The MPCC group has called on WADA to ban Tramadol and to impose stricter regulations of corticosteroids in an open letter. The idea is noble but the method of an open letter seems fruitless. What if cycling’s stakeholders could be “nudged” into adopting these measures? This week saw Richard Thaler win the Nobel Memorial prize for economics for his ideas on prompting behavioural changes and maybe there are lessons that can be applied to the pro peloton.
In cycling we’re used to riders losing out by a few seconds, to be defeated often means losing out by a few metres or a handful of seconds after hours or even weeks of racing. But in the world of sports admin Brian Cookson has been ejected from his incumbent role of UCI President by a massive margin. The UCI Congress elected David Lappartient as the new President by 37 votes to 8, a count that shows backing from every UCI confederation. Here’s a look at what lost it for Cookson and why the election doesn’t signal much change.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” goes the saying only the front of the UCI’s annual report and accounts for 2016 says plenty as features the men’s road race at the world championships in Doha, the concluding event of a very lucrative week for cycling’s governing body as the accounts show the Qataris paid far more than the usual amount to host the event.
The UCI’s annual report and accounts (PDF) came out on the eve of the Tour de France. The big race got the limelight, now it’s time to take a quick look at the sport’s governing body and its finances.
The UCI has announced several changes for the World Tour in 2018 including smaller team sizes for the grand tours, a topic covered late last year. Another novelty is going to be tested in the Tour de France starting next week, where the time gap to classify a group of riders, versus a split in the field, goes from one second to three seconds. It’s to help safety in the finish but will require a perceptual adjustment from inside the peloton and the outside.
With David Lappartient announcing he’s standing for election to be the President of the UCI, to challenge the incumbent Brian Cookson, here’s a primer on how the election works.
No? Probably not? Why not? Apologies for the title which evokes Betteridge’s Law that states “any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no” but it’s a way to explore questions about Simon Špilak, the calendar and more.
After the Critérium du Dauphiné the talk was all what it meant for the Tour de France. One week later and the day after another selective Alpine stage race and all there’s none of this talk.
Henricus “Hein” Verbruggen, a businessman and the archetypal powerful sports administrator, had died aged 75.
Can you push a team mate during a road race? Take a spare wheel from another rider? Take part in a local gran fondo? Draft a rival squad during a team time trial? Readers regularly email or tweet questions about the regulations and so here’s a quick review and update the list of dos and don’ts.
Racing might be “200 idiots trying to cross a line first” in the words of Marzio Bruseghin but there are a rules behind the dash and that’s before we touch on the unwritten or societal rules of the peloton. In fact there are a lot of rules and it’s impossible to remember them all, they take enough enough space on a hard drive let alone your own memory so here is a handy, updated reference.
It’s said Peter Sagan, Sep Vanmarcke and Greg Van Avermaet “could face fine for sidewalk riding at Omloop” as cyclingnews reports what Belgium’s Sporza interview with UCI commissaire Guy Dobbelaere.
These issues keep cropping up. As ever a rule is no good if it can’t be enforced. If there’s no way to force riders to comply in the heat of battle then why not hit them and their teams where it hurts: the bank account. For too long the UCI fines have been so cheap they’re practically an invitation to break the rules.
If you race you might know that moment when the pace is so furious that everyone is lined out and you’re struggling to hold the wheel in front. All you can think of is preventing a gap opening up, until the moment comes when you wonder who on earth is at the front making life so hard for you and everyone else? Well it’s not just during a race that this happens, anyone trying to follow the rules that underpin our sport must also be struggling for breath as the UCI keeps churning them revisions and new rules.
Yesterday saw the second set of rules issued this year, the new version (PDF) replaces those published on 1 January. Cyclingnews.com has picked up some of the novelties and changes but there’s more to examine.
Now a lot of these rules aren’t going to alter the racing, so skip this post if you’re not bothered about technical topics like relegation, rankings, appearance money, capping the number of race days and the status of the new World Tour races.