As the race director in charge, Olivier Senn experienced two deaths in a short space of time: the death of Gino Mäder at the Tour de Suisse and the death of Muriel Furrer. He wants to improve safety at cycle races with new proposals. In an interview with TOUR, he explains what is planned.
TOUR: You were directly confronted with two very tragic accidents. It probably wasn't easy to deal with?
Olivier Senn: Yes, it makes you think more deeply about what we do and how we do things. I sympathise with the families and also with our employees who are suffering. But for me, it is above all a great motivation and drive to improve safety in cycling. Not just in the Tour de Suisse, but in cycling in general. There is no such thing as absolute safety, but it is our job to analyse and reduce the risks.
TOUR: They say you are planning a new information system for more safety for the Tour de Suisse?
Olivier Senn: The idea is to present the information in a different way, i.e. visually. Especially with short-term information, such as radio tour announcements, roadworks, road narrowing or wet conditions. If we had a system that could show the sports leaders in the car the visuals, on a map with a photo in addition to the verbal information, then they could see it. We believe this will improve the quality of the information and it will also reach the drivers more quickly. We hope that we will be able to carry out a test next year at the Tour de Suisse.
TOUR: The tragic accident involving Muriel Furrer at the World Championships, who was lying unnoticed in the forest, has triggered a discussion about GPS trackers. Do we need live tracking for more safety?
Olivier Senn: Yes - this is not rocket science. GPS tracking has been around all over the world for a long time. In my opinion, the technical implementation is the smaller problem. The processes behind it are almost more difficult than finding the technical system for it. We are currently in the process of defining the requirements for the system and our internal processes. We are also in talks with the UCI, because it is clear that this is a system that cycling needs.
TOUR: Has your assessment of the route changed as a result of the accidents?
Olivier Senn: There are three main factors for serious crashes: Speed, technical development of the bikes and the third is the athletes' willingness to take risks. Above all, we need to focus more on the issue of speed. Look at the routes with a different lens. So not only where are the tight bends, but also where are the best places to ride when everything is going well - full throttle. But if something comes up that could end badly. We may not be able to prevent a crash, but we can minimise the consequences.
Kristian Bauer
Editor
