'This shouldn't happen' – Paul Seixas joins calls for greater rider safety following death of Finlay Tarling

Paul Seixas has continued the call for better safety in the peloton following the death of British rider Finlay Tarling at the Volta a Portugal in August, who was killed after colliding with a non-race vehicle that had entered the course.

Speaking on Canal+ show 'Clique', Seixas reiterated much of the words of Remco Evenepoel at Il Lombardia, who spoke as the peloton carried out a five-minute protest before the final Monument of the year after several more incidents involving vehicles on the race route occurred in the back end of the racing calendar.

These included Coppa Bernocchi – where a DHL delivery van driver turned onto the course – and Tre Valli Varesine – where a police motorbike hit two Pinarello Q36.5 riders – two of the Italian Autumn Classics that serve as the build-up to Il Lombardia, where Seixas made history as the youngest-ever winner.

The young French superstar got emotional as he emphasised the need for better safety standards once more, having raced against Tarling several times, including at the junior World Championships and junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège as they both developed towards professional careers.

"Honestly, it's terrible. The problem is, he's not the only one," said Seixas.

"What's more, I raced with him, and it really affects me. It really affected me at the time, because what's terrible is that we'll be thinking: 'This is yet another cyclist who has died in a race this year.'"

The protest at Il Lombardia came about through a WhatsApp group with Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy spearheading the idea, which was kept quiet from teams and the CPA – the rider union – and coincided with a statement being released en masse by riders on social media.

Seixas didn't mince his words as he detailed how serious the call is for greater safety, admitting just how scary bike racing can be when incidents like what happened in Portugal are still possible.

"I think it really affected everyone, all the riders. That's when you realise that sometimes there are real organisational problems; the organisers do their best, that's not what we're saying, but sometimes there should be more strict standards," he said.

"We protested about it at Lombardia, at the beginning of the race, for five minutes. What happened is extremely serious. Families are affected. It's very serious that it happened during a race. A professional organisation, riders losing their lives; it's frightening."

Seixas talked about how while he hasn't had a major crash himself, the risks of racing can enter a rider's mind at the most dangerous parts of a race, and while noting that accidents and crashes are unfortunately part and parcel of professional bike racing, a death like Tarling's simply should not happen.

"Let's just say that sometimes you get a little stressed, but you don't think it's for your life either. When you're in a peloton, there's a false flat downhill, and you're going 80 kph, sometimes you're still a little scared," said the Frenchman.

"You think to yourself: 'Now, it could be… Serious', but you must not think about it; that's the thing. And you know that everyone else is aware of it too, so they're not going to do anything reckless either. Then, sometimes there's nervousness; that's what can make everyone tense and create danger.

"When there are falls, yes, you get injured, but on the road, I've never had a fracture or a sprain; I've never had anything. Scratches, that's happened to me, several times, many times even. But you always come out of it well. Afterwards, there have been very serious falls in history, but riders who find their death like that in a race, that shouldn't happen."

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