KIGALI (Rwanda) – Re-elected as head of the UCI for the next four years, UCI President Lappartient showed up at the World Championships with a big smile and the safety of those who didn't even need to defend themselves from opposing candidates. The Swiss federal apparatus is now a solid industry, which generates revenue and continues its expansion towards previously unimaginable borders. The landing in Rwanda was greeted with triumphal tones both from the UCI president, who pinned it to his chest, and from the local media. It's a shame, for example, that the celebration was immediately followed by, for example, the counterpart of Girmay's words, which dismantled the castle of ceremonies. And inviting us to reflect on the word itself: Africa is not RwandaAfrica is a vast continent, and each country has its own history and needs.
The day after his election, Lappartient met the media at the usual press conference, where he showed extraordinary oratorical skills, but also the lack of willingness to thoroughly address the most serious issuesRace safety. The protests against Israel. The corporate uprisings. The actions against teams over the long-standing (and tedious) GPS issue. Things have only one valid point of view: that of theUCI. In the meantime, however the 5 teams excluded from the Romandie Women's cycling they turned to the TAS, while SRAM has turned to the Belgian Data Protection Authority of the competition for the decision related to the gear limiting. When we asked the UCI communications office to find out how the tests in this regard will be carried out at the Tour of Guangxi, we were told that following SRAM's appeal, this information cannot be shared with the media..
Finally in Africa, then?
I had the goal of organizing the world championships in Africa and finally, 8 years after my first election, we are here in Rwanda And I'm very happy with the high level of organization and wonderful races. Cycling in Africa is growing. Many of us didn't know what to expect. They were impressed by the level of organization.
Isn't it likely to be a huge event that will leave nothing behind tomorrow?
Road cycling is different from all other disciplines. You have to race; you can't just train and race once or twice a month. Unfortunately there are not enough races and sometimes there are resource problemsWe need more races, both locally and internationally. If African athletes want to reach a certain level, there's no plan B that works: they have to move to EuropeOnly there are they able to compete every week. Organizing competitions, given the economic situation in some countries, is much more difficult.
How do you do?
Our goal is that this World Cup is not a point of arrival, but a point of departureThe fact that the events have been broadcast in almost every country in Africa will help us. I'm sure we can have many more international events and in other disciplines, such as mountain biking or gravel. We will continue to invest, but Africa is large and it's difficult to travel from one country to another. That's why the idea is to Open a cycling center in the West. These regional hubs will be very important for identifying talent and then bringing it to the highest level. We need to continue discussing with the National Federations to help them pursue a real agenda, because they aren't always structured. We need to implement a strategy for the next 5 years in AfricaIt's important to consider the positive results of this World Cup, but also what can be improved.
While the World Championships are being celebrated here, the Vuelta in Europa was stopped due to a political protest.
We fully recognize the potential of democracy and the right to protest, when people disagree with something. But protesting and being respectful is one thing, protesting and harming athletes is another and we cannot accept this.It's very complicated. In Spain, the police tried to protect the riders, but the athletes still felt unsafe and scared. Meanwhile, the Spanish Prime Minister has said he supports the protesters, so it must not have been easy for the police to protect the race.
The protest aimed to exclude the Israeli team from the group…
According to Olympic values, sport is a tool for unity. Clearly, as the UCI We can't pretend to save the world just by bringing people together to a race on a bicycle or in a competition. But this is also our DNA, the history of Olympic values, being able to compete regardless of our nationality, our religion, our background, even if countries are at war. Yesterday In the Congress there were the Palestinian federation, the Israeli federation, the Ukrainian federation in the same room, but we have to be very careful that our teams carry a different kind of message. We are sure that the Israel Premier Tech have the right to participate, while the Spanish government asked me to remove it: on what legal basis?
Based on an unprecedented human sensitivity, probably…
Any future controversy would be a pretext to remove another team. The politicization of sport is a great danger. This doesn't mean we have to accept everything. What happened on October 7th was unacceptable, and what's happening today in Gaza is terrible for civilians. If we want peace, violence is not the solutionBut we are politically neutral and do not want to interfere in political decisions, because we cannot become an instrument for applying sanctions.
Let's get to GPS and everything that happened around it?
Our goal is no more cases like last year, where the rider fell and it was not possible to find him (the reference is to the death of Muriel Furrer(Editor's note: We want to be able to find the athlete and know when he stops. It's clear that the goal is to have these devices for all races in the future. I'm not talking about having our own system, but as a principle. We want to have it at least for the WorldTour and if possible for the ProSeries, but it would be a great investment.
Why not adopt the Velon system, which is already proven and would be free, given that WorldTour teams already use it?
We will never put security in the hands of private companies, depriving the UCI of the right to adopt its own systemSome teams wanted to block us, fearing that we would commercialize their data. I told them: guys, the situation has been the same for the last 6 years, we won't do it, we won't commercialize the data, but I don't want to be blackmailed (Lappartient uses the term “blackmailed”, ed.) in the name of security, so if you don't want to use GPS you will be removed from the raceIt's been very difficult for all of us, and I hope we can find solutions. Alive he's not ready for thisThey're working on developing it and testing it at the Giro di Lombardia. But in the future, I want to be able to provide GPS devices for riders, in the name of safety and without commercializing anything.
In recent days, the end of the U23 Nations Cup was decided: does this mean the category will be abolished?
There's a debate because today, most of the under-23s are professionals, and the level of the U23 competition hasn't been very high. It's difficult for nations to achieve a good level of participation. Nowadays, professional teams also take care of juniors, so the need for which we created this system no longer exists today. Previously, teams did not invest in I have to team up so we decided that it was not necessary to maintain the same structure as before, even if il Future Tower it will remain a race for national teamsWe are not the organizers, but we will support it with a contribution because it is a race reserved for national teams. The U23 World Cup will continue, but in our opinion it is no longer necessary to maintain the Nations CupWe had some requests, but not a lot, so we decided to give up.
In July, you launched new technical regulations focused on safety, but this was at a time when brands were launching new products that weren't in line with the new standards. Wouldn't it be better to have a better collaboration with the cycling industry?
Of course we can improve the level of discussion, but I can tell you that there are many contacts with the WFSGI, which in a certain way is the union of all the producersWe think it's good to have a The discussions and reports have been helpful in recent weeks, for example, in reaching agreement on handlebar width. As for rim height, why did we choose 65 mm as the maximum limit? Because we observed. In the last Tour de France, no one had rims higher than 60mm, so the size we propose is even higher than what riders use.
Why not involve companies in the SafeR framework?
Our goal It's not just about following the industry's work, but also setting safety rules.Races are getting faster and faster and handling an 80mm wheel in windy conditions is critical. That's why we've put the 65 mm limitation, obviously for road races, in time trials they are free. What I would like to say is that we are open to all discussions, but One thing must be clear: we will never use our influence to change the market.Innovation is key to sport, but for us, safety comes first. Many of my colleagues would like to have an industry as strong as ours. We also know that adequate notice is needed because launching a product can take up to two years. but here it was a question of limiting the speed of the races, because by continuing to increase it, we would have put our athletes in danger.
