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news
Screenshot 2021-04-04 at 13.08.52Rider thrown out of Tour of Flanders for tossing water bottle towards fan says being given one as a kid inspired him to become pro cyclist
Michael Schär, the rider thrown out of the Tour of Flanders yesterday for tossing a water bottle towards a roadside spectator, says it was being given one on a trip to watch the Tour de France as a child that helped inspire him to become a professional cyclist.
The AG2R Citroën rider was chasing back after two bike changes when TV pictures showed him throwing the bidon towards a group of people on a corner, apparently realising straight away that in doing so he was in contravention of new UCI rules against littering.
When you realize you forgot new UCI regulations. pic.twitter.com/A9icwa1FIX
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) April 4, 2021
The new rules which came into effect on Thursday 1 April mean that items such as water bottle and gel wrappers can only be jettisoned in designated litter zones.
Sanctions that can be imposed by the race jury include the rider being disqualified from the race, as happened to Schär, being docked UCI world ranking points, or having a time penalty imposed.
The 34 year old Swiss rider took to Instagram this morning to recount in a post headed “Dear UCI – whay kids start cycling” how on a family trip to see the 1997 Tour de France, when he would have been aged 10, he was inspired to pursue a career as a pro cyclist.
“I remember it as it was yesterday,” he wrote. “My parents drove my sister and me to the 1997 Tour de France in the Jura. We drove to the parcours and waited there for hours in the middle of the crowds. Finally the publicity caravan arrived and we all [caught] some treats.
“Later the first police motos arrived and the helicopter was hovering [above] us. Exactly this electrifying atmosphere of the bunch approaching us was for me life changing. I was endlessly impressed by the speed and ease these riders could ride their bikes. I wanted nothing else in my life anymore than becoming a pro cyclist myself. From this moment on I was driven by a dream.
“On top of that impression I received a bottle from a Pro,” he continued. “This little plastic piece made my cycling addiction complete. Back home that bottle was reminding me every day of what my dream was. I rode my yellow Team Polti bottle every day in full pride. Every day.”
Schär continued: “Now I am one of these Pros who race through all of the happy spectators. During calm moments of the race I always keep my empty bottle until I see some kids next to the road. Then I throw them gently right where they can catch it safely. Two years ago I gave a bottle to a girl next to the road. Her parents told me the girl wasn’t only happy about this bottle for a day. No, she still talks about this bottle. And maybe one day she becomes a cyclist as well.
“These are moments why I love our sport,” he added. “Nobody ever can take that away from us. We are the most approachable sport who gives bottles along the way. Simple as that. Simple is Cycling.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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17 comments
You have to get one's priorities right. Forget that tri-bars are dangerous especially when imitated by youngsters. As is descending when off the saddle when imitated by youngsters. Just worry about litter.
Descending off the saddle has been banned, but what dangerous about tri bars?
Does feel like they went a bit extreme with the punishment on this one, throwing him out of the race for apparently a first offence and when it wasn't the kind of littering the rule is designed to ban just makes the UCI look stupid. When there's so many safety issues for riders still to be adressed, going all out on some of these new rules feels over the top. If they're going to ban giving items to fans then it'll be a poorer thing for a sport that's not exactly flushed with money and good exposure.
I don't get why they aren't putting pressure on the manufacturers of the gels etc to use biodegradeable packaging, while the riders shouldn't just dump stuff all over the place (especially gel wrappers, it's not like they're large items) if they made the items out of other materials in the first place it'd make a far bigger difference to the environment. Or are all riders going to have to have a top tube litter box that they stuff al the spent wrappers into for inspection after the race?
They DQd Letizia Borghesi from the womens race too, plus she got a fine as well,which she described as excessive, especially the fine which must have been the full 1000CHF as she described it as an amount that she'd hardly earn as much for winning the race.
Btw they only DQ riders instantly on one day races, stage races you get time penalties instead and 3 goes before elimination, but as accidentally dropping stuff also apparently counts , so riders better brush up on their handling skills, I'm sure this will provide hours of debate over the coming year.
As per my previous comment, I'm with Michael Schar on this one. My girls treasure the bottles thrown to them at the TdF; my eldest daughter (then 7, now 12) wrote to every WT and women's team in 2016 after she was thrown a musette at Paris-Roubaix asking them how she could become a soigneur. WNT invited her to spend the day with them at the Tour de Yorkshire though we were unable to go as we'd moved abroad before the race came about; Sky sent her loads of goodies, Cannondale too. Most teams replied. She still remembers fondly the day out and the emails and goodies she received. If Schar had jettisoned the bottle into a field or hedge then yes, apply the rules. He didn't. He tossed it gently to fans, arguably doing cycling a big favour. The bottle wasn't litter and it wasn't left behind as a fan picked it up. Surely in that scenario everyone's a winner? The most it required would have been an email from the commissaires to the team after the race reminding them that bottles shouldn't be dropped but handed off to a car. #Jobsworths
Getting a couple of TdF bidons on a mountain stage: highlight of my trip. (And I was 26)
Have a look at Alex Dowsett post on Insta as well, fuck the UCI. Keep doing it riders, teams chuck the bottles anyway after stage races, they only get a couple of washes and then binned.
The world is drowning in plastic. Bike racers are guilty of appalling littering. There have to be rules to stop it, and I applaud the UCI.
If it is possible to draft a law that allows bottles to be given to fans, and stops them being chucked into bushes or lakes, then great. Until that law is drafted, Schar should spare us the big X-factor style emotional baloney, hold his hands up, and apologise.
So he should apologise for throwing one to fans and in effect not littering? I don't think anyone is condoning plastic waste or littering but calling for a sensible interpretation of the rules, which judging by your comment here and on the other article, you seem unable to do.
Which bit of throwing a bottle to a fan, as opposed to lobbing one into bushes/ over the edge of a mountainside etc do you consider is problematic littering? Or are you just a blind rule follower who never questions the wisdom of such rules?
The big X Factor style emotional baloney is how we get the powers that be to draft a new and improved law, it's called "protest" anywhere else in the world
I agree that the world drowning in plastic is a huge problem and the UCI's rule should largely be applauded, but to eject a rider for tossing a waterbottle to fans is massively overzealous and officious and isn't solving any problems for anyone. Michael Schar has every right to feel very, very pissed off.
The world is drowning, correct, but throwing it to a fan who can either use it, keep it as a moment or recycle it isn't throwing it into a bush or lake, is it??
What has Schar to apologise for?
The UCI brought in a new rule on 1st April that says you may now only jettison items in provided litter zones (Which are off-limits to spectators currently as they are also the feed zones) or they can drop back and use their team car.
Neither of these options is really practical in a 250km race with I believe 4 litter zones, one of them inside the last couple of km. So what's going to happen, one rider goes back to load up on bottles while one goes around collecting them from riders to take back to the team car? That is pretty impractical, dishing out bidons to fans has been around longer than most of us have been alive. It's the UCI making stupid rules for the UCI sake, no one else's.
Another part of the new rule states
On a windy day, half of that litter will have blown away by the time the race has passed through and they are clear to clean it up
Seems to me that a bit of discretion should have been used by the commissaire seeing as the fan immediately bends down to pick it up.
Seems to me your from another planet, a much better planet. Here is a world built on intransigence, pedantry, health and fucking safety. The authorities that be cannot be argued with, they cannot be reasoned with. They completely lack common sense and good judgement and they will absolutely not stop, ever, until all sex is rape.
There is a glimmer of hope however. There is a thing called SETI. It is an organisation set up to search for intelligent life. Apparently they are searching in space now.
U OK hun?
Group hug after picking up all the litter.