The days of riders celebrating their teammates’ victories from behind them in the bunch may now be gone, after the UCI introduced a new rule to clamp down on the behaviour.
Filed on 23 December, and now in effect, the new rule will see fines, relegations and yellow cards dealt to riders “decelerating during a sprint and endangering other riders”.
The governing body specifically cites certain movements as punishable, including: staying within the line of other riders, talking on the radio, taking one’s hands off the handlebars while in the bunch, and celebrating in the bunch.
Fines for those who break the rule range from 100CHF (£89) to 500CHF (£446), depending on the level of the race and severity of the offence. The culpable rider could also face relegation to last place in their group across the line, and a yellow card – a measure introduced in August 2024 to sanction unsafe behaviour.
In stage races, riders who break the rule could be given a 25% penalty in their tally on the points or mountains classification.
At last year’s Vuelta a España, Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Edward Planckaert was fined 200CHF (£179), docked 10 UCI points, and given a yellow card for “improper conduct that endangers others”, after he celebrated his teammate Kaden Groves’s victory from the bunch.
Planckaert’s movement, and deceleration in the final 100 metres, was deemed to have endangered the line of Lotto Dstny's Victor Campanaerts, who had sprinted from behind him.
The new rule comes as part of the UCI’s continuing bid to make road racing safer. In 2023, the governing body launched its SafeR scheme, an independent entity created to improve event safety.
“The safety of riders, as well as people in the race convoy and on the roadside, is a priority for the UCI,” said UCI president David Lappartient at the time.
“We have to acknowledge that the number of incidents and injuries continue to rise. Several factors have contributed to this unfortunate trend, including the rapid expansion of road furniture designed to control vehicle speeds, particularly in urban areas, as well as the increased speed of today’s peloton.
“The UCI and all the cycling families must unite to reverse this trend and this common desire to find solutions together is embodied in the creation of SafeR."
So far, measures have included the introduction of the yellow card system, restrictions on the use of earpieces during races, and an increase of the 3km sprint rule – whereby a rider who falls victim to an incident in the final 3km of a sprint stage is credited with the same time of their group – to a maximum of 5km.
