Latvia protests Van der Poel’s World Cup bronze: “He interprets the rules the way he wants”

Tadej Pogacar was crowned at Zurich as the new World champion after a historic display with a single attack one hundred kilometers from the finish line. The Slovenian surprised his rivals and completed the escape in one of the most impressive performances ever seen. The Australian joined him on the podium Ben O’Connor and the dutch Mathieu van der Poelwho gave the rainbow jersey to Pogacar. O’Connor surprised by an attack with a kilometer more while the cyclist of Alpine He beat Toms Skujins, Remco Evenepoel, Marc Hirschi, Ben Healy and Enric Mas in the sprint for bronze.

This Wednesday the Latvian cycling federation sent a statement to the UCI expressing its disagreement with the body over the non-disqualification. Van der Poel. Its cyclist Toms Skujins finished in fourth place and if the disqualification happened, it would have been bronze.

With 58 kilometers to go, the Dutchman climbed onto the curb, where he rolled a few meters before rejoining the road. An action which, according to the Latvian federation, should lead to its immediate disqualification under the regulations of ICU. “He put the spectators at risk, an action that should be punishable by disqualification as happened to Marlen Reusser in Ghent-Wevelgem and Luke Rowe in the Ronde van Vlaanderen,” he detailed.

“Van der Poel a spectator almost got run over when he passed three other cyclists on the sidewalk for no good reason,” he alleges. Sandis Akispresident of the Latvian cycling federation. He also explained that after the race representatives of the federation tried to expose this fact to the UCI administrators and although they acknowledged that they had seen the action, “they considered it not dangerous and not worthy of punishment. The representative of Latvian insisted that “The rules should apply to everyone equally and they responded that it would not be good for the sport,” the statement said. Akis Considering that the UCI “interprets the rules at will and that not all cyclists are the same, especially when it comes to making unpopular decisions.”

Finally, the Latvian federation expresses “deep concern about this decision” and urges the ICU to “apply its rules appropriately to ensure the safety and integrity of cycling.” He also hopes that the UCI will explain to the public “the decision of the administrators to avoid similar situations.”

The publication of the statement generated controversy on social networks between those who support the protest and consider that Van der Poel should be disqualified and those who accuse the Latvian federation of raising its voice only to benefit the its cyclist, Toms Skujins.