UCI Cyclocross ‘No Feed Rule’ Updated and Explained

With the first World Cup event of the season taking place September 16 in Las Vegas, Nevada, the topic of feeds (including bottle hand ups) during UCI cyclocross races has come to the forefront. CrossVegas is a hot weather race and in the past feeds have been allowed in the pit zone per UCI regulations, after the first two laps and before the last two laps. Feeds were also at the heart of controversy invloving last year’s CrossVegas men’s winner, Sven Nys, who was given a water bottle before feeds were technically allowed. The officials, on that occasion, fined Nys instead of disqualifying him.

For 2015-2016, no such controversy should arise, because feeding is no longer allowed in UCI races. The UCI changed its regulations on July 1. Finding the actual text, however, is a little tricky since the UCI has not fully updated the online version of the rules.

For the actual rule change, no new text has been added. A paragraph explaining warm weather feeding has just been removed. Here is the rule as it was in effect for 2014-2015:

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 9.22.58 AM

And here is the rule as currently enforced per the July 1, 2015, changes:

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 9.24.28 AM

Pretty straight forward. The “In the event of warm weather conditions” language has been removed, so no feeding allowed. Period. For CrossVegas, a race in which it isn’t necessary to ever shoulder the bike, the answer may seem pretty easy: Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 9.36.55 AM

But not everyone agrees …

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 10.48.03 AM

To ease the burden on finding the rules, I’ve uploaded a copy to this site. A full version of the up to date current UCI rules and regulations is available here: UCI Cyclo-Cross Rules And Regulations 7.1.2015

 

 

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