Cyclist disqualified from Tour of Flanders...for littering

I think it will be hard to police if they can say they were just passing it to a fan. I live in the south of France on roads that are used for lots of races and the amount of discarded bottles is terrible. After the last Ironman we collected hundreds of discarded bottles in the few Kms after the feeding station. That was a week after the event. They should bar code all bottles and fine organisers for any waste found afterwards. There is really no excuse, it has just become the norm to throw bottles. I feel sorry for the rider but I am sure in the long run this is a good idea.

The law itself actually says that you musn't throw bidons 'at spectators'. It's not clear that that's the same thing as throwing them to spectators. To me, throwing them at spectators carries an implication of doing so in a way that they might hit somebody, or being careless about where you're throwing them.

However, that's been written into race rulebooks as you musn't throw them to spectators, and that's what the commissaires are then enforcing.

So if there's a backlash over it there may be some wiggle room for the UCI to say to organisers 'Look - you're over-interpreting the rule - we never intended to stop bottles being passed to fans as souvenirs - just make sure they're doing it responsibly'.

mdavidford wrote:

The law itself actually says that you musn't throw bidons 'at spectators'. It's not clear that that's the same thing as throwing them to spectators. To me, throwing them at spectators carries an implication of doing so in a way that they might hit somebody, or being careless about where you're throwing them.

However, that's been written into race rulebooks as you musn't throw them to spectators, and that's what the commissaires are then enforcing.

So if there's a backlash over it there may be some wiggle room for the UCI to say to organisers 'Look - you're over-interpreting the rule - we never intended to stop bottles being passed to fans as souvenirs - just make sure they're doing it responsibly'.

The law actually states that

Quote:

  Riders may not jettison food, bonk-bags, feeding bottles, clothes, etc. outside of the litter zones provided by the organiser.

The rider must safely and exclusively deposit their waste on the sides of the road in the litter zones provided by the organiser. Riders may not jettison anything on the roadway itself. 

Riders may also dispose of bottles and clothing to team cars or organisation vehicles or with the team staff in charge of riders’ feeding.

In the event of a heat wave, exceptional measures may be put in place by the president of the commissaires' panel in consultation with the organiser 

Different bit of the law. Arguably, if you're passing an item to a fan, it's not 'waste' being 'jettisoned'. In terms of the 'race incidents' for which punishments can be given it defines it as

Quote:

8.3 Throwing of objects or waste in a careless or dangerous manner or onto the road or at spectators. Throwing waste outside the litter zones.

I don't believe a bottle bounced out of the cage in that crash. For a starters it was travelling faster across the road than simply dropping from the bike would suggest. Then ask yourself how often does that happen? I've never seen it. I think they wanted to make this look like more of an innocent accident.

Let alone all of the take away litter I see in areas many miles from the nearest outlet.

When much younger I temped as a litter picker on the Hampshire section of the M3 for a couple of months,  (went a bit deaf in my right ear because of wax build up...) .  The 1/2 mile after Fleet services took a whole week.

If Formula 1 drivers were normalising littering then maybe you'd have a point.

Tear off visor strips?

Not to mention vast quantities of rubber - with the tyres that needlessly degrade after less than half a race, but are necessary because no one can overtake on the track.

yep, even after that had happened so youd think DS would be screaming down the radios to riders not to do it, I saw several bottles lobbed towards roadside fans and no fines, no disqualifications from it, and as per normal UCI focusing on the wrong thing anyway.

I've often wondered how many bottles are used by the Peloton, over the course of a grand tour. Nearly 200 riders X 21 days X 4 or 5 per day (with a few exceptions)
It seems awfully wasteful, environmentally irresponsible (even allowing for some being picked up by spectators) and setting an unprofessional example.

they are reusable containers though, if you want to see waste just watch one of the many online videos that do "behind the scenes" visits to these races, they literally have fleets of cars with drivers, and helicopters on hand just to whisk guests around the course route, or the amount of fuel used in generators to power equipment on the team buses etc etc

All these things need tackling, it's not one or the other.

I hate seeing riders chuck their bottles into undergrowth or down banks. The race organisers' line was always that a clean-up team comes along afterwards, but there's no way on earth they would find half the bidons.

I'm delighted the UCI is enforcing the rules, even if this was not the worst case by any means.

totally agree I hate seeing them chuck them just to save a few grams on a climb, think it was the Vuelta last year and saw them chucking bidons literally over a cliff into a canyon, no fan was going to pick those up.So fine them, and apply the rule equally.

But there are degrees of wrongness and being sensible about these things and disqualifying a rider from a race for chucking a bidon away for a fan is not sensible, it completely diverts attention away from the point of the rule is making about stopping littering, and destroys the fan engagement in cycling which is probably bar baseball, one of the few professional sports that has that level of fan engagement.

the UCI too often hides behind its own rules & regulations when its missing what real fans get from the sport, and completely ignoring its often far bigger failings. has Bouhanni been banned for a race yet as an example ? has the UCI responded to Genevieve Jeanson's open letter yet ?

But he's not throwing it in the undergrowth or down a bank - there's a group of fans right there who will now have a nice memento from the day. The commissaires do have discretion and I think this was heavy handed.

I believe they have designated areas for getting rid of bidons. Outside of those areas, it's not allowed - so the decision is correct.

I wish there were designated areas for the Red Bull cans I see on our country lanes in Cumbria.