Letter: Tour de France without a helmet

From Mr Hugh Millington

Sir: Following the tragic accident yesterday of Italian cyclist, Fabio Casartelli, on the Tour de France, I was surprised to hear general comment from sports commentators and even Chris Boardman, on Radio 4's Today programme, reflecting that there was no real solution to improving safety on the Tour, other than making the wearing of helmets compulsory, which has already been tried, without success.

I was heartened to see just a month ago when I cycled up Mont Ventoux (site of the last Tour fatality in 1967) that many dangerous bends had crash bales in place - only to learn later that they had been installed for an annual car race that weekend. Notwithstanding this, surely such bales could easily be positioned on dangerous descents, especially around concrete bollards of the type that Fabio Casartelli hit.

Yours faithfully,

Hugh Millington

Boston Spa,

Wetherby

19 July