After disqualification threats, UCI clear Tadej Pogacar of racing Giro with purple shorts

Cheap dig because you don’t understand or want to admit how things work.

Before I explain, firstly, the story is limited to Cyclingnews’ report of what they were told anonymously was said by some unnamed person, great start for veracity, accountability and verification, especially knowing how media need to « intentionally misunderstand » as much as possible to create buzzy headlines.

Let’s compare the UCI to a law and justice system.

When you get stopped by the police for a really minor transgression, depending on the interpersonal evolution of your discussion, a lot can end up being said, sometimes hypothetically, you may receive a warning of what could happen if you don’t abide by the policeman’s interpretation and risk a penalty from him should you ignore it. Is that the end of the story? No. You have a hierarchy and procedure to lodge a complaint, reverse decisions, etc. You can go to court at several levels and even for unclear situations there are those given the power to interpret new applications/interpretations of laws.

If you research the story more deeply, you’ll find it was a commissaire that initiated the whole thing without pretending it was his decision to take but that the final answer would have to come from hierarchy not present at the Giro. This « policeman » probably warned that by not respecting his interpretation UAE RISKED disqualification, that is not a THREAT, but obviously if someone (still anonymous) at UAE speaking to a journalist felt it as a threat or felt it would sound better if interpreted as a threat presents it that way knowing there is no risk then that’s what the public will remember.

The UCI (judge of the court) didn’t backtrack because they never made a previous decision, all they did was decide whether the commissaire’s (policeman) report and interpretation were valid.

Had all this been requested properly 3 days earlier, there would never have been a story.

As usual, there is a world of difference between reading an initial story doing the rounds as everyone copy pastes blindly, and following up to read between the lines.

As with the recent Spanish race where riders were accused of abandoning en masse because of an « unannounced » doping control, it’s best to take sensational media reports with more than a pinch of salt. But people are more interested (maybe even addicted, remember, many seem to find cycling boring in general) in sensations than truth nowadays, which may be why nobody actually checks up anything anymore.

Wondering why they do that in the first place though? It sounds silly af to me.