The UCI will prohibit using crew radio and start to symbolically punish riders with yellow playing cards from August 1 and impose sanctions in 2025 because the SafeR stakeholders group works to enhance race security.
The UCI examined the modification of the ‘three-kilometre’ rule, the purpose the place occasions for the overall classification and the simplification of calculating time gaps in dash finishes, throughout the Tour de France and have determined to press on with extra modifications and trials within the remaining months of 2024.
A check restriction on using crew radio or ‘earpieces’ will likely be utilized throughout three levels of the Tour de Pologne (12-18 August) and on the UCI ProSeries occasion Vuelta a Burgos (5-9 August).
This may restrict the knowledge riders obtain from their crew autos and directeur sportif throughout races, forcing the riders to resolve crew ways amongst themselves and likewise be careful for any security hazards.
The UCI first tried to ban earpieces in 2011, even testing a full ban throughout the Tour de France on stage 10. Now the exams are again.
The yellow card punishments will likely be below trial till the top of 2024 in WorldTour and Girls’s WorldTour races, with the UCI saying ‘yellow playing cards will characterize a sanction listed within the race communiqué however is not going to bodily exist and won’t lead to any restrictions when it comes to participation in following occasions.”
On the finish of the 2024 season an analysis of the yellow card system will likely be carried out by SafeR and authorized by the UCI earlier than sanctions are imposed from January 1 2025.
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The yellow card system will then even be prolonged to occasions within the UCI ProSeries (Males and Girls Elite), the Olympic Video games, the UCI World Championships (Males and Girls Elite and Beneath 23) and Continental Championships (Males and Girls Elite and Beneath 23).
The UCI warned that yellow playing cards in 2025 will lead to “totally different intervals of suspension relying on the variety of yellow playing cards obtained by any particular person over a given interval.”
“Yellow playing cards will likely be issued for offences more likely to pose a danger to the protection of the competitors and can apply to anybody current within the race convoy (riders, directeur sportif and race official motorcycle and automobile drivers), who would possibly have interaction in behaviour that would jeopardise the protection of the occasion.”
The UCI rule guide lists 21 attainable incidents that may result in race officers punishing individuals with yellow playing cards.
The proposed punishments are disqualification and a seven-day suspension for 2 yellow playing cards in the identical race, a 14-day suspension for 3 yellow playing cards in 30 days and a 30-day suspension for six yellow playing cards in a single 12 months. If a rider is suspended throughout a race for a number of yellow playing cards, they are going to be expelled from the race however preserve any outcomes and UCI factors gained throughout the race.
These embody disposing of waste outdoors the litter zone, holding onto a crew automobile or getting mechanical help from a shifting car, sheltering behind the slipstream of a car and irregular feeding (sticky bottle).
The SafeR initiative will solely be absolutely operative for the 2025 season, with key stakeholders voting within the spring to oust Chief Government Officer Jaap Van Hulten lower than a 12 months after he was chosen for the place.
SafeR is managed and funded by the UCI, the AIOCC race organisers group, the AIGCP groups affiliation, the UNIO ladies’s crew affiliation and the lads’s and ladies’s CPA riders affiliation.
Security grew to become a serious concern within the spring after crashes within the males’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, Itzulia Basque Nation and different races.
The SafeR Case Administration Committee – comprising analysts and representatives of groups, riders and organisers – has begun to satisfy on a weekly foundation to overview any race incidents, suggest disciplinary measures, examine security issues and take into account suggestions.
The UCI mentioned on Monday that the UCI Race Incidents Database, established in partnership with Ghent College in Belgium, had logged 341 crashes, plus different ‘close to miss’ incidents.
Evaluation confirmed that round 49% of crashes happen within the final 40km of a race, involving on common two to a few riders. They regularly happen simply earlier than climbs, cobblestone sectors, and sprints, in addition to on slippery roads, close to/on visitors infrastructure, or throughout descents.
The UCI mentioned the SafeR analysts will make knowledgeable suggestions for security enhancements primarily based on tendencies noticed. They cited the prevalence of crashes involving younger riders and so underscored the necessity for enhanced rider schooling. The UCI additionally talked about establishing a framework regarding the variety of neo-professionals who can participate in sure occasions.
The UCI additionally confirmed that SafeR is engaged on the second part of a research of boundaries used to guard the end zone of a race, to outline new requirements when it comes to design, measurement, power, and impression absorption of boundaries separating the riders from the general public.
Race organisers and native authorities are, in idea, legally chargeable for race security, however it’s just about unattainable to totally shield the riders throughout lots of of kilometres of race routes. SafeR is the primary time all the game’s stakeholders will work collectively to enhance race security.
“50% of crashes are resulting from rider behaviour, with 50% resulting from different components, corresponding to obstacles that aren’t signalled or the velocity of the peloton,” UCI President David Lappartient mentioned within the spring.
“I am not right here to say it is all their fault; it may simply be a quick second of inattention. That is why we need to introduce a precept of yellow and purple playing cards, like in soccer, in order that harmful behaviour is healthier punished.”
