{"id":486509,"date":"2026-03-20T21:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486509\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:31:13","slug":"alec-segaert-given-yellow-card-for-non-compliant-position-during-gp-de-denain-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486509\/","title":{"rendered":"Alec Segaert given yellow card for ‘non-compliant position’ during GP de Denain raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organisers of the GP de Denain-Porte du Hainaut<\/a> have issued a revision to the race communique, handing winner Alec Segaert<\/a> (Bahrain Victorious) a penalty and yellow card for “Using a non-compliant position or point of support on the bicycle that represents a danger to the rider or competitors”.<\/p>\n

Segaert, whose solo escape in Wednesday’s Nokere Koerse<\/a> was nullified within the final hundred metres, attacked again in Denain, this time hanging on by an equally narrow margin to claim his first victory since 2024.<\/p>\n

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The Belgian had been off the front with Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) for some 50km before dropping him with 2.5km to go as the chasing peloton began to close in.<\/p>\n

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While Bahrain Victorious, when asked, could not confirm the exact incident that led to the ruling, they said “It’s the UCI rules and we will respect this ruling”.<\/p>\n

Segaert’s aerodynamic position used in that final pursuit may have been what earned him the penalty. UCI rule 2.2.025 states, “Using the forearms as a point of support on the handlebar is prohibited except in time trials…”<\/p>\n

That rule was introduced in 2021 as part of safety reforms, and has caught out several riders, including Marianne Vos, who was disqualified from the PostNord V\u00e5rg\u00e5rda WestSweden Road Race<\/a> in 2022 for a violation.<\/p>\n

Segaert could be seen in a low, aerodynamic position with his hands near the hoods, but with his forearms seeming to be in contact with the tops of the handlebars, which could be considered a rule violation.<\/p>\n

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The UCI technical guide states: “The rider shall normally assume a sitting position on the bicycle. This position requires that the only points of support are the following: the feet on the pedals, the hands on the handlebars and the seat on the saddle.”<\/p>\n

Segaert kept his result thanks to some leeway in the rules that define the penalty as a “CHF 500 fine, 15 points from UCI rankings and elimination or disqualification and\/or yellow card”. The yellow card puts him at risk of a suspension if he were to get three yellow cards in a 30-day period.<\/p>\n

The UCI has issued 34 yellow cards so far in 2026 and 304 since formally rolling out the system at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n

So far, the only rider to receive a suspension for multiple yellow cards was Oscar Riesebeek, who received two during the Baloise Belgium Tour<\/a> in 2025, leading to a seven-day ban.<\/p>\n

Get unlimited access to our unrivalled 2026 Spring Classics coverage with a Cyclingnews subscription. We’ll bring you breaking news, reports, and analysis from some of the biggest races on the calendar, including Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organisers of the GP de Denain-Porte du Hainaut have issued a revision to the race communique, handing winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-486509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}