A few days before the start of the 2025 season which will start this Friday for women with the Tour Down Underl’International Cycling Union took stock of the progress of the initiatives taken to strengthen the safety of runners in races. Thanks to its new structure SafeR built to identify anomalies, theUCI revealed its action plan for the coming season. Renewed yellow card, redesigned feeding zone, flexibility of gaps during mass sprints… the 2024 experiments seem to have borne fruit, and you can also find all the information directly on its website by following this link.
Video – David Lappartient takes stock of the 2024 season
A detailed return in figures for the year 2024
Thanks to the SafeR tool, theUCI was able to identify the main causes of incidents during races. Of the 497 incidents recorded in 2024 for the events UCI WorldTour, UCI Women’s WorldTour et UCI ProSeriesonly 35% were the consequence of errors made by the runners. Other factors were identified, such as the approach to tactical points of interest such as mountains, cobbled sectors or sprints which represents 13% of incidents. Weather hazards (11%), road infrastructure (9%), poor road conditions (4%) and vehicle behavior (1%) complete the report. SafeR for the year 2024. And to try to reduce the number of incidents caused by external phenomena, theUCI wishes to consolidate the strong measures that were taken during last season.
A desire to make mass sprints a little more secure
Mass sprints are the big point of tension for all the runners, from the sprinter capable of winning to the teammates who do not necessarily take part in the final race. L'UCI has decided to relax its regulations a little more to avoid taking risks as much as possible. “The method for calculating time gaps for stages with a sprint finish has also been simplified as part of the new protocol for the sprint zone.” Until now, the rule for calculating time gaps meant that the same time was allocated to riders in the same group as long as a gap of a maximum of one second separated two riders following each other. From now on, “the difference in calculating times is increased to three seconds for riders in all groups of the race, with the exception of clearly established breakaways.” L’UCI also indicated the extension of the so-called “three kilometer” rule allowing riders who are victims of a fall or an incident at the end of a stage to be classified at the same time. An area now extended to five kilometers “at the request of the organizer and subject to the approval of the UCI.”
The yellow card definitively adopted
Experienced during the second part of the season, the sanctions materialized by yellow cards were “a success.” During the testing phase in 2024, a total of 31 yellow cards were issued over 66 days of racing, to riders (52% of cases), team personnel (32%) and drivers and drivers. media vehicles (16%). The international organization has decided to permanently install this new measure and extend it to numerous races. “In addition to the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women's WorldTour events, during which yellow cards can be issued, there are now added the UCI Road World Championships, UCI ProSeries events and Continental Championships.” Two new offenses have also been added to complete the yellow card system. “It will now also be possible to issue a yellow card for dangerous behavior to a rider carrying out the launch during sprint finishes, as well as to a team assistant in the feed zone who tries to supply his riders in a manner dangerous.”
Return to fixed supply zones
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, a provision has allowed teams to freely refuel along the route. Faced with the danger of these wild supplies, theUCI wanted to return to simpler and more supervised methods. “For the 2025 season, organizers will be asked to install a feed zone approximately every 30 to 40 kilometers, in conjunction with waste zones. The return to fixed feed zones with improved facility requirements , will increase security and guarantee greater fairness between teams.”
Concerning the headsets and the communication of the runners with the teams during the races, theInternational Cycling Union has not yet taken strong measures. A question that will “the subject of an in-depth study to determine where improvements can be made to strengthen race monitoring for the safety of runners and everyone involved. To achieve this objective, consultations are underway with various suppliers of services to adapt solutions already implemented in other sports where radio communication is used to improve safety”
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