The professional cycling community has reacted with fury to the death of the teenage Welsh rider, Finlay Tarling, in the Volta a Portugal, with a leading former professional describing the race’s safety measures as “catastrophic”.
Tarling, the younger brother of the Netcompany Ineos professional Josh Tarling, was in collision with a non-race vehicle driving towards the peloton while he competed in the Portuguese race’s eighth stage. The 19-year-old’s death on Friday has led to a surge of anger, with the rider’s union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA), describing itself as “furious”.
“We are speechless and filled with anger after the news of Finlay Tarling’s death at the Tour of Portugal,” the CPA posted. “It is not right that a young athlete’s life should end this way, and we are furious that even today it is still not possible to prevent such serious accidents.”
The former French professional Jérôme Pineau was one of those to criticise the levels of security in place at the race, which he labelled “catastrophic”.
Pineau, who rode multiple Grand Tours between 2002 and 2015, described the lack of other incidents in the race as “a constant miracle” and added that “the finishes are not worthy of a race of this level”.
“It’s the result of the lack of resources to organise major cycling races which are becoming increasingly expensive,” Pineau said.
“All of this should primarily concern the authorities in charge,” he said, referencing the sport’s governing body, the UCI. “They must implement approval processes, and if security is not guaranteed, if the organisers are not capable of it, they should not be authorised to organise the event.”
Both the Volta a Portugal organisers and the UCI have been contacted for further comment.
The circumstances of Tarling’s death are now subject to a police investigation, but the Portuguese police stated that while “more evidence will be gathered,” it is thought unlikely that the driver will face criminal charges.
The Volta a Portugal does not benefit from full road closures, as is the case with Grand Tours such as the Tour de France, and instead uses a rolling road closure, effectively a “bubble” of security that encloses the race convoy, from front to back.
Carlos Catanario, of the Portugese police, told RTP that Tarling was racing to catch up on a downhill section, with the peloton ahead of him and split into three groups. The “broom” wagon, the van signifying the rear of the convoy and the end of the rolling road closure, was behind him.
Catanario said that the GNR (National Republican Guard) police escort “could not keep up with Tarling”. Further ahead, the driver involved had been stopped at the roadside for some time, to allow the race to pass.
After waiting, the driver is understood to have asked bystanders if he could join the road, and then drove on to the course, before the broom wagon had passed. “In that specific location, we know there were no officers present because it was not one of the locations prioritised in the assessment that had been carried out,” Catanario said.
“The vehicle was going in the opposite direction to the direction of the race. The cyclist [Tarling] cut across the curve on the left lane – as is natural, as [racing] cyclists do – and that is what caused the cyclist and the vehicle to collide.”
Tarling’s loss is the latest in a sport increasingly beleaguered by safety issues. As racing speeds increase and traffic intensifies, costs for event security rise, meaning race organisers are coming under increasing pressure to implement more effective measures.
“It’s becoming increasingly expensive to organise races, and some organisers are abandoning the safety principles that govern the entire cycling bubble,” Pineau said. “The Volta a Portugal is a second-tier race; they have to find race officials, staff to organise it, and funds for the police.”
Tarling’s team, NSN Development, withdrew from the race on Saturday, but the race otherwise completed its final stages over the weekend as planned. Riders observed a minute’s silence at the start of the ninth stage, the leader’s jersey worn by Alexis Guérin was changed from yellow to black and the peloton wore black armbands.
Tributes were paid and black armbands worn at other races including the Czech Tour and the Arctic Race of Norway.
On Sunday Tarling’s father, Michael, posted a message on social media. “This has been the hardest couple of days of our lives and it’s taken us a bit of time to be able to post this. Hearing how lovingly and fondly Fin was thought of has been a huge help to us. We simply can’t thank you all enough for the support we’ve had.
“I don’t know how we carry on from here, but we’ll figure it out with the support of all our family, friends, and community. Whilst our broken hearts will never be fixed, he was not only our son and brother but our best mate. Gentle, loving with the driest sense of humour, we will miss him terribly.”