{"id":633043,"date":"2026-04-28T00:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633043\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T00:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:55:12","slug":"the-tadej-pogacar-uci-rainbow-jersey-fine-mystery-solved-and-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633043\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tadej Poga\u010dar UCI rainbow jersey fine mystery solved (and cancelled)"},"content":{"rendered":"

What looked like a strange and costly infringement for Tadej Poga\u010dar after Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

The world champion had barely stepped off the podium, smiling with yet another trophy, when news broke of a 5,000 Swiss franc fine (around eight grand in Canuck Bucks) from the UCI. The explanation, an issue with sponsor placement on his rainbow jersey, raised eyebrows, and not just online.<\/a><\/p>\n

Within hours, the penalty was quietly scrapped. Initially, Cycling Twitter had all kinds of theories about what it was about. Because despite the fine, the UCI didn\u2019t seem to offer why Pogi got it. Some initial thoughts had to do with the front of the jersey.<\/p>\n

Something about the space between the UAE Team Emirates logo and the rainbow bands on Pogi\u2019s jersey. Cycling sartorial experts said it was much closer, tighter than regulations allow. The rules about the rainbow jersey are pretty strict\u2013the UCI has a template and riders must follow it to the inch\u2026well, cm. (As Big Brain Brett told Jules in Pulp Fiction: \u201cUh, because of the metric system.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Although many national championship jerseys allow some flexibility\u2014there are hardly any regulations here in Canada, though some countries do have stricter specs\u2014there\u2019s no deviating from the UCI\u2019s precious rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n

But turns out, it wasn\u2019t that.<\/p>\n

According to Sporza<\/a>, the problem actually dated back to the team presentation the day before. Poga\u010dar wore a long-sleeved version of the world champion\u2019s jersey that featured branding from his personal sponsor, the fancy watchmaker Richard Mille, printed near the wrists, an area traditionally subject to strict UCI rules.<\/p>\n

That same jersey made another appearance during Sunday\u2019s podium ceremony, triggering the fine.
But here\u2019s where it gets messy: recent updates to clothing regulations had already loosened restrictions around such sponsor placements. The catch? The UCI official on duty reportedly applied the old rules.
In the end, the sanction didn\u2019t stick, and Poga\u010dar rode away without paying a cent. Btw, the fine was equivalent to roughly 2 to 8 per cent of a typical Richard Mille timepiece, in case you wondered.<\/p>\n

As far as the actual races? They were pretty damn great. Demi Vollering took a fantastic win, and both Bella Holmgren and Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill were in the top-10. Pogi won, but teenager Paul Seixas certainly made him earn it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What looked like a strange and costly infringement for Tadej Poga\u010dar after Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge didn\u2019t last long. The world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[235630,49,48,635,90387,82,11588,1422,15646],"class_list":["post-633043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-liege-bastogne-liege","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-rainbow-jersey","tag-sports","tag-spotlight","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-uci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}