Mounting disquiet about preferential remedy of multi-discipline, star athletes by the UCI on the Mountain Bike World Championships turned rapidly to a proper rebuke as plenty of the opponents on the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships penned a letter outlining their issues over the late choice.
The written assertion issued by athletes late Friday was in response to rule adjustments which moved Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan, who have not earned any mountain bike UCI factors this season, from last-row grid begin positions in Saturday’s cross-country race to fifth row positions.
The change got here as a rule created for World Cup races, throughout mountain bike and cyclocross disciplines, was tailored on the final minute for the MTB World Championships, setting off a storm of reactions. Riders have been significantly disturbed by the final minute nature of the choice, which has the potential to have an effect past outcomes on the day, with potential implications for the Paris Olympic Video games in 2024.
“It is nice to have large names from completely different disciplines in our sport and we won’t wait to race towards them. However we’re actually not proud of the way in which the UCI is treating our self-discipline by altering the foundations relating to beginning positions a day earlier than the race,” the assertion learn.
“The purpose proper now will not be whether or not the rule being utilized is truthful, unfair or acceptable – that is a subject for an additional day. What issues is the style and timing by which the UCI utilized and enforced this rule. And the implications that observe for particular person riders and groups with quota positions for the Olympic Video games. In the intervening time it isn’t solely about contesting the world championships, but in addition in regards to the Olympic beginning positions which are being fought for collectively.”
UCI riders representatives Rebecca McConnell and Maxime Marotte have been the lead signatories on the joint assertion, which was additionally signed by an extended listing of key names in mountain biking, together with Nino Schurter, Jolanda Neff, Anne Terpstra, Mathias Flückiger and Jens Schuermans. It was additionally shared on social media by Sven Nys, two-time cyclocross World Champion and the supervisor of commerce staff Baloise Trek Lions.
“It’s clear that the UCI contradicts itself in making use of the rule,” the assertion stated. “Hours earlier than the beginning of the World Championship will not be an acceptable time to selectively seek for guidelines and we subsequently specific our deep disappointment and frustration at this case brought on by the UCI.”
The official technical information for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships 2023 states that the beginning order can be “as per the final printed UCI XCO particular person rating”. Tom Pidcock, who was ranked 61st as a result of a win on the World Cup in Nove Mesto in Might, was to be slotted the fifth of 11 rows of riders. Van der Poel and Sagan didn’t have any UCI MTB rankings, so have been anticipated to line up on the again row. The change moved them as much as spots 33, 34, and 35. This put them in entrance of many riders who’re forward of them on the rankings, together with newly-crowned brief monitor World Champion Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and the second-placed Victor Koretzky (France),
Sven Nys – who gained 5 Belgian nationwide titles in mountain biking together with two cyclocross world titles and is at present the supervisor of commerce staff Baloise Trek Lions – was amongst these not impressed by the UCI ruling.
“That each rider has to battle all 12 months lengthy to ultimately get a very good beginning place. And that others get this place. That may be very irritating for the standard biker.” he stated on Twitter.
The UCI Sports activities Director, Peter Van Den Abeele, informed Sporza that on the World Championships it had prolonged the rule in mountain bike and cyclocross World Cup competitions which permits sure riders with a excessive place in one other UCI rating to get a “privileged place”, for the nice of the game.
“I would not name it favoritism. It is in regards to the added worth of the game,” Van den Abeele stated within the Sporza report. “A mountain bike race with Pidcock or Van der Poel is of a distinct caliber than a mountain bike race with out these two.”
Van der Poel is ranked sixth within the UCI males’s highway rankings for his Alpecin-Deceuninck staff, and was fifth final season in cyclocross rating. Pidcock is seventeenth within the males’s highway rankings for Ineos Grenadiers. Sagan, who has introduced he’ll retire from highway racing this season, is ranked 311th.