The first UCI yellow card for harmful using has been awarded on the Tour de France Femmes, with Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) warned for her actions throughout the stage 2 dash.
The Italian lead-out specialist’s punishment was revealed within the official post-race communiqué, citing “improper conduct that endangers others within the ultimate dash” as per Article 2.12.007.8.2-1 of the UCI laws.
SD Worx-Protime later confirmed Guarischi was given a yellow card for having stopped pedalling and taking her arms off the bars after finishing her lead-out for Lorena Wiebes. The UCI commissaires dominated the transfer as harmful.
“Barabara pulled the dash for Lorena Wiebes after which she stopped biking and began cheering to Lorena within the microphone they usually stated it was a harmful state of affairs,” sports activities supervisor Danny Stam instructed Cyclingnews.
“I believe it could create some harmful moments as a result of if somebody is standing nonetheless within the bunch, they usually come from behind with pace, then it’s one thing.”
Despite in the end conceding that that is how the brand new yellow card rule will probably be utilized, Stam steered that such strikes aren’t a uncommon incidence in sprints, with lead-out riders tending to drop again by way of the peloton after finishing their effort.
“I imply you see it in all places eh?” Stam steered.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, evaluations and knowledgeable shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“Every dash it’s the identical however OK, if that is the purpose at what’s a yellow card.”
Amid the chaos of a double stage race day on Tuesday, SD Worx-Protime have been initially confused by the choice, with little preliminary communication from the UCI judges.
“Nobody is aware of no. We don’t know, we have now completely no clue,” sports activities director Anna van der Breggen stated, talking to Cyclingnews and Velo after stage 3.
“We will ask as a result of when you make a mistake, that you must know the error after which you possibly can enhance. So we’ll ask and hopefully get a proof.”
Van der Breggen even spoke to Guarischi after the stage and he or she was simply as dumbfounded. A better examination of her actions within the ultimate does present the Italian full her lead-out, earlier than shouting at Wiebes. She then took one hand off the handlebars to scream extra encouragement through her radio.
“We requested Barabara herself ‘Did you do one thing that you just suppose was on the restrict?’ however she doesn’t know. She says and he or she needs to know as nicely,” stated Van der Breggen.
With Stam and the group studying of the incident, he merely confirmed that “She was aggravated about it.”
This is how the UCI yellow card system works:
Yellow playing cards in biking are a brand new system presently being trialled by the UCI, taking inspiration from soccer, with a trial interval presently being run on their use till December 31 2024.
After this era, their use will probably be evaluated by SafeR, the protection initiative venture partially launched final 12 months by the UCI and key stakeholders in biking aimed toward enhancing security in males’s and girls’s races, which is anticipated to be totally performing from January 1 2025.
For the second, “yellow playing cards will signify a sanction however is not going to bodily exist”, and an accumulation of them is not going to end in additional punishment comparable to disqualification from races or suspension, nevertheless, that would be the goal of the system going ahead.
The initiative was designed to observe any unhealthy conduct of the peloton and anybody within the race convoy, with riders, sports activities administrators, journalists and motorcycle drivers amongst these eligible to obtain the sanction.
The UCI additionally mapped out 21 incidents which may result in a yellow card in article 2.12.007, alongside the already-in-place sanctions of fines, factors deductions, ejections and many others, with incidents starting from “taking off necessary helmet throughout the race” for riders to “Interviewing a rider throughout the race” for journalists.
After the SafeR analysis of the five-month trial interval, accumulating a number of yellow playing cards may end in various levels of punishment, as laid out by the UCI in June:
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage because it occurs and extra. Find out extra.