The three Continental Teams permitted to ride in the UAE Tour Women this week were not only present in the breakaways each day, but also won one of the race classifications.
Sara Luccon won the intermediate sprints competition despite a regulation change that apparently barred her Top Girls Fassa Bortolo team and other third-division Continental Teams from Women’s World Tour races.
Behind her, Koch was thwarted by other riders’ pursuit of the points classification and was unable to pick up enough points to get on terms with Luccon. Those third-tier teams had been worried about the imposition of the UCI’s new regulations. Article 2.1.005 excludes them unless fewer than 15 WorldTour and Pro teams are competing. While the UCI’s regulations can sometimes be difficult to navigate, they do not mention a caveat to this regulation.
“To do a race with only 15 teams, especially a WorldTour race, is not nice,” race director Fabrizio D’Amico told Cyclingnews. “At the same time, the more you have, the better it is, but in a way that it doesn’t affect the safety of the race. What I am seeing is that there is a different way of racing between the men and women, and it is super important, in my opinion, to have at least 20 teams at the start with six riders for each team to announce the level and the quality of the race.”
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