The topic of safety in professional cycling has been a hot topic at the Tour Down Under, with several UCI rules already newly put into place for 2025 and further regulations designed to reduce speeds in the peloton also under consideration.
Having suffered a severe concussion that kept him out of competition for 502 days, safety is also important to Intermarché-Wanty's Taco van der Hoorn. But he drew the line at the discussion of restricting riders to certain gear ratios.
"Personally, I don't have a really high cadence, so I always ride a bigger gear," Van der Hoorn told Cyclingnews at the Tour Down Under, where he ran a 58-tooth chainring and cassette going down to 11 teeth. "I like it to ride with 70 rpm all the time. So I'm used to having a higher gearing than other people. So for me personally, it would not be beneficial.
"I think going fast is also part of cycling, so I think it's a difficult discussion, because if you limit gears, do we also ban skinsuits or aerodynamic bikes because you go too fast?
Other rules he agreed with. "I think [the ban on] sitting on the top tube [aero tuck] was a good decision from the UCI. It was getting a bit dangerous, I have to say."
Van der Hoorn was less of a fan of the new regulations that eliminated any roadside hand-ups outside of the feed zones.
"I feel like the feed zones are more dangerous ... every rider is all over the place, getting to their soigneur, going from left to right, braking, so actually, it's quite chaotic.
"A lot of crashes happen in feed zones because it's messy. People get bottles, and everybody is close to each other. When everybody is spread out, it's much easier to take your bottle and you don't influence the other riders so much. The guys I've spoken to think it's worse. I think it's more safe to spread it around. They think it's safer but I don't think so."
Concussion recovery
Van der Hoorn suffered a concussion in a crash during the Tour of Flanders in 2023, and while there was talk of him returning to competition earlier last year, a start-stop recovery meant he didn't come back until August. Racing through to the last WorldTour race of the year, the Tour of Guangxi, Van der Hoorn accumulated 20 days of racing and a confidence-building victory in the Elfstendrace on October 2nd.
Returning to the Tour Down Under for the third time, Van der Hoorn is fully settled into the pro peloton. "Last year, coming back after this injury, my first race was really special, but now it's just back to business. It feels almost like I never left," he said.
Van der Hoorn had to take everyday life very gently during his layoff, otherwise he would endure brain fog and crushing headaches. He learned to build up gradually but said it was a frustrating process.
"It just took a really long time to heal, and every time you needed to make really small steps - it doesn't really help to just do nothing - it won't heal if you just rest. You need to really slowly build up, every time giving your brain a little bit more stimulus. The steps are so small that it makes it really difficult to get a setback.
"That was why it took so long - starts, stops - the steps were just so small. And a lot of times you do good for a month, and then one day you do a little bit too much, and then you go back where you were a month ago, and that's really frustrating."
The trials of his lengthy rehabilitation are now firmly in the rearview mirror and he's been able to race without feeling worried about it.
"Of course, I would rather not crash on my head. But I have talked with the specialists about it, and they say there is the chance [recovery from another concussion] will take longer - a little bit bigger than with people who never had a concussion. But it doesn't have to be that way. It can also be that you get a concussion and in three weeks, you're good again.
"So I hold on to that message. If the specialists say that's how it works, who am I to judge their opinion? So I just follow that and hope I don't crash on my head. And if I crash on my head, I am pretty confident that I will come back in a good way.
"You always have risks. Cycling is a dangerous sport, and you can have multiple things [happen]. You can also break your hip or something like that. It's a big part of it, unfortunately."
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