SD Worx-Protime have said that the UCI is not engaging in conversation with them over Lorena Wiebes‘ disqualification from the Giro d’Italia Women for having an underweight bike.
Speaking to Wielerflits this week, the team’s manager Erwin Janssen said: “The UCI is simply not responding. No one is answering the phone. Only our lawyer has been able to reach someone higher up at the UCI.”
After winning stage one of the Giro on Saturday, Wiebes was disqualified after her bike – a Specialized Tarmac SL8 equiped with Roval wheels and a SRAM Red groupset – was found by the UCI commissaires to weigh less than 6.8kg, the minimum weight requirement.
Later that evening, SD Worx-Protime released a statement raising “serious questions” of the UCI’s bike-weighing procedure.
Wiebes was disqualified under UCI article 2.12.007, rule 2.2, which refers to “use of a bicycle that does not comply with regulations”. UCI rule 1.3.019 stipulates the weight of a bicycle cannot be less than 6.8kg.
As a result of the ruling, the Giro d’Italia Women‘s organiser, RCS Sport, declared Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) the stage winner, and the Italian also pulled on the pink jersey.
Janssen reiterated this week that his team will take the UCI to court over the incident.
“We are going to hold the UCI liable and have hired a lawyer,” he explained. “Besides seeking some form of vindication, this disqualification also has a huge financial impact.
“It is difficult to say how large the damage is in euros, but you have to think of the prize money from multiple missed stages, the missed UCI points, and agreements in sponsor contracts. We are currently in the process of calculating all of that… It is very likely that it will go to CAS (the Court for Arbitration in Sport).”
SD Worx-Protime raised questions over how the bike was weighed, claiming that there were issues in the process, and that they had weighed the bike separately, and that it passed the test. They alleged that it failed the test by just 20 grams.
“It is simply bizarre that we are being brushed off like this,” Janssen said. “Cycling teams are expected to be professional through and through, while amateurs, semi-professionals, have to perform such bike measurements in a very unprofessional manner. I am simply astonished by everything that went wrong.”
The UCI has not commented further on the disqualification when contacted, or released a statement. SD Worx-Protime have gone onto have a successful Giro, with Anna van der Breggen winning stage four’s time trial, and holding the race lead ahead of stage five.
