The founder of Specialized, Mike Sinyard, has spoken out regarding Lorena Wiebes' Giro d'Italia Women disqualification.
The shock disqualification from the women's Giro after sprinting to victory on Stage 1 has featured in news headlines during the race's opening stages and prompted a deeper analysis of how it happened.
Speaking to Leonard Zinn's Substack, Sinyard claimed a prominent male rider would never have been disqualified in such circumstances.
“The disqualification of Lorena is very arbitrary," Sinyard said.
"Can you imagine if this was Mark Cavendish, Remco [Evenepoel], [Peter] Sagan, or any of the other men stars?
"There’s no frigging way that they would’ve been thrown out of the complete race.”
In twenty-six years of the minimum weight rule being in place, this is one of the very few times a rider's machine has come in under it after a stage and led to a penalty being issued by the UCI.
There haven't been any cases of a high-profile male rider's bike falling foul of a weight check. However, the UCI rulebook is clear regarding the punishment for breaching the rule. The penalty is listed as 'elimination or disqualification' as well as a fine for the rider's team.
Specialized as a brand commented on the matter in a social media post in which it voiced its support for Wiebes.
"20 grams didn’t win that sprint. Lorena did," read the post, referring to the weight by which SD Worx-Protime claim the bike fell short of the minimum.
"We’re proud to stand with Lorena Wiebes and SD Worx-Protime. The win we witnessed remains beyond measure. We stand with Lorena."
What happens next?
Wiebes' disqualification was due to a "breach of article 2.12.007 – 2.2: use of a bicycle not in compliance with the regulations, specifically failing to meet the minimum weight requirements."
The bike in question was a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, supplied by Sinyard's company as a sponsor to her SD-Worx Protime team. Although the UCI has refused to comment further on the matter and has thus not announced the discrepancy it found, Wiebes' team claims that the bike was just 20 grams under the 6.8kg limit.
This comes amid reports that the bike was weighed over 20 times, but the team claims this was undertaken in a windy tent, which it believes adds uncertainty to the measurement accuracy.
Wiebes' team released a statement after the stage and threatened legal action against the UCI. Cyclingnews has reached out to the UCI, who refused to comment, and Wiebes' SD Worx-Protime team for more information.
The UCI minimum 6.8kg weight limit has long been debated. It came into force in 2000, and there are various arguments for it to be reduced.
