{"id":901723,"date":"2026-09-22T21:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901723\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T21:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:14:12","slug":"uci-council-backs-new-national-rider-jersey-despite-teams-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901723\/","title":{"rendered":"UCI council backs new national rider jersey despite teams\u2019 opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional cycling teams have pushed back against a proposal that could see national stage races award a distinctive jersey to the highest-placed rider from the host country, with concerns over the impact on team sponsors.<\/p>\n

The Professional Cycling Council (PCC) approved the principle of introducing the additional classification at its meeting in Aigle, Switzerland, on September 1 and 2. The proposal would allow organizers of national stage races to create a jersey for the best-placed rider of the event’s nationality, although the measure would be optional.<\/p>\n

The idea still requires approval from the UCI<\/a> Management Committee, which is meeting in Montr\u00e9al during the 2026 World Championships. The UCI has also yet to establish the precise conditions governing the new classification.<\/p>\n


\nThe proposal was put forward by the Association Internationale des Organisateurs de Courses Cyclistes (AIOCC) and received support from the UCI and the riders’ union, the CPA. However, the men’s and women’s professional teams, represented by the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams (AIGCP), voted against it, according to a report obtained by Escape Collective<\/a>.\"David<\/p>\n

UCI’s President, David Lappartient, at the 2026 Tour of Flanders<\/p>\n

Teams concerned about sponsor exposure<\/p>\n

The disagreement centers largely on the space available to commercial partners. A classification jersey would carry branding from the race organizer, potentially reducing the visibility normally provided to the sponsors of the team whose rider takes the jersey.<\/p>\n

According to the AIGCP report, teams argued that reduced exposure for their sponsors could have commercial consequences. The proposal nevertheless moved forward at PCC level, with additional hotel rooms and VIP passes set to be provided to teams as part of the compensation package.<\/p>\n

Because the classification would be optional, organizers would have the choice of whether to introduce it. That means the impact could vary considerably between races, depending on how many events decide to create the additional competition.<\/p>\n

The measure is also part of a wider set of changes being discussed within professional cycling. The PCC’s decisions remain subject to confirmation by the UCI Management Committee before they can enter into force.<\/p>\n

Safety remains a major focusThe Aigle meeting<\/a> also placed considerable emphasis on rider safety, particularly after the death of British rider Finlay Tarling<\/a> at the Volta a Portugal in August. Tarling, 19, died following a crash on stage 8.<\/p>\n

One of the main safety measures concerns real-time GPS tracking. After the different stakeholder groups failed to agree on a joint proposal, the UCI said it would establish protocols and a regulatory framework for tracking the locations of riders and vehicles during professional races.<\/p>\n

The system is expected to be introduced progressively, beginning with the men’s WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour from the 2027 season before being extended to other categories. Similar technology was already used across all categories at the 2025 World Championships in Kigali and is also being used at the 2026 Worlds in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional cycling teams have pushed back against a proposal that could see national stage races award a distinctive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,427567,85,39556],"class_list":["post-901723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-finlay-tarling","tag-sports","tag-uci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}