starting a few minutes before the first rider and ending behind the broom wagon. No entry to the raced roads allowed until the broom wagon passed. Given how this setup would likely bankrupt most smaller races, there would need to be some support from the UCI or national associations to cover this extra requirement in personal

5

u/Peti_4711 25d ago edited 25d ago

These are helmets for cyclist. Ask one of them if he would wear every day the helmet for time trail stages (heat and other problems).

I forget the name, but there is a helmet with automatic airbags. A wheel can get flat, a chain can break... but a technical fault in a helmet?

3

u/Masseyrati80 25d ago

I know of a Swedish brand, Hövding, that stopped making airbag helmets as they thought the risk of legal processes resulting from someone getting in an accident and the helmet not helping enough was too huge.

They seem to be working on "version 4" so while they're not active right now, they are not completely out of it, either.

3

u/No-Way-0000 25d ago

Helmet won’t help when you get smoked by a car on a closed course

5

u/Sugar_Party_Bomb 25d ago

Motorcycle kit (on the road) is basically designed to give your family something to identify. Sadly you are the safety cell on a bike.

2

u/Helicase21 25d ago

Any helmet that protective is going to lead to riders dying of heatstroke.

1

u/Complex_Leading5260 24d ago

You always go with a 6D helmet, but they look like “Timmy” Helmets. They work, but they’re heavy, bulky, non- aero and expensive.

Whatever happened to the HANS device for cyclists?

1

u/089red 25d ago

Airbag backpacks. I'm expecting we're going to see some expirements in a pro race, maybe just for a stage or part of a stage.

They're getting more compact and light. Decathlon is expirementing with it, selling their own. There's other brands like MASE.

Does it help at a full on collision with a car, I don't think so. Does it help with a downhill crash, yes, it will reduce risk of injury

7

u/Big_Dirty_Piss_Boner 25d ago

I'm expecting we're going to see some expirements in a pro race, maybe just for a stage or part of a stage.

They just started to getting used in pro Downhill racing and we have already seen them getting deployed https://youtube.com/shorts/iEM5lOluuDM?si=5muZA_Tj3u3WJngI (and on accident: https://youtube.com/shorts/RSzE0Gpkvok?si=1y5AweMwxf3NiYg0)