The president of the Latvian Cycling Federation has accused Mathieu van der Poel of endangering spectators during the World Championships road race, and questioned the UCI for not disqualifying the Dutchman.
Van der Poel bunnyhopped onto a pavement with 58km to go in the men's event in Zurich, Switzerland on Sunday and accelerated past his rivals in a chase group. He then went on to place third, winning the bronze medal, ahead of Latvia's Toms Skujiņš in fourth.
According to UCI rules, mounting a pavement is punishable by a fine of up to 1,000CHF (£888), a 25-point UCI deduction, and a yellow card. In cases where a rider is deemed to have earned a serious advantage or endangered others, the commissaires can choose to relegate them.
In an open letter to the UCI published today, Latvian Cycling Federation president, Sandis Akis, said he was "deeply concerned" about the decision to not disqualify Van der Poel.
"The real problem is that he endangered spectators, a violation that has consistently been penalized with disqualification this year, as seen with Marlen Reusser at the 2024 Gent-Eveelgem and Luke Rowe at the 2018 Ronde van Vlaanderen," Akis wrote.
"Van der Poel almost rode into a spectator while overtaking three riders on a footpath with no other particular reason, as he was not avoiding a crash."
The open letter of the Latvian Cycling Federation to the UCI about dangerous move by Mathieu van der Poel during the Elite Men World Championship in Zurich 2024@UCI_cycling pic.twitter.com/aNNXi1v4SBOctober 2, 2024
Akis added that a representative of the Latvian Federation met with the UCI commissaires after the race on Sunday, and was told the infringement was not deemed to have been dangerous.
"The Latvian representative insisted that the rules apply to everyone, but the commissaire argued that it wouldn't be good for the sport, interpreting the rules as they saw fit. The Latvian representative was subsequently sent away. It seems that some are more equal than others, especially when it comes to unpopular decisions to be made," Akis wrote.
"If Van der Poel had crashed into a spectator on the road, would that have been good or bad for our sport? We urge the UCI to apply its rules consistently to ensure the safety and integrity of cycling and not to leave this kind of potential accident without response, just because it would be so-called damage of reputation.
"We, as a part of the cycling world, expect the UCI to publicly explain the decision of commissaires to avoid similar situations, as paying no attention to this situation creates a ground for greater risk to racing in the future which is something no one wants."
The world title was won by Tadej Pogačar, who attacked with over 100km to go, before soloing to victory. If Van der Poel had been disqualified, Latvia’s Skujiņš would have won the bronze medal. Australian Ben O’Connor finished second.
In a statement issued to Cycling Weekly, a UCI spokesperson acknowledged Akis’s letter.
the UCI spokesperson added: “In regards to such rule, it shall be underlined that disqualification is not the ordinary sanction – which is the imposition of a fine and a points deduction - and only applies in “serious cases of advantage, endangerment, repeated infringements or aggravating circumstances”. The situation in question not deemed as such a case, the UCI Commissaires Panel’s decision was to not issue any sanction.”
