Thanks for the story. I will say this very nicely. My job is to represent the riders, not convince them, change their options, and definitely not side with the organisers, UCI, or fans. I'm not here to make friends with organisers, UCI, teams, or even fans. It is not my voice. It's the riders voice. But I allow them to hide behind me, and I say what they want to be said. I was a rider. You, as a fan, might read that a rider goes home cause of crash a few days before or a flu. But I know if a rider goes home because of a flu, and being at the great race of the Giro, he would have raced with that flu for days and been struggling and suffering which you can not see on TV for those days before deciding to stop. There is so much more happening than fans see. Stopping is the end point of the rider, a complete meltdown, and before that point, they have been well over their limit for sometimes as long as weeks. I know the illnesses going through the teams, and the riders' health is my priority. Rain, not a problem. Add 4 degrees, add a decent where you can not pedal, and body temp gets colder over time. And a stage where it's all uphill from the start, which creates peleton stretched long and many different groups where cars can not service their own riders, giving riders proper clothing is the difference. What is this difference? More than 10 riders went home due to illness. The next day, 10 more riders go home with illness and today?? Let's see. Now, these riders with it, have had it for days. Fans don't know that. Fans dont know if in the last 24 hours, 20 guys go home, which means another 40 are still racing while being ill. I do. Is it healthy to race such a demanding stage while being sick, pressure from teams, fans, contracts and like you said, every party/stakeholder against the riders opinion they ask for a stage to be shorter for their own health? No doctor worth his salt would agree someone ill should spend 5 hours wet in the cold with heart rates going above 170 multiple times while the body is already fatigued. You are right. They can be replaced if they dont want to do it, and truth be told, some teams and organisers see that they are just race horses, Push them! We can replace them. so who cares!!! I care. If you, organisers, sponsors, UCI, or fans rather risk a humans health for your own entertainment, then it proves the point that they need someone on their side, like me

That's a lot of points you mentioned.... and sorry it took so long to reply. The reason was not communicated properly. We have to think about what is fair. Is it fair the organisers decide a route that has a climb with a road that is so narrow that cars cannot pass the riders? Some cars were more than 5 minutes behind the riders when they reached the top. We didn't want to stop the race, we just think if the organisers want to pick a route that impacts a rider if they have a mechanical is unfair, it is not correct. Results should be based on performance. On this particular route, if they raced the full 4 circuits some team cars could be stuck very far behind and riders would not be able to pass a car on the climb to come back because a slower rider in front of the car would slow the car down. Race routes should be selected so cars can pass riders and riders can pass cars and they don't block each other. Any of the 10 riders would have been affected and it's great to see them united on this. The CPA is pushing for the helmets to be improved, this is not a UCI problem, but the UCI has already created working groups on this topic. More industry and changing the helmet standards in the EU EN 1078 needs to be vastly improved or maybe a different standard for actually racing. One day we hope to get there. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, things don't move as fast as you and I wish for. The UCI has said 2 times at the PCC and requested it to be recorded in the minutes that they will never profit from the riders' data. So this is not a UCI issue holding GPS trackers up, in fact at the Worlds they use GPS tracking and don't use the riders' power, cadence or HR. I still struggle to know exactly why we don't have GPS tracking today. The Velon system works, but not all teams use it, the UCI has an effective system used at the last 2 Worlds. The CPA keeps pushing the point that the team can decide which system to use. Our official statement is that even if the teams want to use their own system they can, as long as it sends the riders' location, speed and rider_id to a central platform, we are happy. If that's Velon, UCI's or their own we are fine with that. While 4G/5G is not ideal in some areas it's better than nothing. We can work on a more bulletproof system in the future, but 4G/5G can be a starting point. Agreed with the downhills. I wish my words could move a mountain. But things don't move as easily as you and I wish. The SRAM case is more than just SRAM. The case set a precedent. We need a governing body regulating the bikes. We don't want some brands bringing out non-double-triangle frame super bikes then claim anti-competitive. Already in this regulated sport there are some bikes faster/lighter than others and we need the difference to be as minimal as possible to be sure performance wins races. If there is a slight chance the sport loses some form of regulating control, then a few wealthy bike manufacturers would have bikes 5km/h faster than others and the sport would be a complete mess and unfair to some riders. Stage 14, you are 100% correct. The focus was on stage 15 which was also code red, but 14 should have had some changes. This was handled wrongly. Heat stroke impairs brain development and function at every stage of growth up to approximately age 25, when the human brain finishes structural and neurological maturation. <--- this is not taken seriously enough and some people think ice and water solve this. With younger riders in the peloton today, this is a serious issue. When it's a code red, the UCI rules should just apply automatically. There should not be a stakeholder requesting a change. Rules are rules.

