The Latvian Cycling Federation has protested to the UCI in regards to the non-disqualification of Mathieu van der Poel from the World Championships elite males’s street race after the Dutchman rode on a pavement and “endangered spectators”.
Van der Poel was noticed bunnyhopping on and off of the pavement with 58.4km to go within the males’s race, an motion that’s towards the foundations and has beforehand seen riders disqualified – notably Marlen Reusser at Gent Wevelgem earlier this season and Luke Rowe within the 2018 Tour of Flanders.
However, the Dutchman obtained no punishment, prompting the Latvian Federation to jot down an open letter to the UCI, questioning the consistency and equality of the rule utility by biking’s governing physique.
Latvia’s Toms Skujiņš completed fourth within the street race behind Van der Poel, who outsprinted him into Zürich to take the ultimate spot on the rostrum behind solo winner Tadej Pogačar and Ben O’Connor.
“According to the foundations, a rider leaping onto a walkway and endangering the general public or different riders have to be disqualified instantly,” learn the open letter from Sandis Akis, the federation’s president.
“The subject is not merely that he was driving on the pavement, which might usually end in a fantastic of 200 to 1000 CHF; on this case, Van der Poel wasn’t even given a fantastic.”
“The actual drawback is that he endangered spectators, a violation that has persistently been penalized with disqualification this yr. Van der Poel virtually rode right into a spectator whereas overtaking three riders on a footpath with no different explicit cause, as he was not avoiding a crash.”
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The rule Akis references states {that a} fantastic of as much as 1000 CHF, 25 UCI level deduction and/or a yellow card are the punishments for breaking UCI Cycling Regulations 2.12.007: Race Incidents Relating to Road Events Rule 7.6.
Any disqualification or relegation comes on the commisaires’ discretion “in critical circumstances of benefit, endangerment”.
The open letter comes after a Latvian consultant tried to protest about Van der Poel’s motion after the end of the race in Zürich, to which they have been reportedly informed “it would not be good for the game” to disqualify the Dutchman.
“After the race, a consultant of the Latvian Federation tried to debate this race state of affairs with UCI commisaires. One of the race commissaires said that the entire commissaires had seen the state of affairs, deemed it not harmful and one thing to be penalized,” continued Akis.
“The Latvian consultant insisted that the foundations apply to everybody, however the commissaire argued that it would not be good for the game, decoding the foundations as they noticed match. The Latvian consultant was subsequently despatched away.
“It appears that some are extra equal than others, particularly with regards to unpopular selections to be made.”
Akis went on to name for a response from the governing physique, expressing his issues about each the protection facet of the incident and the dearth of consistency in rulings by the UCI.
“As a comparatively small Federation, we’re deeply involved about this determination. We urge the UCI to use its guidelines persistently to make sure the protection and integrity of biking and never depart it to this sort of potential accident with out response, simply because it will be so-called harm of repute,” he stated.
“We, as part of the biking world, anticipate the UCI to publicly clarify the choice of commissaires to keep away from an identical state of affairs, as paying no consideration to this example creates a floor for larger danger to racing sooner or later which is one thing nobody needs.”
Cyclingnews has reached out to the UCI for a response to the Latvian Federation’s open letter.