Matteo Trentin, in response to Chris Froome's suggestion that time trial bikes should be banned for safety reasons, told Cycling News that the problem is not the time trial bikes but the bikes themselves, and that the real problem is the condition of most roads with heavy traffic ...

Trentin has been outspoken about safety, representing his fellow professionals through the CPA, the professional riders' union, and attending UCI committee meetings. It was his recent comments on the need for gravel in road racing that sparked a major debate in the peloton over time trial bikes, which prompted Froome to address the issue of safety in a recent blog.

After having his career derailed by a crash on a time trial bike in 2019, Froome argued that aggressive, head-down positions are unsafe, especially when training on the open road.

He was speaking after Egan Bernal's life-threatening crash on a time trial bike and after Tom Pidcock suggested that pro riders need to find safer training methods for time trials.

"I'll never get good at TTs, so I don't worry about it," Trentin said at the start of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Ghent, joking and then speaking honestly about the issue.

"Of course, Chris' point about training on the road with a TT bike is correct, but I would add that it is not a TT bike issue.

"In fact, even small country roads can be dangerous, but that's not because we have TT bikes. You're not protected from collisions with cars, and people are becoming increasingly anxious about passing motorcycles for basically no reason.

"It's a matter of the mindset of the person sitting in the car and it's a matter of the mindset of the cyclist sitting on the bike. It has to be nicer. Sharing the road has to be nicer than it is now."

Asked how things could be changed, Trentin explained that the problem goes beyond the professional cycling community.

"It's habits. People's mindsets need to change, and that takes a lot of time," he told Cycling News.

"It's not about pro-cycling. We are a very small part, a very small part indeed, of the people who cycle on the roads every day. The big users of the roads on bicycles are tourists, or kids going to school or going to work, and we need to care about them more than we care about ourselves. It is our job and we know how we should act on the road.

"Of course, accidents can be behind every corner, but if you look at the statistics, it seems that 99 percent of those injured by traffic on bicycles are ordinary people."

As for how Trentin, his professional colleagues, and the sport's broader stakeholders can do their part: "It's about sending a message.

"It's about being more involved in spreading the message to the world, even within the race. It's like when racing became a landmark issue for the sport.

"Every sport sends a message. For the future of cycling, no parent is going to let their 12-13 year old ride on the road, and if we want to raise riders in 20 years, we need to fix this problem.