When the FBD Insurance RÁS gets underway from the GPO on Sunday 22nd May the field of over 150 cyclists from at least 10 countries will benefit from a new regulation recently introduced by the
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| A sprint finish |
international federation, UCI, as part of a reform of international cycling.
The inherent dangers of the hustle and bustle in the final kilometres of a race as the riders gear up for the hectic sprint to the finish line have long being recognised by the UCI as a situation where a rider could lose valuable time through no fault of his own. To compensate for this the UCI allowed that riders caught up in crashes, mechanical trouble and such like in the final kilometre be credited with the same finishing time as the group in which he was before the mishap.
This final kilometre dispensation has now being increased to 3 kilometres. While this move will generally be welcomed by the cyclists it will be the stuff of nightmares for the race commissaires, or in laypersons language, referees, entrusted with the monitoring and enforcement of the rule. At a very critical point in the race the commissaires now have to watch out for incidents, accidents, punctures and crashes over an extended distance of three kilometres while at the same time watch out for the many other possible breeches of discipline at this highly-charged and charging stage in a bike race.
