The future of professional cycling?: New airbag to prevent serious injuries

The World Tour season is only a few days old and the first pros are already back in hospital with broken bones. At the Tour Down Under in Australia, an accident involving two kangaroos caused quite a stir, as a result of which Menno Huising (Visma | Lease a Bike), among others, had to abandon the race with a broken collarbone. The World Tour opener had already claimed a prominent crash victim in Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). The co-favourite for overall victory crashed on a road divider and is out for the time being with fractures to his thoracic spine. Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) is also out of action for the time being after suffering several broken bones as a result of a heavy crash.

>> Ex-pro Kittel brings airbag into play

>> UCI plans for more safety

>> Tour Down Under: Collision with Kangaroo

TPU tubes as air cushions

With the Aerobag, the Belgian company of the same name is now presenting a new airbag designed to protect professionals in particular from serious injuries such as those suffered by Mayrhofer & Co. The system is fully integrated into the bibs of the racing shorts. TPU tubes act as air cushions, which are filled by means of an integrated CO² cartridge. At the heart of the system are nine sensors that continuously record data such as speed, acceleration and movement patterns. A specially developed algorithm analyses this data in real time. If the system recognises a deviation, the airbag is triggered within 100 milliseconds and forms a protective cover around the neck, spine and chest.

The manufacturer from Flanders is particularly proud of the fact that the integrated airbag is hardly bulky and can return to its original shape after a release mechanism. This fulfils a key requirement of professional cyclists. Following serious accidents in recent years, the UCI, the world cycling organisation, had already been considering the introduction of mandatory airbags in the peloton. Team boss Ralph Denk (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was open to the plans. "If it's reasonable to ride 250 kilometres of cycling races with it, why not?" the 52-year-old told the German Press Agency. Former pro Marcel Kittel has also already campaigned in favour of airbags: "We don't have a crumple zone. The question is: how can we introduce even more innovation? There are airbags for city cyclists, maybe that's the future."

Test phase at Team Picnic PostNL

However, an airbag in professional cycling is still a dream of the future. This also applies to the market launch of the Aerobag. At Velofollies in Kortrijk/Belgium, the six-strong development team presented the system to the world public and introduced a partner from the clothing industry, Nalini. However, no racing shorts with an integrated airbag are yet being produced as standard. The system alone costs several hundred euros, according to Aerobag.

According to Aerobag, the new product is currently being used by Team Picnic PostNL. However, as the World Tour team announced, the airbag is not being used by the pros around John Degenkolb (Gera) or Niklas Märkl (Queidersbach). "The system is intended for our Devo programme, which intends to use it in training over the next few weeks," a team spokeswoman replied when asked by TOUR.