rules are rules... it seems

Firstly an apology for missing Monday's post.

The reason is simple: I just haven't taken any pictures to publish.  Sorry.

Anyway, following on from last week's post about the UCI's enforcement of its sock height rule, it's another cycling related post today and again it's about the sport's rules.

I watched an excellent under 23 men's race from last week's world road championships.  The dutch rider Nils Eekhoff who won the sprint for the line did so after falling badly early in the race (some 100km from the finish), dislocating his shoulder in the process and then pushing it back into place himself.  He then chased back to the race peloton through the convoy of cars that follow it - in exactly the same manner as countless riders who have crashed, punctured or had a mechanical mishap have done throughout the long history of the sport.

Now, this is strictly against UCI rules but it is always overlooked as it is understood that without pacing back this way, a rider will likely never regain the race.  Once the race is "on" the speed is so high that a rider chasing back faces a gruelling ride even if he or she is taking pace from cars following the bunch.  I know.  I've been there.

But the UCI decided in this case to disqualify Nils, depriving him of a deserved and extremely brave and no doubt painful win.

Now, I'm all for rooting out cheats in sport.  But this isn't really cheating.  He gained no advantage other than actually getting back into the race following a severe crash that would render most of us immobile let alone able to carry on racing a bike.

The UCI says it is going to enforce this rule more consistently in the future.  But if this is the case we're going to see races decimated by punctures and crashes.

In Nils's case, surely the only fair way to enforce this rule would have been to pull him out of the race immediately instead of letting him go on and "win" it, and also heavily influence the race outcome in the process.

It seems in all sports that the "rules" people are often those who have never participated in the sport they officiate.  If they did, they would be able to see just how ridiculous their decisions often are.