{"id":71591,"date":"2025-08-15T12:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/71591\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T12:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:35:07","slug":"uci-issues-statement-on-gps-tracker-disqualifications-in-romandie-visma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/71591\/","title":{"rendered":"UCI issues statement on GPS tracker disqualifications in Romandie: Visma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tour de Romandie for women started on Friday, August 15. Looking at the results of the opening time trial, you will see many disqualified riders. This is all due to a commotion that took place before the start of the time trial. Several teams disagreed about the new GPS trackers that had to be mounted on the bikes. Among them were the Dutch teams Visma <\/a>| Lease a Bike and Picnic PostNL<\/a>.After the death of Muriel Furrer at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich, there were growing calls for greater safety in the peloton. Several people called for GPS trackers: after all, the young Swiss woman had been lying on the road for a long time without anyone knowing she was missing. The UCI decided to intervene and announced that the Tour de Romandie would be the first race<\/a> where GPS trackers would be tested.A good step, you might say. But not all teams support the decision. The UCI forced this decision on them, according to a letter intercepted by cycling journalist Daniel Benson<\/a>. Trackers had already been tested in the Tour de Suisse, but that was in collaboration between the organization and the teams<\/a>. Now the international cycling union is taking control, and that is not being taken well.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"muriel<\/p>\n

The death of Muriel Furrer created a huge demand for GPS trackers.<\/p>\n

Teams furious with UCI: “We will not give permission to use trackers”<\/p>\n

“The teams will not give the UCI permission to use trackers during the race,” it is reported. Fortunately, disqualification does not seem likely. “If the UCI threatens disqualification, the teams will not stop the UCI from installing the trackers, because it would be unfair to all teams, the riders, the organization, and the fans.”<\/p>\n

Despite this, the teams are still unhappy with the UCI’s actions. The cycling federation has got itself into a mess, they say. \u201cOn August 13, the UCI stated: \u2018The broader discussion about the implementation of GPS systems in the professional peloton is a major topic and discussions will be held with all stakeholders.\u2019 The actions of the UCI contradict this statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCI issues official statement: these teams are excludedWhile the first women have already started the time trial, the UCI has stated the situation and the disqualifications. \u201cThe Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) regrets that certain teams on the start list for the Tour de Romandie F\u00e9minin have refused to comply with the rules for the race related to the implementation of GPS trackers as a test for a new safety system,\u201d the statement reads<\/a>. \u201cThe decision of these teams to oppose the specific rules for the event is surprising, and undermines the cycling family\u2019s efforts to ensure the safety of all riders in road cycling by developing this new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each team had to designate one rider to whom the 63-gram GPS tracker would be attached to the bike. \u201cThe UCI regrets that certain teams have objected to the test by not nominating a rider to carry the tracking device and have therewith opted to be excluded from the Tour de Romandie F\u00e9minin. In view of this situation, the UCI shall consider if other measures are warranted in accordance with the UCI Regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams that have refused to participate in the test with GPS tracking technology \u2013 and have therefore been excluded from the Tour de Romandie F\u00e9minin \u2013 are Canyon<\/a>\/\/Sram zondacrypto, EF Education-Oatly, Lidl-Trek<\/a>, Picnic PostNL, and Visma | Lease a Bike. “It should be noted that most of these teams are part of the Velon organisation which is the owner of its own data transmission system and is working on the development of its own GPS tracking system,” the UCI said. \u201cIt is deplorable to witness the refusal of certain teams to move forward together to protect the safety of riders, and the UCI condemns their non-cooperation,\u201d the press release concludes. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tour de Romandie for women started on Friday, August 15. Looking at the results of the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-71591","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\/71591","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=71591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}