Cycling is a sport that’s all about going fast and I’ve no idea how you turn that round to make it safer

We’ve seen some nasty accidents in races in the last few seasons – the most notorious was the one at Itzulia Basque Country that brought down Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, and Remco Evenepoel among others. The long shadow it threw over the season means it was at least as consequential to the year as, say, the collected efforts of Team Ineos.

How you make the sport safer is an important question, with no easy answers. At the recent race organisers’ conference, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme drew on years of experience to tell the room, “The races need to slow down. The riders are going too fast.”