No racing season retrospective would be complete without pausing to contemplate the doings and undoings of our overlords at the Union Cyclists Internationale. From their lofty perch in Switzerland they have issued edicts ranging from the ingenious to the hilarious.

Ruling over races big and small, from the Tour de France to your local crit, they have made decisions that explored the boundaries of ethics, logic and even physics. It’s time to cast an eye over a few highlights of the UCI’s year.

bars will need to be at least 40cm wide, with limits on the amount of flare between the tops and the drops and for the turn-in of the brake hoods.

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Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel is welcome. The other problem with it is that it’s not going to slow things down very much.

GPS trackers on bikes so that officials are better able to keep track of where riders are, and above all, ensure there’s never a repeat of the fatal incident at the 2024 Worlds where Swiss rider Muriel Furrer crashed unnoticed and wasn’t found for more than 45 minutes.

Unfortunately an attempt to trial the technology at the Tour de Romandie Féminin turned to farce. Five of the teams said they hadn’t been consulted about the trackers, and pointed out that despite trackers being fitted by the UCI, any incidents or injuries they might cause would be deemed the fault of the team, and refused to nominate a rider for the trial.

The UCI retaliated by rather sulkily saying the teams were only reacting like that because they had commercial interests in a different GPS tracking solution.

The upshot? A standoff culminated in the five teams being thrown off the race, a solution that pleased no one. (Except weirdly obsessed UCI-watchers, obviously.)

they don’t always. At the World Championships in October, the German pair of Roger Kluge and Moritz Augenstein let the Danish team escape to take 10 points at the final sprint, on the basis that, as the Germans could clearly see on the stadium scoreboard, they were comfortably ahead of the Danes for the bronze medal.

Except that the Danes had taken a lap mid race, collecting 20 points that somehow the commissaires didn’t get round to adding to the scoreboard until after the finish, putting the Danes on the podium and the Germans in a state of high dudgeon.

limited to 54×11, it would prevent some of the higher speeds seen in sprints and on descents.

There were a number of problems with this idea. The first was the possibility that the sneaky, sneaky bike riders would circumvent the restriction by pedalling a little faster. The second was the already very limited amount of time riders spend using their highest gear. The third was that the laws of physics mean that even if you ignore all of that, the reduction in speed is still very small.

The fourth problem was a predictable restraint-of-trade lawsuit from SRAM, whose top-tier groupset has been effectively outlawed by the proposed regulation. This saw the rule overturned by a Belgian court before we even got the chance to see it in action and say, “We told you so.”

presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team. The protests were most prominent at the Vuelta a España in August and September.

With officials unwilling or unable to change the race route or provide increased security, and equally unwilling to eject Israel-Premier Tech from the event as demanded by both the protesters and Spanish politicians, the result was a badly compromised race of abandoned stages, neutralised racing, and risks to riders of all teams from protesters on the course.

The race did at least culminate with a strangely wonderful podium ceremony. After the official finish of the final stage was abandoned, Tom Pidcock’s mum suggested building a podium in a hotel carpark using some team drinks-coolers and a hastily strung-up backdrop. It was probably the most memorable prize presentation in the race’s history.

ketones on the basis that firstly they’re not dangerous, and secondly there’s no evidence they work anyway.

Strangely it then went on to say, “The UCI does not recommend the inclusion of such supplements in riders’ nutritional plans.” You might like to think of ketones as the first item on the “slightly looked down upon” list. You can use them if you want, but the UCI will judge you for it.

Visma-Lease a Bike only just made it to the start with five riders, with two late starters including Imogen Wolff, who joined the course from the barriers before time trialling through the race vehicles as she attempted (and failed) to catch her teammates.

The UCI acknowledged that “mistakes had been made”, fined Movistar €1,600, and declined to offer any respite to the affected teams and riders. Wolff lost over a minute, but maybe the commissaires felt she wasn’t going to win the Vuelta anyway.

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