Very proud of @EvenepoelRemco speech. Great to see the riders speak about what is happening in cycling today and big thanks to RCS for giving the mic to Remco and their platform to help spread this word. No form of entertainment is worth someone's life.

A message from the riders: As riders, we stand united against the unnecessary risk our lives are being subjected to. This week alone, there were multiple incidents of vehicles on race courses. Two riders crashed when they hit a motorbike who was driving the wrong way on the race route. Luckily both escaped with cuts and bruises, it could have been so much worse. This summer, a life was tragically lost to exactly this kind of failure. We will not stand for this any longer. Riders race at high speed with little protection, and we depend on the race organisers to secure the roads. That responsibility is not being met. We are calling for the help of the UCI for race organisers to take accountability and act. That means a serious, open conversation between riders, race organisers and the UCI resulting in concrete changes to how race routes are secured and managed. After five minutes, we raced as normal. We did not want to affect the race, only to show what riders can do when we stand as one. We love this sport. We respect the race organisers. We want to race hard and put on a show for our fans. However most importantly we want to come home safe to our loved ones.

Our position is clear that the CPA is extremely disappointed with the current direction of anti-doping in professional cycling. Did you know that cyclists are the only athletes in the world who pay out of their own pockets to fund extra doping controls, long-term sample storage and for data analysis? This financial burden is a direct consequence of our sport’s historical past. While modern cycling is drastically cleaner today, active riders are paying for the mistakes of previous generations. Is that fair? Within the SafeR initiative, members frequently claim that crashes happen because riders lose focus or look down at their bike computers. But consider the human cost of the current doping system, think about how you perform at your normal day job after only four hours of sleep, or after being woken up right in the middle of your REM cycle at 2 am for a blood test. Now, imagine that happening during a Grand Tour, between two crucial mountain stages after two full weeks of racing. The pressure on your shoulders. I am not saying this was the cause of Jonas Vingegaard's crash, but doing this to an athlete during the most important race of the year, after 2 weeks of racing does have some impact on their daily performance or could just sit in the back of their head during the stage. It isn't just Jonas, its all professional cyclists must be available 365 days a year. The 1-Hour Slot: During their designated one-hour daily window, riders must be at the exact location stated in their whereabouts. The Other 23 Hours: Outside that slot, DCOs (Doping Control Officers) can still show up unannounced. If a rider isn't home, because they stepped out to get a coffee or went to the park with their child which they decided during the day. They are required to provide proof of where they were and why. Failing to justify their whereabouts can be logged as a missed test. Riders are terrified of getting a missed control. I have seen cases of riders that had to get a statement from resturant owners, with the bill, that they were out having dinner not in their 1-Hour slot. Now how can they get a written statement from their 3 year old child if they went to the park? To make matters worse, the ADAMS application riders must use to submit their location data is notorious for technical glitches and frequent downtime. We have said, Quality Over Quantity. The riders are directly funding the ITA, and we have repeatedly argued that increasing more tests is not the solution, it is a waste of resources. Instead, those funds should be invested in upgrading testing laboratory equipment. Currently, equipment standards vary across different accredited labs. Some are far more advanced at detecting trace elements than others. We want a Quality over Quantity approach, State-of-the-art lab equipment capable of detecting the absolute smallest traces of banned substances. Which means fewer but more precise tests that catch real cheaters while reducing constant harassment of clean riders. If there are advances in equipment testing, this would increase the detection window of finding banned substances, which would result in a more efficient approach, not needing these tests in the middle of the night, less stress and workload on the riders and a greater chance of catching cheats. But this is not the direction where it is heading. The direction of the funding is not going to improve the laboratory equipment, but to increase the number of tests, power data monitoring and all of this means more work and stress for the riders. They have it hard enough. We want dopers to get caught, we don't want to harsses clean riders and get given a presentation with the total number of tests being increased year over year with fewer positives. We have to consider if we want to continue to contribute to a system that is not going in the direction that is not more efficient, to catch cheaters, harasse less clean athletes & not treat the riders like criminals.

