Cycling: a bang during the World Cup. The UCI has decided to reduce the number of riders per team at all UCI international races. At the Tour de France we will only see eight instead of nine riders in each team from 2018. This could result in serious changes.
7 drivers instead of 8 and 8 instead of 9
The number of drivers in individual races has been talked about for a long time. But nobody expected such a sudden decision – especially not during the World Cup in Bergen. But the rule change is now official and will come into force in the coming season. In the future there will be eight instead of nine riders per team at the start of the Grand Tours and seven instead of the previous eight in the smaller races. This is what the UCI has officially announced: “In order to improve the safety of the riders, the spectators and the race convoy, the UCI Management Committee has decided to limit the peloton size to a maximum of 176 riders. This applies to all events on the UCI International Road Calendar. Therefore, a maximum of seven riders per team will be allowed in all races, eight in the Grand Tours.”
The UCI announces extensive modernization of regulations https://t.co/MupEewaSyh pic.twitter.com/KvcmhFgDTh
— UCI_media (@UCI_media) September 19, 2017
Pros: More security & less control
So far, the UCI has only justified the decision with the argument that it will ensure more safety. However, the claim of an existing connection seems to be quite far-fetched. With 22 teams, there are exactly 22 fewer riders in the peloton than before due to the rule change. Does this mean fewer falls? Hardly likely. Still, the change might make for a less crowded field – time will tell. In any case, Fabian Cancellara spoke rather skeptically about this topic to Velomotion about three weeks ago: “You can do eight racers and two weeks. Because it's currently three weeks and nine racers. It makes a difference whether you go with eight or nine people for three or two weeks. Of course you need help from there. You have to discuss everything, not just six or eight racers or two or three weeks. I think the Tour makes it a little easy to say eight racers means less control.” The UCI did not mention the argument of lesser control, but it seems to be certain that this idea is also behind it. Breakaways are much more difficult to bring back and even teams like Sky may not be able to control everything for three weeks.
Cons: Smaller team rosters & simpler goals
In addition to the two main advantages behind it, there are numerous disadvantages. Although these have not yet been proven, they can at least be strongly feared. The squads of the teams will probably shrink significantly in the next few years. Since one less driver is now required per competition than before, the stress on the drivers is also reduced by around ten percent. So it would be the logical consequence if two to four fewer drivers were included in a squad in the future. This will probably affect the younger and unfinished drivers in particular. Anyone who has just made the leap to a professional team could now be the victim of the rule change. Of course, the so-called stagiares are also affected. Another disadvantage could be that the teams can only focus on one goal. Focusing on the yellow jersey and green jersey - like Team Telekom used to, or more recently Team Saxo-Tinkoff - could be a thing of the past. In order to pilot a sprinter perfectly, you need at least four to five top drivers on the flat. If you then also go for the overall ranking, the team bosses will run out of drivers. Either way, the advantages are offset by some disadvantages. Time will tell if it's a good decision or not.
