A brand new ‘yellow card’ system might be trialled in skilled biking, as a part of rule adjustments designed to advertise security in highway races.
Biking’s governing physique, the UCI, introduced the foundations on Wednesday night. Alongside the yellow card system, there might be adjustments to the 3km rule – whereby riders affected by crashes or mechanicals within the closing kilometres are given the identical end time as these round them on the time of the incident – how time gaps are calculated on dash levels, and potential restrictions on utilizing race radios.
The adjustments are to be trialled all through the remainder of this 12 months, with the 3km rule and new time hole laws to be trialled at “sure levels” of the Tour de France, which begins in simply over a fortnight.
The yellow card guidelines might be examined between August and the top of the 12 months, after which launched from 2025 with sanctions. The updates come on account of the work of the SafeR challenge, the UCI’s unbiased protected biking challenge, and had been determined by the administration committee of the UCI earlier this week.
The yellow card system will see any member of the race convoy, from riders to motorcycle riders, sanctioned for “any offence prone to pose a threat to the protection of the competitors”. The playing cards is not going to bodily exist, however symbolize a warning within the day’s race communiqué.
Violations of the foundations might be tracked by the UCI, with an accumulation of the yellow playing cards which means as much as 30 days of suspension. As soon as the suspension has been served, a file begins clear once more.
Two yellow playing cards in a single race will imply disqualification and a seven-day suspension; three playing cards in 30 days imply 14 days of suspension; and 6 inside a 12 months imply 30 days out of racing.
There are 21 race incidents that may be penalised, as in accordance with article 2.12.007 of the UCI Rules.
These embrace common infractions like utilizing a car’s slipstream, holding onto a automobile, indecent behaviour, too lengthy a “sticky bottle”, eliminating garbage exterior the waste zone, and taking off a helmet mid-race.
Adam Hansen, the president of the riders’ union, the CPA, mentioned: “A big survey carried out final 12 months indicated the necessity for a yellow card system in biking, which might be examined within the coming months earlier than being carried out subsequent 12 months.
“These preliminary measures really helpful by SafeR to the UCI show that riders’ requests are being heard and acted upon.”
The 3km rule merely implies that within the final 3km of a highway race stage (other than summit finishes), any crash or mechanical incident that holds up a rider is not going to end in time misplaced towards these he was with on the time of the incident.
Now, the protection web will be prolonged as much as 5 kilometres. Additionally, the way in which riders might be awarded occasions on the finish of dash levels might be subtly modified. Each might be trialled on the Tour.
At current, the identical time is allotted to riders so long as not more than a second separates gaps within the bunch. This might be elevated to a few seconds on some days, a transfer designed to “relieve the strain on riders in a roundabout way concerned within the dash and to permit them to go away a sure margin with the entrance of the race”.
This may give GC riders much more house to play with on the finish of sprints.
A last replace was that race radios might be restricted sooner or later. The UCI mentioned that it might “check the consequences of a restriction on carrying and utilizing earpieces in races this 12 months”, which could see simply two riders per staff allowed to have earpieces in.
