In a video posted to Instagram, Dutch cyclist Jan-Willem van Schip has issued an outburst against the UCI and its commissaires at the Tour of Hellas after he was booted from the race for an illegal position on the bike.
Speaking in Dutch, he opened with the phrase: "Not normal, I've been disqualified again," before arguing his case and complaining that he feels unwelcome in road cycling.
It's not Van Schip's first run-in with the authorities. The Dutchman has faced the wrath of commissaires and the UCI on multiple occasions, including when was removed from the Baloise Belgium Tour in 2021 for using unusual handlebars made by Dutch brand Speeco, and in 2023 when he was disqualified from Heistse Pijl after using a radical new handlebar set-up from Toot.
More recently, he was removed from the Tour of Holland for an apparently unapproved forward-leaning seatpost.
The exact reason for his latest disqualification appears to be the unauthorized way in which he holds his handlebars, supposedly breaking the forearms-on-handlebars rule.
His unorthodox handlebars, seen in the Instagram post above from a race last week, allow Van Schip to adopt an aerodynamic position, but he appears to fallen foul of the UCI's outlawing of the forearms as 'a point of support', even if his hands are still in contact with the bars.
Van Schip argues that "everyone does that and I actually always hold my shifter fully," before adding, "how do you measure this anyway?"
Paul Tabak, the owner of Van Schip's Azerion-Villa Valkenburg team, was reportedly in discussion with the UCI to appeal the decision after the race, but it was upheld. Van Schip did not start stage 2.
In his video, Van Schip pointed out that he'd recently raced the UCI-classified Ronde van Overijssel with the same handlebar set-up, without any action from the authorities.
"How can it be that I'm allowed to race the Ronde van Overijssel with this, while all the other riders [here at the Tour of Hellas - ed.] in the front group are allowed to just rest their arms on the handlebars, and not me?
"Its very painful. It's really not fun. The bike is completely legal, the seatpost is fine, but they still found a way to screw us over. It hurts a lot," he said, before later adding: "I don't really feel welcome in cycling."
He also invited the UCI to "have a good talk about it" so he can ask: "How do these rules work, what is actually allowed and what isn't?"
The Dutchman has already pondered a move to gravel, where the rules are more relaxed. Maybe that will now be considered more seriously.
Aptly summing up his mood, the video ended with the phrase "wat een kut sport," – "what a shitty sport."
