"The UCI is slowly ruining bunch sprints" - Adam Blythe & Robbie McEwen fume at controversial Giro d'Italia yellow cards

The first bunch sprint of the 2025 Giro d'Italia was always going to be a dramatic one, but on as Casper van Uden powered to the win on stage 4, the UCI caused controversy post-stage by handing out fines and yellow cards as if they were going out of fashion.

This topic, and the yellow cards handed out to the likes of XDS Astana Team's Max Kanter and Team Picnic PostNL's Bram Welton was discussed on TNT Sports, with former British national champion Adam Blythe and Aussie sprint icon Robbie McEwen in full agreement that the UCI had handled things poorly. "What a load of rubbish. People getting DQ’d, yellow-carded for nothing. Literally nothing," began a frustrated Blyhte. "I really feel like the UCI is slowly ruining bunch sprints.”

“Because of all the rules and regulations — some of them don’t match up. You can’t do this, you can do that, but if you do that, you’ll get relegated. So do that. But wait — you’re not allowed to do that, because you’ll get a yellow card. It just doesn’t make sense how they’re applying these yellow cards and disqualifications, relegations…” McEwen adds.

Max Kanter, who finished 5th, was relegated post-stage due to some shoulder barging in the fight for position in the finale. “Yeah. Got in trouble for shoulder barging. First instance was with Kaden Groves — he comes close, Groves has to get out of the saddle and throws his bike back just to avoid touching wheels. Kanter was in front. For me, Groves should have braked. Nothing going on there,” McEwen analyses.

“Exactly. But the relegation was actually for what happened with Mads Pedersen. Kanter moves slightly, but if you look at the white line, he doesn’t leave it. Mads is trying to hold position, Kanter’s trying to hold the wheel — that’s sprinting,” Blythe adds in agreement, with McEwen replying: “There’s no big movement off the line, no one’s impeded. If anything, Mads leaned more. If there was any shoulder, it came from Mads. That’s sprinting — it’s about maneuvering, daring, subtle movements. Kanter didn’t shoulder anybody.”

Bram Welton's yellow card however, raised the ire of McEwen and Blythe even further. "The UCI has this rule now: when you lead out, you must go 100% to the line, hold your line, don’t swing off to the sides. Welten did exactly that," assesses a confused McEwen. "He sits up, not impeding anyone, and goes straight. If he had swung left, he might’ve hit someone. He did the right thing.”

“And they still gave him a yellow card. The UCI says don’t swing across — stay in line. But also, don’t stay in line because you might impede someone. It’s ridiculous,” Blythe fumes. “You can’t expect a lead-out guy to keep going at sprinting speed all the way to the line. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“If they really wanted to penalize him, they might as well have fined him for celebrating his teammate’s win — he raised a hand and wiped sweat off his lip near the line. That’s how silly it’s getting,” McEwen concludes with a wry smile.