Why Airbags Might Actually Solve Pro Cycling's Safety Crisis
Updated December 1, 2025 12:31PM
An idea only seems weird until it’s proven to work, right? Well, that could be the case for two of the most bizarre proposals for improving safety in pro cycling.
In fact, a recent push for “airbags” and “proficiency tests” might be the best fixes we’ve heard so far.
And it’s not just us.
Lidl-Trek boss Luca Guercilena is adamant that the UCI’s proposed restrictions on gearing, handlebars, and wheel rims will only go so far in resolving cycling’s safety crisis.
“Speed is inherent to performance technology. If you limit one material, research and development will simply develop another that is faster,” Guercilena told Bici. “The starting point should be identifying what truly protects you, then addressing everything else.”
Airbags in bibs and helmets?
For Guercilena, “the starting point” begins with a new age of apparel.
“Crashes will always happen. They’re part of our sport,” Guercilena told Bici. “I would invest in technology to create an airbag in the helmet or jersey that saves your head and spine when you hit the ground.”
Guercilena’s not the first to ponder such a wacky reinvention of cycling’s norm.
The idea of cycling airbags is nothing new.
The UCI said earlier this year it’s looking into introducing the tech as part of “SafeR,” its ongoing project to fix a sport stunned by recent deaths.
And the possibility of bibs and helmets with built-in airbags isn’t a far-away science fiction either.
Downhill skiers are already using vests built by the brand Dainese that auto-inflate on impact. This Belgian project is bringing a similar idea to cycling with an “aerobag” product that’s basically a set of self-inflating bibs.
And helmets that inflate and deflate for storage have already arrived, so the technology is there, too.
As Lidl-Trek’s Guercilena said, crashes are inescapable in pro cycling. But now the bunch is multiple kilometers faster, the consequences are becoming exponentially more severe.
Any way to soften those inevitable landings can only be a good thing.
A pro cycling ‘proficiency test’?
Another idea that’s emerged is almost certainly more controversial.
Both GC ace João Almeida and the retired Stef Clement think bike riders need to learn how to ride their bikes.
“There is no single proficiency test you have to take before you can become a professional cyclist,” Clement said last week from the Dutch national cycling gala’s “Laatste Etappe” show.
“You have to be able to prove you’ve got good numbers on an indoor bike, then you are let go. That’s like being allowed to use a tractor-driver’s license in Formula 1,” Clement said.
“Some proof of competence and steering skills might be useful.”
Clement retired in 2018. The Dutchman was lucky to avoid the super-aggressive dynamic of the post-pandemic era.
Almeida, however, has a first-hand view.
Pogačar’s partner-in-crime at UAE Emirates-XRG told Matt Stephens on the Sigma Sports Podcast that the peloton’s attitude stinks – and that it’s going to provoke pileups.
“I think there’s a lack of respect in the bunch. People don’t really care if they crash, they don’t think much about safety,” Almeida said. “The crashes are because of riders’ attitudes.”
Almeida explained that the cut-throat dynamic of modern racing means riders brake later and descend faster than ever, regardless of the consequences for anybody.
“Maybe some riders need to do a course to do some cornering, some descents, so they know what they are doing. Because if you go faster, you need to have more skills as well,” Almeida told the Sigma Sports Podcast.
“I don’t want to crash anybody, I don’t want to crash myself, so maybe I brake a bit earlier just to be safe. And then maybe I push more on the climb after or something,” Almeida continued. “But that is clearly not the mindset at the moment.”
Beyond brake-gate, disgruntled veterans constantly complain of young rivals barging into leadout trains, divebombing corners, and worse.
A sport of “unwritten rules” and good manners is becoming an ungovernable Wild West.
UCI mulling pro cycling skills tests and ‘race licenses’
A pro cycling “proficiency test” risks being patronizing and pointless.
It’s hard to see supertalents like Isaac del Toro and Matthew Brennan being too happy about the UCI making them ride around traffic cones and watch tutorials about braking lines.
But who knows?
An “entrance exam” might help reduce the ever-escalating risk in pro cycling.
CPA president Adam Hansen told Velo that such a “riding license” might soon become a reality.
Eliminating any skills gap would make the peloton safer for all its players.
“One of SafeR’s deliverables is to somehow introduce some type of ‘super license,’ or ‘young license,’ to allow the riders to also slowly progress and develop,” Hansen said.
“Maybe they have to do some type of test, like a driving test. For example, where you can see how you handle your bike, see how you go in the feed zone, see if you can get the bottles properly,” Hansen told Velo.
For Hansen, skills courses could help cycling super-juniors find their wheels in the whirlwind of the sport’s top tier.
“SafeR is thinking about some type of test for riders before they can go straight up to WorldTour,” Hansen told Velo.
The rider pushback to any type of “entrance exam” could be brutal.
“Is 7 w/kg not enough?”
But it would at least mean 17-year-old phenoms and watt-monster ex-rowers know what they’re doing before they go bumping bars in a 50kph bike race.
What seems bizarre now might be normal for the next generation
Zooming out, it’s hard to conceive of airbags or exams becoming a thing anytime soon.
The technological and bureaucratic hurdles make it unlikely they’ll be a reality before Pogi finally unclips from the pedals.
And imagine the anger from apparel brands when they’re told they need to reinvent their entire cycling wardrobes.
Nonetheless, airbags and exams make a lot more sense than trying to slow the technological evolution of the sport, and by extension, the entire industry.
And while these ideas might seem nonsense in 2025, they might just be normal in 2035.
Former Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin summed it up nicely when he spoke alongside Clement on the “Laatste Etappe.”
“Cycling is the only sport where you drive down a descent at 100kph without any kind of protection,” Dumoulin said last week.
“Do you think a motorcyclist likes to wear a whole suit with knee pads and the whole thing? No, of course not. But it’s just mandatory. At some point, you get used to it,” Dumoulin continued.
“Nowadays it’s normal to put on your helmet, whereas we used to think that was ridiculous,” he said. “So let it also become normal for us to wear protective clothing.”
Rapha “ProTeam AirBibs” and a Giro “Inflator Eclipse,” anyone?
