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news
Chris Froome at 2013 Tour de France launch (copyright Simon MacMichael)Chris Froome’s Team Sky motorhome banned with UCI citing ‘fairness between all riders’
The UCI’s management committee has voted to block the use of any form of alternative accommodation during stage races “to reaffirm absolute fairness between all riders.” This means that Chris Froome will not be sleeping in the Team Sky motorhome at this year’s Tour de France as had been planned.
Team Sky’s somewhat controversial plan to use a motorhome for their team leader in place of a hotel has been scuppered by a recent ruling. An amendment to UCI rules now reads:
“In all road stage races on the international calendar the organisers must cover the subsistence expenses of the teams from the night before the start to the final day; riders must stay in the hotels provided by the organiser throughout the entire duration of the race. The decision was made in order to reaffirm absolute fairness between all riders.”
Sir Dave Brailsford had previously said that he anticipated Froome would use the team’s Winnebago-style truck to sleep in during the Tour. He described Richie Porte as the guinea pig, after the Tasmanian slept in it during this year’s Giro d’Italia.
Brailsford said that here had been more positives than negatives from the experiment and claimed that not having to pack and unpack in hotels every night was one simple benefit. "We worked out how much time it would save us if we did not do that and it worked out nearly a day – about 21 to 22 hours on our team bus. Instead you can sleep in the same bed and create a better environment for recovery.”
While many rival teams were less than impressed with this new development, Froome seems to have been keen. On Friday, he tweeted a photograph of when he had once slept on the floor during the Tour de France, implying there would be ‘more of that this year’. Shortly afterwards, he retweeted a photo of the cramped bunk beds reportedly used by Andreas Kloden and Gregory Rast in the 2010 Tour.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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18 comments
Err, can I ask about this one actually?
The rules explicitly state:
Does this mean that riders are effectively under curfew?
And if the riders MUST STAY IN THE HOTEL, THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE DURATION OF THE RACE ... how are they going to ride their bikes exactly?? The start line is going to be empty.
[also - does anyone know if this is one of the UCI rules which can be flouted or one of the ones which can't?]
As part of the marginal gains Team Sky riders use their own bedding in hotels so as to always sleep in the same bed. This means carting mattress, pillows, duvet, sheets etc in and out of hotel each day along with any other luggage.
Sleeping in the motor home means you are sleeping in a familiar environment each night which should contribute to better sleep patterns and aid recovery.
As for the doping...I'm sure they'd manager either way if they wanted to.
Yeah, it would be so much easier for them to hide their drugs in a motorhome. Just put them in the cubby hole for the water filtration unit - only accessible by lifting the carpet and unscrewing the panel lid. Much better than having to carry them in and out of hotels.
I'd be happy if I were Froome. All those free miniature shower gels, soaps and sewing kits (not to mention the towels).
I can't see how the motorhome would help make doping easier, if anything it'd make it worse as it'd be under constant scrutiny as we saw when Porte was using it when the journos were obsessed with it.
I think the 'shit that Astana get up to' is exactly why this is the right decision. If a team was doping; if they needed a controlled, private environment to conceal medical equipment and oversee procedures I'm guessing a purpose built mobile home/lab is preferable to a hotel room? It worked for Walter White...
A motor home and a hotel room seem equally private, unless someone knocks and you either let them in or they decide to force their way in.
However for dopers a hotel would seem to have the advantage of more places to hide things and more chance to get away with denying responsibility if something is found.
Think I disagree on this. Surely having to physically carry the drugs and administrative kit required into and out of hotels 20+ times over the course of a tour along with the questions of 'who's that Lucca fella? what does he do on the team...' is more dangerous than having a hidden fridge behind some sort of panel that only a select few know is there. If you've ever been boating or caravanning then you can store stuff in all sorts of interesting places.
It's good to see the UCI clamping down on this sort of thing, this is so much more important than the shit that Astana get up to!
If this was April 1st it would be a great story, but this is ludicrous!
If this was really an issue of "fairness" it would have been banned for the Giro.
How about they investigate doping a bit more, rather than clamping down on a motorhome.
Oh dear, Sky are running out of marginal gains.
Maybe the UCI should concentrate on more important matters than where riders get to sleep. Next they will all have to eat the same brand of breakfast cerial.
.
To eliminate the 3 shreaded wheat advantage!
I guess for the sake of fairness select riders will no longer be able to be flown off the top of a mountain by helicopter to avoid the traffic?
I'm ok with the new rule but only if all uci officials have to sleep in the same hotels as the riders.
For the sake of fairness.....
Or is the issue that the doping controls know which hotel to turn up to in advance but the motorhome could be parked anywhere and hence harder to find!
So every rider in the peloton sleeps in identical hotel rooms as the grand tours work their way round rural Italy, France and Spain? It's that fair is it?
Could this be more about local chambers of commerce all over Europe worrying that in future their hoteliers won't be able to gouge extortionate rates from the teams? Or race organisers worrying where 200+ motorhomes are going to park between stages?
Sanderville, You are Sooooooooooooooo Right.