Throwing away the victory

The new UCI rules on safety and sustainability could see riders lose races for littering

Where safety and sustainability merge is in the issue of discarding waste items, bidons in particular. Geraint Thomas had his challenge for the 2020 Giro d’italia ended when his front wheel collided with a full water bottle in the neutralised zone of Stage 3.

Under new, tighter rules, riders must not ‘jettison food, musettes, bottles, clothes, etc outside of the litter zones provided by the organiser’. And whereas infringements of the approved riding positions will attract only fines, littering transgressions can now be punished with time penalties (in addition to fines).

In stage races it will be 30 seconds for a first offence, two minutes for a second offence and then disqualification.

These are serious penalties when you consider that each of the three Grand Tours last year was won by less than a minute. It raises the possibility of someone losing the Tour de France for throwing away a gel wrapper in the wrong place.