UCI Disqualifies Embattled Aero Innovator Again. This Time Feels Different.

Once again, the Dutch cyclist and aerodynamicist Jan-Willem van Schip has been disqualified from a UCI event due to an illegal position on the bike. This is another instance in a growing list of technology-based sanctions against Van Schip, who has become a bastion for aerodynamic tech in the face of several UCI disqualifications for his bike tech choice and riding position.

Last year, Van Schip was thrown out of the Tour of Holland for a non-compliant seatpost. In 2023, the Dutchman was disqualified from a one-day event for illegal handlebars, a similar sanction to his disqualification from the Baloise Belgium Tour in 2021.

Through it all, Van Schip has remained committed to pushing the limits of aerodynamics as the tall breakaway rider has made it his life’s work to find the limits of aerodynamics in road racing.

The crux of this disqualification seems to be based on Van Schip resting his forearms on his handlebars to close his frontal area and reduce overall drag. This appears to be different from the past two disqualifications that came from using technology that was not approved by the UCI.

The question that remains is how exactly Van Schip was holding the bars and whether he was targeted unfairly for being a repeat offender. From the quotes coming from the Dutchman, what is clear is how he feels.

“How can it be that I’m allowed to race the Ronde van Overijssel with this, while all the other riders in the front group are allowed to just rest their arms on the handlebars, and not me?” Van Schip said in Dutch in a post-race post on Instagram. “The bike is completely legal, the seatpost is fine, but they still found a way to screw us over. It hurts a lot.”

Van Schip concluded the message with one last simple to translate phrase: wat een kutsport.

“What a shitty sport.”

Diving into the specific illegality of Van Schip’s position raises more questions than answers 

While the Tour of Hellas in Greece is not widely televised, there are a few images that were nabbed from the livestream that show Van Schip and his aggressive position. From that vantage point, it is clear to see where Van Schip is coming from.

While his arms are touching the bars, his hands are firmly placed on the hoods, offering unfettered access to the bike’s shifters and the brakes. Across cycling, at both the lower levels of UCI racing, up to the WorldTour level, you can find examples of riders riding with their hands on the hoods and their wrists or forearms on the bars themselves. On the surface, this is a position that should be allowed.

Section 2.2.025 of the UCI rule book says, “using the forearms as a point of support on the handlebars is prohibited except in time trials,” but it does not go as far as saying that a rider’s forearm cannot touch the handlebars. The rule was instituted to prevent “puppy paws,” or the pseudo time trial position where the rider’s forearms sit on the top of the bars to lower the rider’s body and close their frontal area.

Strictly speaking, if the UCI applied Section 2.2.025 of its rule book in the way Van Schip claimed it is applying the law, there could be a disqualification every race. Yet, it seems that for the UCI the matter is a question of intention rather than execution. No test can quantify what is or is not a point of support, after all.

For Van Schip, his intention is worn fairly nakedly as the Dutch rider has been a passionate supporter of companies and tech, like the innovative Speeco Aero Breakaway that caused his initial disqualification in 2021.

From that point on, Van Schip has been a flag-bearer for unorthodox technological choices and aerodynamic positions that push the envelope of allowable bike fits and bike setups the furthest.

The UCI, it appears, takes umbrage to this pursuit. In fact, Van Schip was literally used as the textbook example of positions that would no longer be allowed in UCI races in a presentation to teams in 2021.

The UCI’s Bogeyman and the legal thicket he has created 

While Van Schip is not the only rider to fall afoul of that rule change — or the subsequent rules on tilting the hoods in — the amount that the UCI has targeted the Dutch rider for infractions within the grey area of interpretation of this rule is notable. For some, it is a double standard that is verging on harassment.

While previous disqualifications have involved the UCI using leverage from technologies and on the bike hardware that breaches aspects of the rule book, Van Schip’s team and teammates made it clear that this time, there were no such issues.

Van Schip’s teammate, Bram Danklof told Wielerflits that Van Schip did not break any standard rules or cause any safety issue. Danklof went as far as to say the decision was “pure harassment.” Additionally, the DS of his UCI Continental Azérion/Villa Valkenburg team went to protest to no avail.

Ultimately, while Van Schip is an exception and his position is plainly more extreme than the rest of the peloton, his actual infraction, according to the visible evidence, is no different from so many others.

The uncomfortable question this raises is, where does the UCI go from here? Is the ruling a hint at what could come from an increase in scrutiny over arm positions in road racing? Or, perhaps even more destructively, is this a targeted decision made to the letter of the law while other, more conventional-looking positions are excused due to the vagueness of the same code?

How the UCI responds over the coming days could have massive implications for this rule, and perhaps many others, in the future.