Although they are transparent, because they are still in a trial period, tests in pursuit of safety that are now taking shape and that will come into force for World Tour races on January 1, yellow cards have appeared in the Vuelta a España, as they did in the San Sebastian Classic and as happens in the Vuelta a Polonia. One yellow is a warning; two, expulsion. It is the initiative of the cycling world, the modernization of a century-old sport with inflexible habits for decades, the idea of protecting the rider from actions that endanger his safety. But sanctions must be adjusted and regulated, the rules defined because it does not rain to everyone’s liking.
Two years ago, all the families involved in cycling – UCI, teams, riders and organisers – decided to come together to create a theoretically independent organisation (SafeR) to try to reduce incidents in races. “Theoretically independent because it needs to be financed and because, over time, we realised that it was much more practical to take advantage of the UCI umbrella, to be under its protection in case, for example, a legal department was needed,” says Kiko García, technical director of the Vuelta and participant in the process. Thus, meetings followed one another – at first weekly and in person at the UCI headquarters, now monthly and almost always online – and they soon realised the repeated axiom. “A large part of the incidents were due to human errors, behavioural errors, errors by cyclists, a pilot, a photographer, a bad move by a car…”, reveals García. And it was decided to implement the cards and their sanctions. Namely (in advance): the rider who receives two yellow cards will be disqualified from the race and suspended for seven days; Anyone who sees three within 30 days will be suspended for 14 days; and anyone who sees six within a year will be suspended for one month. But the idea is one thing, and the implementation is another.
“There is no need to have a threat to be aware and have common sense, but it is a testing phase and we will see how it works,” says Juanma Gárate, EF’s sports director. “It makes no sense to do it now in August because there are no specific regulations. The rules of the game have to be set at the start of the game and not later,” laments Joxean Matxín, his counterpart from UAE. Although Xabier Zandio, from Ineos, puts it in a formula: “Cycling evolves and it is good to do a test to see if it works.” His teammate Gorka Gerrikagoitia, from Cofidis, has a similar opinion: “It is an innovation that tries to make the image of cycling cleaner, so that there are no small tricks like holding on to a bottle or putting a cyclist behind the car. We will see how it works because it is not entirely clear.”
They do not agree with the disproportionality of the sanctions, since a one-day race is not the same as a three-day race or a 21-day race, but the same rule applies that two yellow cards are equivalent to expulsion. “You cannot put all the races in the same bag,” explain Gárate and Matxín. “In 21 days it is easier to make more mistakes,” explains Zandio. “Yes, it is a little disproportionate,” admits García. Similarly, the directors understand that the cards should not be worth the same because not all infractions are equally dangerous, since throwing a water container outside a clean area is not the same as, for example, causing a fall due to a bad movement. “That is why I do not think they give out the cards lightly…”, says Zandio. “They should also take into account the timing of the race, because if someone falls behind due to a breakdown and takes refuge in the car to reconnect with the group, it is not the same as if someone falls behind because they are not able to continue,” Gerrikagoitia analyses.
For now, the teams know that there are 21 UCI articles that must be studied in detail in order not to incur in safety violations, those that until now entail economic sanctions. The commissioners, always at the end of the stage, will send their sentence. “The teams, as happens now, will be able to appeal to the UCI by providing images and arguments,” says García. It is the new cycling, that of yellow cards, but, for now, transparent and painless.
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