Vaughters says Fin Tarling death at Volta a Portugal exposes risks at smaller races

Britain's Fin Tarling, 19, died during the Volta a Portugal on Friday after a high-speed collision with a van that had strayed on to the closed road, and former rider and team boss Jonathan Vaughters told BBC Sport the incident is preventable, saying: "That is not true. This is preventable."

Tarling rode for the NSN Cycling Development Team and was the brother of Netcompany-Ineos' Josh Tarling; a Go Fund Me page, external to promote young cycling talent, has been set up in his memory. Vaughters, who is co-founder and boss of the EF Education-Easypost World Tour team, criticised a prevailing attitude among influential figures in the sport, saying: "What I'm really not enjoying is this sentiment that's coming from very powerful people in cycling, that says: 'What can you do? Sometimes cars just end up on the road - this is just part of doing competitive sport on the open road.' That is not true. This is preventable."

While races are organised independently, the UCI oversees most events and can set standards for race management; Vaughters argued the governing body is focusing on the wrong safety matters and pointed to specific, low-priority rule changes. "I'm tired of the governance in charge of this sport introducing changes around ridiculous little issues, when they prove themselves to be unable to govern a sport to keep traffic off the road," said Vaughters. "The number of smaller races I've been to where there's traffic on the course is unreal. I'm not blaming anyone other than the ultimate authority which needs to do a better job of governing the sport."

Vaughters emphasised the UCI's role as a sanctioning authority for the Volta a Portugal and its financial relationship with organisers, saying: "[The Volta a Portugal] was sanctioned by the UCI. The UCI are a sanctioning authority of the race and take a fee from event organisers. If you are forcing teams to fight for ranking points at this event then you damn well better make sure the event is up to standard." The UCI issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened, and extends its deepest condolences to Finlay's family, friends, and team-mates", and has not made further comment; the BBC has contacted the UCI for a response to Vaughters' remarks.

The article noted six riders have died during road races in the past three years and that, following the death of Swiss Gino Mader in the 2023 Tour de Suisse, the UCI introduced the SafeR [SafeRoad cycling] initiative to have stakeholders assess safety issues. Vaughters contrasted the Tour de France's extensive, often full-day road closures with smaller events' use of "rolling roadblocks", arguing the latter can fail when the peloton splits and junctions are not fully secured. "I'm not going to criticise the organisation of the Volta a Portugal," he said. "There have been too many races at this level that have exactly the same problem. This [Tarling's death] just happened to be terribly unlucky. It could have been any of the other races. ... The Tour de France closes its road for the duration many hours before an event. There's a gendarme on every T-junction. A barricade at every T-junction. As a team, we trust races like the Tour de France, but we don't trust smaller races. ... As soon as they turn on the road, they're going 100km/h and the opposite way is the peloton at 50km/h - that's a combined 150km/h. I mean, it's horrible. "Rolling enclosures I don't think work that well."

Vaughters also linked the competition for UCI ranking points and the structure of the sport to increased on-road risk, describing how teams and riders face pressure tied to points, relegation and sponsorship. He said: "They're being pressured by team managers like me saying: 'We've got to get points - hurry up.' There's millions at stake so athletes feel that pressure. They start to take risks on the course - if they do that when it's not properly managed and doesn't have good enough traffic control, it's a recipe for disaster." The piece explained that teams earn points set by the UCI to gain entry to the biggest races and that every three years three teams are eliminated from the World Tour and replaced by ProSeries teams, creating intensified competition for results.

Vaughters called for a smaller, more selective calendar and for stricter scrutiny from governance, arguing there are too many sanctioned race days and that safety should take precedence over sanctioning fees and jobs. "We have way too many events on the calendar - it's just too much. It needs to be more selective and the governance needs to look at each race with a much higher degree of scepticism," he said. "Why do we need 700 race days around the world? It's fine if those events occur, but not as sanctioned events with riders fighting for points. What's wrong with 100 days on the race calendar? I'm scared for athletes and we are telling them they have to push themselves to the limit - that's a dissonance that I think is reprehensible. Yes, it might mean less sanctioning fees for the UCI, fewer jobs for race organisers. I understand that, but in the modern world the price of a young athlete dying far outweighs all the other problems."