The five teams disqualified by the UCI for the 2025 Tour de Romandie Femmes have reacted with shock to that decision. Canyon//SRAM, EF Education-Oatly, Picnic PostNL, Lidl-Trek, and Visma | Lease a Bike released a joint statement sharing their perspective on the events of the past days and hours.
The five teams had requested clarification of the rules regarding the use of the tracking system that the UCI made mandatory. According to the quintet, the federation failed to respond to their request, despite Canyon//SRAM, EF Education-Oatly, Picnic PostNL, Lidl-Trek, and Visma | Lease a Bike stating they were willing to cooperate with the GPS system test.
"We are shocked and disappointed by the UCI’s decision to disqualify several teams, including ours, from the Tour de Romandie Femmes," they write. "Earlier this week, all involved teams sent formal letters to the UCI expressing their support for rider safety but also raising serious concerns about the unilateral imposition of a GPS tracking device on only one rider per team."
According to the teams, they made two points clear: "We would not select a rider ourselves, nor install, remove, or maintain the device. Additionally, the UCI or its partner was free to select a rider and install the device at their own discretion if they believed they had the right to do so." As a result of the opposition to the test, the UCI threatened disqualification, which was later enforced.
Velon is the central player
"Despite our cooperation and the existence of a proven and collaborative safety tracking system that has already been successfully tested in other major races (fully operational for the entire peloton and offered to the UCI), the UCI chose to impose this measure without clear consent, threatened disqualification, and is now excluding us from the race because we did not select a rider ourselves. The reason why they do not want to nominate a rider themselves remains unknown and unanswered," write the teams. The system they refer to is that of Velon.
"Despite multiple requests from the teams over the past two days, the UCI commissaires were unable to demonstrate based on which specific UCI rule teams are required to single out one rider over others regarding their obligations (apart from officially referring to an email from the teams’ association). Nevertheless, they decided to proceed and disqualified the teams along with their riders."
Canyon//SRAM, EF Education-Oatly, Picnic PostNL, Lidl-Trek, and Visma | Lease a Bike are therefore shocked by the disqualification. "This action ignores the rights of teams and riders, applies the measure in a discriminatory manner, and contradicts the UCI’s own proclaimed commitment to dialogue with stakeholders. We have always been at the forefront of making cycling safer, but this must be achieved through cooperation, not coercion."
