After a trial interval through the latter a part of the 2024 season, the UCI has formally applied a brand new system of punishments for security rule infractions, and the primary of the ‘yellow card’ penalties was given to Anna Badegruber throughout stage 2 of the ladies’s Santos Tour Down Under.
The new scheme provides warnings to the standard fines given out to riders and groups for incidents similar to sticky bottles, harmful using or driving and extra. During the trial interval, Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) earned the primary yellow card for sitting up throughout a Tour de France Femmes bunch dash. Even extra have been handed out through the Vuelta a España, however didn’t end in suspensions.
However, ranging from January 1 this 12 months, suspensions shall be handed out for individuals who earn a number of yellow playing cards.
Badegruber was fined CHF 200 and given a yellow card for passing the peloton too intently after her staff chief was concerned in a crash.
“If the commissaries determined it was too harmful and I deserve a yellow card for that, then that is how it’s, and we are going to transfer on from that. But clearly, you do not need to get a second one in the identical occasion, as a result of you then’re out. For that motive, I do consider it must be actually clear what incidents you’re going to get a yellow card from.”
If a person will get two yellow playing cards in the identical race, they are going to be ejected from the occasion and suspended for seven days, and that was a priority for Badegruber, who had Mie Bjørndal Ottestad mendacity in third place within the total classification forward of the ultimate stage.
“It shall be tremendous demanding,” Badegruber advised Cyclingnews earlier than the ultimate stage of the Women’s Tour Down Under. “For certain, with transferring within the automobiles or feeding or something now you in all probability have it a little bit bit in your thoughts, ‘Am I doing the whole lot proper? Is it appropriate? Is it not? Which guidelines apply? In the tip, it is racing. We know what we’re doing. We went for the UCI course and we have been within the sport, most of us, fairly a number of years now. We will simply attempt to give attention to the riders and get that finished.”
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There was a consensus between 4 ladies’s staff administrators that the yellow card may very well be helpful in enhancing security for the riders, however there’s scepticism and concern that the UCI will be unable to make sure that yellow playing cards are handed out in a good and even method.
During the opening stage, one staff mechanic was seen on tv hanging out of the staff automobile to offer help to a rider – an act that carries a extra extreme punishment than Badegruber’s shut cross – however the staff was not sanctioned. Mechanical help from a transferring automobile can even end in a yellow card, however can even end in disqualification of the rider and a 100 UCI level penalty plus a CHF 500 high quality.
Lidl-Trek sports activities director Ina Teutenberg is taking a wait-and-see strategy to the yellow card system. “We used to get fines, and now the fines include a yellow card, and in case you have too many, you might be suspended. So that is an issue. Before that, it was simply costly. We will see the way it goes,” Teutenberg advised Cyclingnews.
She additionally identified that the race jury must see the offence earlier than issuing a yellow card, and there are many incidents that may occur out of their view.
“As lengthy because it’s honest and everyone will get the identical remedy, then that is simply how it’s. Everything must be seen. Because if a staff will get yellow playing cards and the director is out, however then different groups do the identical factor and it is not seen … however that is in all places. In soccer, they fall typically, when any individual will get a purple card and the opposite does not. It’s exhausting to say if it is good or not. We will see. Maybe it makes behaviour within the pack a little bit bit higher. I do not know, we’ll see the way it performs out.”
In addition to the yellow playing cards, the UCI rolled out a brand new rule the place riders will be punished for sitting as much as rejoice throughout a bunch dash, stopping pedalling or in any other case inflicting a hazard within the finales.
Human Powered Health sports activities director Giorgia Bronzini was involved in regards to the software of that rule.
“I believe it’s good that they will analyse case by case as a result of I believe typically some issues can affect the outcomes and the safeness of the rider actually badly. In different circumstances, I do not know, as an example there are 5 riders coming to the dash, and one led out the teammate and stopped pedalling. There is not any consequence ultimately, as a result of there isn’t a massive bunch. In that case, if they would not say yellow card simply because these riders stopped pedalling in a lead-out, I do not suppose it is a case to offer [a yellow card] – it does not imply something.
“Otherwise, I believe the riders will pay extra consideration within the finale and take into consideration security and never nearly outcomes. And I believe [this] is an efficient training.”
Race parcours a much bigger concern for riders
Safety has turn into a significant difficulty for skilled biking over the previous decade, particularly after the crash of Fabio Jakobsen through the Tour de Pologne which was made a lot worse by the barrier coming free and flying into the sprinting peloton.
The deaths of Gino Mäder on the Tour de Suisse in 2023 and Muriel Furrer through the UCI Road World Championships final 12 months, and the huge crash that left Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard fearing for his life through the Itzulia Basque Country final season solely additional emphasised the necessity for measures to enhance security.
An evaluation of the UCI’s SafeR undertaking database of incidents discovered that 35% of race incidents have been unprovoked rider errors. However, the announcement did not say what proportion of incidents have been because of course design or infrastructure.
Rider error does, nevertheless, result in a good portion of crashes, however the ladies’s administrators weren’t certain whether or not the yellow playing cards would enhance security for the riders or not.
“Until we see [the yellow cards] in apply, it is exhausting to have the ability to see if it is made an affect on the protection. In the tip, we hope any measure that we are able to see within the sport to make it safer [will help], as a result of that must be a precedence,” mentioned Canyon-SRAM zondocrypto sports activities director Beth Duryea.
“There are so many alternative features of security – you could possibly go from the beginning right here till the end, and principally, each single factor in between, even the preparation for races. It’s exhausting to say it is [about] behaviour. In basic, the whole lot we are able to do for all of these features, the extra that we are able to make issues safer, regardless if it is within the race, out of the race, or throughout preparation for a race – all kinds of issues can have an effect.”
Although the UCI is beginning to work extra intently with race organisers to make sure programs are protected and the barrier designs aren’t a hazard for the riders, Teutenberg and Bronzini agreed that extra must be finished to make programs safer.
“Sometimes race organisations put a velocity stumble upon the end straight,” Teutenberg mentioned. “I imply, that is simply silly, you realize. I believe quite a lot of races are protected, some races are usually not protected. We fill out some questionnaires on the UCI, and I really feel like typically they aren’t learn. Some races preserve getting standing the place I believe they’re in all probability not the most secure.”
Bronzini agreed, saying “Sometimes, it is not simply in regards to the ladies’ conduct, however how the parcours is made. And typically within the ladies’s races and in addition the boys’s, we have now seen harmful corners with 200 to go, and that must be averted.
“I believe the UCI can also verify a little bit bit higher with the organisation how the finale is ready up and which barrier the organisation has of their palms additionally makes a distinction.”
All of the administrators acknowledged that many occasions, the riders’ security is in their very own palms.
“Everybody has a brake, and quite a lot of crashes occur as a result of individuals are not utilizing their brakes,” Teutenberg mentioned.