ThoseRomandie Tour 2025 –The “peloton referees” have their Var and their boxes
At the Tour de Romandie, UCI judges distribute yellow cards to sanction irregularities. Immersion in the bus of the “Var Commissioner” who scrutinizes any suspicious act in video.
Posted today at 7:28 p.m.
The UCI “Var Commissioner” is attentive to the slightest scene suspicious in the Peloton du Tour de Romandie. He is helped by eleven cameras.
keystone-sda.ch
Subscribe now and take advantage of the audio reading function.
A few meters from the finish line of the second stage of Romandie Tour, Nicolas Le Tallec is not lacking for a second of the race for a second. Sitting on a small rainbow bus of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the video commissioner scrutinizes the eleven control cameras (TV signal, three motorcycles, a helicopter, but also the photo-finish) which allow him to follow the circuit around the great blunder under (almost) all his angles.
Constantly, he “scans” the content of the different cameras, looking for irregularities. “I can even analyze images made by spectators, broadcast on social networks, to have additional visual content in certain disputed cases,” said the UCI official, who took his post long before the race was broadcast live on television.
Based on the football model, cycling has its Var (for video assistance to refereeing). Using a dial, the “Var commissioner” can review previous scenes or cut the race sequences in order to send the capsules to a WhatsApp group, on which he exchanges with his three international colleagues.
Because the panel consists of a president of the jury of the commissioners, positioned in a car which does not leave the main peloton, where the favorites are generally located, including the yellow jersey; The other two officials occupy cars at the front of the race and in the line of vehicles of sports directors.
“In the race, my colleagues cannot see everything, I am their sporting and safe eyes,” illustrates Nicolas Le Tallec. Enough to bring down the pressure that was based solely on the commissioners in the race before the contribution of video technology.
A can throw out of area that is worth a yellow
The day before, between Basel and Friborg, the Panel of the Commissioners delivered its first sanctions from the TDR 2025. Yellow card, 500 francs fine and 25 penalty points in the UCI classification for “use/use of sidewalks, paths or cycle paths not part of the route”: here is the verdict in the case of the Italian Davide Cimolai.
French Romain Combaud, he received a yellow card for “using a position or a point of support that is not in accordance with the bicycle presenting a danger for the runner or his competitors”. As for his compatriot Lenny Martinez, he had to pay a pecuniary sentence of 500 francs and 25 UCI penalty points for having “free of charge of a container outside of waste areas”.
On the images of the race direct, three runners, including French Julien Bernard, composed a breakaway with Coffrane, less than 100 km from the finish. But these are images in the peloton that interest Nicolas Le Tallec: “There, it starts to rub a little. This morning, I spotted the last 30 kilometers by car, statistically, this is where incidents occur most often. We know the personalities of cyclists or the particularities of the course. In short, we must really feel the race! ”
Nicolas Le Tallec must “feel the race”. His expertise allows him, helped by several camera angles, to view the disputed scenes and to sanction the faults.
-keystone-sda.ch
The final, during a sprint in particular, necessarily attracts the attention of the “Var Commissioner”, because the offense can have dramatic consequences, when a runner voluntarily deviates (or not) from his line for example.
“If runners are released or come back from a fall, we will go and watch that they do not take advantage of the suction of a car to go up in the peloton,” adds the referee of the UCI.
Yellow cards with faulty
In his ears, Nicolas Le Tallec listens to the Radio-Tour signal and has a private line between commissioners, which he only uses in the event of an emergency so as not to unnecessarily disturb his colleagues. “At any time, something can happen in this itinerant sport, vigilance is absolute,” smiles French.
When it was launched in 2018, the video help was only implemented on the big towers, the five monuments and the world championships, before democratizing. Planned as a prevention tool which notably allows to inform the head of the race if a danger will appear on the road, of empowerment of the peloton too, the “Var” system is also there to sanction.
It has been reinforced by the distribution of yellow cards (virtual) from the 1is January 2025 by these “peloton referees”. During the test phase during the second half of the 2024 season, 31 boxes were issued during the sixty-six racing days, and 52% of cases sanctioned runners.
A list of around twenty sanctions
Among the twenty current sanctions punishable by a yellow card, the offenses relate to factory routes of runners: intimidation, insults, threats, incorrect behavior (jersey draw, helmet or shoulder stalling the safety of another runner). Beware of the one who takes off his compulsory helmet during the event: he will be “yellowed”.
Also threatened with a box those who cling to the vehicle of their sports director: the famous “glued cans”. Sports managers, such as media vehicle drivers and drivers, must also be stressed on the road to the Tour de Romandie.
Like their round ball counterparts, the ace of the handlebars can thus be excluded from a test. Two boxes during a day or stages race, such as the Romandie Tour this week, will lead for example a disqualification of the race and a suspension of seven days.
Since the establishment of boxes, no runner has yet been excluded from a tour. In the canton of Neuchâtel, at the end of The stage won by the Italian Lorenzo Fortunato At the end of a victorious escape, the three “racing commissioners” joined Nicolas Le Tallec on his bus near the arrival.
“We harmonize our observations and we must make the best decision as quickly as possible,” summarizes the judge to the video. In the end, it is the president of the jury of the commissioners who will decide. According to the course of the race and the potential sanctions, sports directors sometimes run towards the UCI Var bus to contest or view the images. There, sometimes, the spirits warm up.
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
0 comments
