Riders asked for safer finish barriers for six years. The UCI will require them from 2027.

Six years after Fabio Jakobsen was almost killed when he was thrown into the barriers at the finish of a Tour de Pologne stage, cycling's governing body has agreed to regulate the barriers themselves. From 2027 the UCI will require organisers of WorldTour races to meet a safety standard for the final 500 metres of every finish.

It is a rare instance of a governing body reaching into the physical build of an event. Finish-line barriers are supplied and installed by the race organiser, often reused across a season, and until now their design has been left to whoever was putting the race on. Riders have spent years arguing that a barrier which lets a handlebar catch, or which collapses inward under a falling rider, is the difference between a broken collarbone and a career-ending injury.

Tracking riders who crash out of sight

The same announcement covers a second gap that a death exposed. Muriel Furrer died after crashing during the 2024 world championships in Switzerland; she left the road and was not found for more than an hour. GPS tracking will again be used at this year's Road World Championships in Montreal, and the UCI says it will "establish protocols and a regulatory framework for the use of real-time tracking systems at races".

For organisers the practical consequence lands in 2027 — the year the Tour de France next runs under the new requirement, and the first season in which barrier procurement becomes a compliance question rather than a purchasing one.