UCI adjusts participation rule for team relay due to COVID-19 illnesses
Several cyclists have cancelled their trip to Fayetteville, Ark., including Quinten Hermans, Annemarie Worst, pretty much the entire Italian national team, to name a few, which has left the UCI scrambling how to run their inaugural team relay on Friday.
on Thursday the UCI announced that it has changed the participation rule for the team relay test. The international cycling body said that to ensure that nations entered in Friday’s team relay test event can still field a team despite their restricted numbers, they’ve reduced the number of riders per team from six to four.
Each participating team in Fayetteville will line up two female riders and two male riders as follows:
One junior woman or one u-23 woman
One u-23 woman or one elite woman
One junior man or one u-23 man
one u-23 man or one elite man.
Nations have also been offered the chance to enter two teams of four riders each.
Originally, each team was to line up six riders: one elite male and one elite female, as well as two male and two female riders from the u-23 and/or junior categories.
Each rider will race over one lap of a 3km course before tagging in his or her teammate waiting in a transition zone. Friday’s test event will therefore logically be four laps instead of the originally planned six laps. Each nation can determine its own starting order.
The nations participating in the team relay test event in Fayetteville are: Belgium, Canada – A, Canada – B, Czech Republic, Italy, USA – A and USA – B.
