The tragic death of Finlay Tarling has plunged the cycling world into despair. There is much sadness, and equally many questions that deserve answers to explain the death of a young man of just 19 years old.

The debate on cycling safety, and particularly during races, is open, and among the messages of condolence and reconstructions of the incident, the president of the World Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA) Adam Hansen has also made his voice heard. Responding to colleagues at BBC Sport, the head of the riders' union expressed himself in a manner similar to the Portuguese National Guard spokesperson: «The organization is usually very good, but what happened on Friday represents a sort of system failure».

Hansen also emphasized that «sometimes, if people stopped in cars don't know cycling, they think that once the breakaway or the main group has passed, the entire race has passed, and they resume driving. But in reality, that's not the case: there can be many groups still coming».

The former Australian professional cyclist expressed a concept very similar to that of the Portuguese law enforcement authorities: «Closing every single road and every private access is difficult, and ultimately one wonders how much risk the organizers are willing to take and whether it's actually possible to have people stationed at all those points».

The world's top cycling administrator, however, also shifted his attention to accessories, particularly helmets: «One of the things we need to address is helmets. They need a major upgrade. Cycling helmets must pass the standard tests required. The European CE EN 1078 standard, for example, requires certification for impacts at only 19.5 km/h, and I don't believe that's sufficient for road races».

All well and good—safety starts with everything, including increasingly high-performance and safer helmets, and individual protections (airbags in shorts, etc.) are certainly extremely important for athlete safety, whether they are competitive or not. The real issue that Finlay's death has sadly brought back to the forefront, however, is safety in races. Talking about helmets rather than course safety and the importance of controlling access points only increases that sense of profound sadness that the death of young Tarling has left us with.