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news
Geraint Thomas on Alpe d'Huez video still.JPGGeraint Thomas says cycle helmets should be compulsory
Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas believes that cycle helmets should be compulsory when riding a bike in the UK, saying that there is “no reason not to” wear one.
In an interview in the Sunday Times Magazine, the Team Sky rider said: "I would certainly make helmets compulsory. I always wear a helmet, I've put on a helmet more times than I've buckled a seatbelt.
"Helmets have come on a lot – well ventilated, not too hot, you don't look stupid – no reason not to."
Thomas’s comments unsurprisingly stirred up a fair bit of discussion on social media, which came as something as a surprise to the Welshman.
Wow! This was one question in an hour interview. It’s nothing I’ve ever thought about. So when asked I thought... I always wear one and I’d advise all children to wear them so Didn’t realise people felt so passionately about helmets!! #thisaintacampaign #calmdown
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) August 26, 2018
While the Highway Code recommends that cyclists wear a helmet, campaign groups including Cycling UK believe that it should be down to the individual to choose whether or not to wear one, and cite studies showing that in countries such as Australia where they have been made mandatory there has been a downturn in the number of people cycling, which has a negative impact on public health generally.
Among those responding to Thomas’s comments was former world and Olympic champion Chris Boardman, who has said that making helmets compulsory is not among the top 10 things that could make cycling on Britain’s roads safer.
He told Thomas via Twitter that making helmets compulsory for all cyclists was an opinion he shared when he was racing, but he changed his mind after becoming involved in cycle campaigning and assessing the evidence.
@GeraintThomas86 Exactly what I thought when I was a pro. It’s an intuitive stance until you research levels of danger compared to other things we do helmet-less and crucially, the unintended consequences.
Here’s a 2min read (again) https://t.co/ysiqlydhzW
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) August 26, 2018
Thomas’s remarks were made as part of his views on how cycling in Britain has changed over the past decade.
He said: "Things have improved a lot since 2008 and 2012, after the Olympics, when cycling really caught on.
"When I was a kid I was always being beeped and told to get off the effin' road. The problem is that cyclists and drivers see each other as enemies.
"A cyclist can get cut up by a car and the driver has been an idiot, but 10 minutes later that cyclist is jumping a red light. You've got to share the road.”
He added: "London is different. I've never ridden a bike in London, apart from in a race. I've watched from a taxi and it does seem a bit crazy.”
Thomas isn’t the only high-profile cyclist to have recommended helmets be made compulsory and have suffered a backlash on social media, with Sir Bradley Wiggins among those to have called for them to be mandatory, as did Laura Kenny, although she later changed her mind on the issue and said it should be a matter of “personal discretion.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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91 comments
I stand corrected. Pay your taxes.
The helmet thing is getting stupid. I got my 18 month old son a sit on scooter the other day (one of the Micro Scooters with the seat) and they wanted me to get a helmet. He is sat on it. It has three wheels and he scoots it along with his feet. He is lower down, slower and more stable than when he is running around the garden. It has made him slower and more stable.
My wee lad ended up in A&E after a scooting event at his school nursery. Of course he was wearing a helment during the event, it was on his way back to class that he tripped while carrying the scooter and helmet (he was fine, minor cut that the school wanted checked in case it needed a stitch)
All kids should wear helemets at all times I say!!
And all OAPs, they fall over sometimes too.
The only time my son has been to have medical attention for a bump was when he ran headlong in to a wall when he first started walking and got over confident. Helmets when not on scooters is probably better.
Well, quite. The whole attitude to kids and risk is bizarre.
Go to any playground and you'll see small kids 6 - 10 feet off the ground, clinging precariously to climbing frames, monkey bars and slides with not a helmet in sight. Yet as soon as little Johnny wants to pootle around at ground level, at walking speed, on a stabilised bike, it's all "OMG, put on a helmet before you die!".
See 59 taking his Merc for a spin
tenor.gif
I don't wear a helmet, because cycling is not dangerous.
A 40 year cyclist, Time Trialist, Tourer, ... recent LEJOG'er .... helmet free.
Why do i need one .....
Why not spine protector, elbow protectors ... etc ...
However i have had a cycling accident that resulted in concussion ... knocked off by a cyclist. ... 30 years ago .....
Anyone heard of Fault Case Analysis ...... ??
I saw this on the BBC website this morning and responded by return at some length via email - much good may it do, but you never know.
I thought at this level, you had a publicist to help stop you making foot-in-mouth comments like this - and after a lifetime of cycling too - where - on the Moon*, or something?? Someone was asleep at the wheel there?
I don’t buy the Sunday Times, so I haven’t seen the full interview.
In practice, I wear a helmet in my bike, but there’s a post-Alliston, post-truth principle here. we’re in burqua debate territory: There’s much more pressing issues than this to concern ourselves with in terms of bandwidth, energy and priorities.
In a country whose national values include themes of live & let live and tolerance, it surprises me how quick some are to say “x should be made to do y, or shouldn’t be allowed to do z”.
*helmets compulsory
I wear a helmet in case I run out of talent and skid into a wall. I’m under no illusions that it’ll help me if I get left hooked by a van on the way to work. A helmet is probably of most use in any subsequent court case, so the jury don’t see the cyclist as irresponsible. How depressing.
