After the recent incidents in Clasica San Sebastian and the Vuelta a Espana concerning bikes and motorbikes crashing, leading to injured riders, CPA (Professional Cyclists Association) president Gianni Bugno has appealed to the UCI to “stop the bloodbath”.

"We also ask you to not stand still in front of this issue," Bugno wrote in an open letter to the UCI that was also set to the media. "It is no longer possible to believe that these accidents are simply due to fate or misfortune that happen to our riders at the Vuelta and at other important competitions since the beginning of the year. We rather believe in a lack of organization, stricter rules and checks that limit the traffic during the race and allow the rider to do their job with major security."

Bugno called for a "fast and urgent meeting in Aigle" between the CPA and the UCI road commission "where the riders can explain their demands to finally stop this bloodbath".

BMC and Tinkoff-Saxo have both urged UCI president Brian Cookson to bring in new rules to prevent motorbikes being as close to riders in order to keep them safer and have less crashes between the two.

"Safety is the most important thing for the UCI, and I'm sure for everybody. Everybody has a responsibility - the riders have a responsibility as well, but certainly the drivers of the cars, motos, especially have a responsibility for safety," Cookson said in an interview with Universal Sports. "We're certainly seeing too many accidents. Part of that is the environmental conditions, and traffic calming features in the road and so on, but also there are some examples of human error."

"There will always be crashes in bike racing, but we have to make sure they are minimized as much as possible. We are looking at how to get better trained officials, we've licensed the officials more effectively, and if there are accidents we take swift action. The road commission met two days ago, and we're going to institute a study and look at the problem and make sure we have some changes over the winter in time for next year. That might include looking at training drivers, or looking at the number of riders in a race."