The AIOCC General Assembly
in Burgos (Spain)
The AIOCC hold its General Assembly this Friday, November 24 in Burgos (Spain).
44 representatives from member races attended the event this morning while 14 members followed the debates via videoconference.
After a new season marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the many difficulties encountered by the organizers, the participants were able to discuss the topics covered by the AIOCC, in the presence also of Amina Lanaya, the General Manager of the UCI and Tom Van Damme, president of the Conseil du Cyclisme Professionnel (Professional Cycling Council).
Safety is everyones business
This is undoubtedly the main reason for the creation of an independent organization like SafeR. This project unites all families in the world of cycling with the main and sole objective of improving safety to reduce the number of incidents in races.
This organization brings to the table the cyclists (men and women), the teams, the commissioners, the International Cycling Union (UCI) and of course the organizers, to work together.
Jaap Van Hulten presents this project. SafeR meetings have been held weekly since June and a task force is currently formalizing the structure and content of this project, which should be ready by the start of the 2024 season. Uniting all families around the theme of safety is ambitious. To achieve the stated objectives, all parties involved must contribute financially to the efforts.
General Assembly in Burgos (Spain)
ht:YP Médias
"Safety is everyones business"
"This season, we unfortunately experienced a true tragedy during a race.
How can you die at 26?
Yet this is what happened to Gino Mäder on June 16, after his crash during the fifth stage of
the Tour de Suisse... How can one die when there is still everything to live for...
I have thought a lot and I still think often about this young rider, Gino, his family, his friends. Like you no doubt. And, like you, I thought, immediately afterwards, of the races organizer, in this case Olivier Senn, and his team. Because no one is entirely safe and we know it well: this terrible accident could have happened anywhere, at any of our races.
ht:YP Médias
We know that cycling is a dangerous, a beautiful, but sometimes a cruel sport. The emotion born from this absolute tragedy placed even greater emphasis on safety in our events, on the need to progress again and again, to improve constantly, in all areas.
Safety is everyones business. To protect the riders, of course, but also the public, the fans at the side of the road, and our organizing teams, dedicated, passionate, commendable, who work very often (more and more often) in difficult conditions.
Something became even more obvious: if we want to limit the risk of accidents, we must work together, with the riders themselves and with the teams. The creation of a joint organization, SafeR, which was in the planning stages even before the tragedy, was officially announced a few days later, at the start of the Tour de France, in Bilbao, in the Basque Country,in Spain, during a press conference bringing together the UCI president David Lappartient, and representatives of the different cycling stakeholders, the AIGCP for the teams, the CPA for the riders, and the AIOCC of course.
We still have many other challenges to overcome together, but I wanted to focus here on this crucial aspect. Road cycling goes to peoples homes, it goes past their homes. Beyond the competition itself, it above all gives happiness, a few minutes or a few hours of carefree time in a world where the news is sometimes difficult.
And we must do everything to keep the party going."