Then you're just as well informed about court cases as you are about helmets generally. There has been a single court case where it was found that not wearing a helmet was contributory negligence, in such unique and peculiar circumstances that it does not make case law. In many other cases, drivers' insurance companies threaten to reduce damages because of lack of helmet, but these have always been withdrawn before it goes to court because they know they will lose.
Quick, Sunday Times, surely you've got someone in Belgium, send them to buttonhole Lewis Hamilton after the grand prix, and ask him whether little old ladies driving down the supermarket should wear full-face helmets, fire-proof overalls, four-point harnesses, and HANS devices.
The vast majority of folk in the UK who don’t wear helmets are neds on 29ers or crusty old club fuds who think they're the real deal (how wrong they are) with the occasional fixie t*t and Pashley Tabitha thrown in. Any sensible parent has their child wearing a helmet these days (rightly so) while the rest of the cycling population is out on the road or in the wilds with a lid on. We're constantly trying to look Pro and the Pro look means you wear a helmet. On the very rare occasion you see someone (and they'll be male 100% of the time) in full lycra on a road bike with no helmet on it just looks odd. You don;t think 'oh look, he's expressing his rights', no, you think 'tool'.
So you wear a helmet because it's part of the uniform and "looks right"? Not because of some nugget of data you've found that might finally put The Debate to bed?
Yip.
Speaking as a " tool" I wear lycra because it's more comfortable and doesn't flap around in the wind, dries out quickly etc. These are real benefits that I reap on every ride (or most, some days the rain never stops).
A foam lid on the other hand offers minimal protection to a tiny part of my body, a benefit only may be obtained in the event of a crash the likelihood of which is smaller than many other activities (walking, passenger in car).
I can cope with people who wear a helmet because they think it makes them safer (although i disagree) but if you ask me, the tool is the person who wears a helmet just to look pro.
I have an opinion on both the content and the writer, I shall keep both to myself.
I've seen these sensible parents, usually two adults, two little kiddywinks all wearing helmets and cycling at little over walking pace. If they fall and hit their heads it would be like falling over when walking or running. Why don't these "sensible" parents make their precious ones wear helmets the rest of the time? What's so special about falling off a bike? It's a mystery, isn't it?
I wear a cap; I don't care if someone else (who I'll never even meet) thinks that I look like a tool, because I'm not going for the "pro look". I'm just riding my bike in the way that I feel most comfortable.
We're not all as insecure and concerned with how others perceive us as you are.
Yes you are, just the 1968 one.
I actually model my look on Tyres from Spaced, like Dan Martin obviously does.
Bingo, I've never ridden any other way, I don't often wear a cap tbh but if I've shaved my hair to a 4 all over for the summer and it's really baking hot I might otherwise it's au naturel but I wear
I love riding a nice bike that makes riding a bike easier for whatever you're using it for, who doesn't, but it's the insecure who feel the need to look like something they're not, too often they are the ones that are condescending should someone turn up to a TT, club ride or event because the bike and gear they have isn't 'de-rigueur'.
I look at a person on a bike and think great they're not in a car, have a casual glance at bike to see what it is, even an old 3 speed shopping bike is interesting and can be a talking point in a positive way. What does grate me though is when someone
I honestly never understand why anyone would want to wear a plastic hat when on a racing bike, it makes no sense whatsoever, it makes you ride more dangerously/doesn't give you much protection at all at racing speeds , it makes your head hotter and sweatier, it's less aero in most instances so slows you down/takes more effort for same speed, surely you'd want to be more 'pro' and go faster right?
Considering more vehicle occupants than cyclists suffer head injuries on British roads, I wonder if Geraint Thomas has considered wearing a helmet every time he gets in a car? I think the statistics for head injuries amongst pedestrians are also rather troubling. So using his logic, pedestrians should also be required to wear helmets (and high viz).
Given the statistics on cyclists suffering injuries while riding that show the most common injuries are to the limbs or that most fatalities are due to major body trauma, I'm curious why he isn't calling for BMX/MTB racing body armour including shin/kneepads and forearm/elbow protection to be a requirement, not to mention BMX/MTB style full face helmets.
Seeing the speeds he achieves on downhill stretches, he should surely know that neither the lycra kit he's wearing or the plastic hat he has on his head will do anything at all to protect in the event of something going seriously wrong.
Just because he's a race winning cyclist, it doesn't mean he has much in the way of common sense or an understanding of road safety issues.
Boardman's common sense comments so valid!
Would be happy if he was running the country.
Not sure where MBE fits in the rankings or whether he cares about that sort of thing but how isn't he a Lord by now?
Succesful sporting career, built an employing/exporting business with Boardman bikes, countless years on road safety and all round really nice guy by the sounds of it.
And I would like it to be compulsory for British sports people to pay full and proper tax in Britian. I'm thinking more Chris Froome and Lewis Hamilton rather than Geraint.
Do you think Geraint lives in Monaco for the sea view?
Erm not sure what this has to do with the price of petrol but you do realise Thomas lives in Monaco.
Right. And I’m sure he chose to “live” there for the sea air.
Why even ask him? Do they ask motor racing drivers about their views on road safety? It’s stupid. It’s borderline insulting.
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