In this heat, its impressive what the riders are doing at the #tdf. So many bottles.... The @UCI_cycling & @LeTour have relaxed the rules to allow more bottle points, which is good. If we can increase it more, if would be better. Bottles.... & bottles.... I feel for the riders.. youtu.be/qgwXGo4wimY?is=QnEp…

Let's talk about the Moto's influencing the race for a bit. For the fans bashing riders for riding behind the Motos, that's unfair. The riders are free to ride anywhere on the roads. For races that have Motos too close or just everywhere, that's not the riders fault. It's the organization of the vehicles in front of the race that is handled badly, again not the riders fault. It's first a race, not a movie production set. Do the riders want the Motos not influencing the race? Of course they do, we hear comments all the time and we always bring it up at each meeting. Even the organizers has expressed to improve safety, is to decrease the speed of the riders, where the CPA has always replied, the fastest way to slow down the bunch is not to have the Motos so close to the bunch. Which is a lot easier than trying to enforce correct hand position. Again, all riders want more distance between Motos and the front bunch, riders should not have to navigate to make sure they are not directly in the draft of a moto. Please fans, it's the motorbikes fault, not the riders. Respect the riders, their job is hard enough and then to read on social media that they get disrespected because they have a motorbike in front of them is not fair. Maybe the CPA might create a fund raiser for the production crew to buy a zoom for their cameras on these motorbikes. As it's unfair how much they influence the race speed, the results and on the other riders.

This will have to be handled very well. It's serious to cross a red light at a train crossing. But bike races are different to normal car traffic. Cars drive a safe braking distance from each other. In a bunch if a rider wants to stop on a dime as the Belgium Law states, then you would have a massive crash on the crossing or around. We have to make sure this case is handled correctly, not to have riders freak out in future races and slam their brakes on causing crashes on a railway seconds before a train crosses.

You had zero complaints? I was not aware you're the go to man to hear the riders complaints. Remember some years are good, some bad. But generally speaking the Vuelta is very hot. And generally speaking the Giro has snow. Here keyboard warriors love to fire back. Where is the problem? I voice the riders opinions and I can say first hand experience that generally the Giro has had a lot of snow and the Vuelta also have some heat issues. Then I get complaints from organisers by the amount of stages being cancelled. So if we are looking for a solution to address these, that's an option. I'm trying to find solutions to avoid cancelled stages for the organisers. One time I was asked during a meeting from the organisers my feeling if the Giro was shifted back one week, as RCS has been requesting this. My personal opinion is that the whole European calendar would benefit if the calendar would be shifted 2 weeks back. ChatGPT: Winter is now starting later and lasting further into the year. Likewise, summer begins later than it used to, but it also stretches longer into autumn. The whole seasonal cycle has shifted forward, with both warm and cold periods drifting later in the calendar. So.... If the weather is shifting, it isn’t stupid to think the race calendar should shift with it, it’s logical. When winters start later and last longer, and summers begin and end later, the traditional race dates no longer match the real conditions riders face. Ignoring that reality makes less sense than adjusting the calendar to the new climate. Also the earlier races at the start of the season in Spain would dramatically benefit with less rain. Riders could also have a better off season period instead of being in full training mode over family time during Christmas....

I've said this over the past years during the PCC and various other meetings. I was laughed at, but obviously they've never ridden the Giro in freezing rain and snow, or the Vuelta in scorching heat. That is the biggest problem in cycling, the tradition is holding the sport back.

Maybe this will be a monthly thing....@cpacycling

The @UCIRWANDA worlds is the most impressive worlds I have been to. The fans were incredible and packed, the course closure was top level, maybe the course was a bit too difficult 🫣, but well done to put on a race like this on the other side of the world. Thanks World Champion Magdeleine Vallieres for the photo and congrats.

Really great to see at the @UCIRWANDA that they have full tracking on all riders. It's impressive system. The system shows directly if a rider stops for any reason. We really need this.

The CPA wishes to express its full support to the riders following yesterday’s incident, where a protest on the road caused a crash during the race. We remind everyone that cyclists are not involved in political or social disputes — they are simply doing their job: racing. Their safety must never be put at risk. While we respect the right to peaceful protest, actions that endanger athletes cannot be accepted. Rider safety must remain the highest priority. The CPA stands firmly with the riders: they just want to race in safe conditions.