Rule Change
February 20th, 2007 |Leipheimer was caught in the accident and came through the finish line in the second group over one minute down from the winning group. Chief commissarie of the Tour of California Fabrizio Darnellio initiated discussions on changing the UCI regulation from three to ten kilometres to go, ultimately giving Leipheimer the leader’s jersey. “Due to the size of the crash and the large number of riders that went down in the crash, our panel of commissaries made a decision to award all the riders with the time of the winner,” Jim Birrell, race director said. “I think it was a fair decision and the right decision.”
I have read some complaints on the internets about this situation but there is a little known UCI rule that comes into play when this kind of thing happens.
The rule states that:
• If the race is taking place in the USA…
• and if an American is the race leader…
• and the stage is finishing in the home town of the American race leader…
• and the credibility of the race from the previous year is in question…
• and there is a crash involving the American in the lead of the race at any time…
then the American gets to stay on as race leader by any means necessary, end of discussion.
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