{"id":710508,"date":"2026-06-02T18:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:13:18","slug":"theres-no-frigging-way-they-wouldve-been-thrown-out-specialized-founder-slams-arbitrary-disqualification-of-lorena-wiebes-from-giro-ditalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710508\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s no frigging way they would\u2019ve been thrown out\u201d \u2013 Specialized founder slams “arbitrary” disqualification of Lorena Wiebes from Giro d\u2019Italia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Sinyard, the founder and chairman of Specialized, has criticised the UCI’s decision to disqualify Lorena Wiebes from the Giro d’Italia Women, describing the sanction as “arbitrary” and suggesting male superstars would have been treated differently.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Lennard Zinn\u2019s Substack newsletter<\/a>, Sinyard said: \u201cThe disqualification of Lorena is very arbitrary. Can you imagine if this was Mark Cavendish, Remco [Evenepoel], [Peter] Sagan, or any of the other men stars? There\u2019s no frigging way that they would\u2019ve been thrown out of the complete race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specialized is the bike supplier to Wiebes’ Team SD Worx-Protime. Wiebes won stage one of the Giro d\u2019Italia Women, but was subsequently disqualified from the race by UCI commissaires on the grounds that her bike was 20g below the 6.8kg weight limit.<\/p>\n

Team SD Worx-Protime immediately called the decision into question, claiming \u201cthere was a weight difference of more than 50g between the first and second weighing of Wiebes\u2019 bike after the stage finish in Ravenna\u201d.<\/p>\n

“Exceptionally severe”
\n\"LorenaLorena Wiebes won stage one of the Giro d’Italia Women \u2013 but was subsequently disqualified. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 6.8kg weight limit was introduced as part of the UCI\u2019s Lugano charter in 2000 and has remained unchanged in the 26 years since.<\/p>\n

The Lugano charter put an end to the Wild West era of bike design that dominated the 1990s, with monocoque carbon frames, such as the 1996 Lotus Sport 110<\/a>, also outlawed as a result of the wide-ranging document.<\/p>\n

Wiebes was disqualified for a “breach of article 2.12.007 \u2013 2.2: use of a bicycle not in compliance with the regulations, specifically failing to meet the minimum weight requirements”.<\/p>\n

The sprinter’s team has already said it is \u201castonished\u201d at the decision to kick the 27-year-old out of the Giro, describing the sanction as “exceptionally severe”.<\/p>\n

The team said Wiebes has raced \u2013 and won \u2013 on the same bike throughout the season and that previous UCI checks had found the bike to be “comfortably” above the minimum weight limit.<\/p>\n

\"AThe UCI’s 6.8kg weight limit has been in place since 2000. Our Media<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s statement continued: \u201cThe team therefore does not understand how the very same bicycle could now suddenly be measured below the minimum weight requirement. Team SD Worx-Protime believes that Wiebes’ disqualification is an exceptionally severe sanction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a flat sprint stage, unlike a mountain stage, a small reduction in weight provides virtually no advantage. This is certainly true for a rider like Wiebes, who won the sprint in Ravenna by three bicycle lengths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTeam SD Worx-Protime, a leading team in the women’s peloton for the past fifteen years, has no explanation for why Wiebes’ bicycle was found to be under the minimum weight on this occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiebes\u2019 bike had been equipped with a single 1x\u00a0chainring for the opening stage of the Giro, rather than her usual 2x setup. However, according to Cyclingnews, Wiebes’ agent has refuted the idea that the change would have brought the bike below the weight limit.<\/p>\n

\"Follow<\/a>
\nAnother headache for the UCI
\n\"LorenaWiebes, pictured warming up at the 2026 Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, rides a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Team SD Worx-Protime has also threatened to take legal action against the UCI.<\/p>\n

The fallout from Wiebes’ disqualification continues a difficult fortnight for the UCI after Belgium\u2019s Market Court dismissed the governing body’s appeal<\/a> against an interim order suspending the \u201cmaximum gear ratio\u201d technical standard.<\/p>\n

The court’s ruling means the UCI is unlikely to be able to implement its trial of limiting the gear ratios used in professional road cycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Sinyard, the founder and chairman of Specialized, has criticised the UCI’s decision to disqualify Lorena Wiebes from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-710508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710508","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=710508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}