After a big overhaul of the rules was released earlier this year, the UCI has gone back to the rulebook to make some more adjustments for the DH World Cup season ahead of the opening round next month. It is interesting to see these changes come shortly after the UCI test event at Lourdes, and we wouldn’t be surprised if some of these changes have come from the rider feedback following the ‘not-a-race’ in France. Check out some of the changes we spotted below.
You can read the full rule amendment document here.
Semi-Finals are Worth Fewer Points
While we still don’t know exactly how semi-finals are going to play out and whether it will feel like second qualifying or a second race, we can now see that the points haul has been significantly reduced. Previously, an Elite Men’s semi-finals win would grant 200 points, just 50 points less than in Finals. Under the updated rules the same win in semi-finals will now offer 100 points for the winner, 150 points less than a win in finals.
There were worries before that semi-finals could become almost equal to finals in its level of importance to riders but with this update, this will most likely change as it doesn’t grant many more points than qualifying.
The Points for a Win are Back to Being Equal for Men and Women
One oddity we spotted back when the initial rules for 2023 were released was the change from the UCI and this year’s new event organisers that a disparity between a win in the Men’s and Women’s racing had been created. Under the previous rules, a semi-finals win would grant an Elite Man 200 points while this was only worth 150 for an Elite Woman. The difference between the categories continued in the finals scoring with a Men’s win scoring 250 points and the Women’s 200 points.
Protected Rider Status for Finals has been Adjusted
In addition to all of the points changes the new rule update has added some extra statements around which riders will be protected for finals. Whilst the original document stated just three rules for protected rider status the new update has five conditions. The first new ruling is that in addition to the top three Elite Men and Women from the previous season, the best-ranked riders in the current standings can be added (that are not already included) until a total of 5 women and 10 men are reached.
A clause has also been added that if a rider in the first two groups does not confirm entry then the spot will not be filled be a different rider.
Alongside this a specific rule for the first round details that it will be the top five Elite Women and 10 Elite Men from the past season who are protected for the final. This is an increase over just the top three Women and five Men in the previous rule change. These riders will have to start a run in semi-finals but no matter the time they will still qualify. If the times of these riders would have meant they did not qualify then they will not take the place of a qualifying rider and will be added in addition to the already qualified riders.
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For the first UCI World Cup round of the season, the top 5 women elite and the top 10 men elite of the final UCI World Cup standings of the previous season are “protected” for the final.
They must start in the semi-final round but qualify automatically for the final in any case. If the times of the protected riders are not among the 10 best times for women elite or the 30 best times for men elite, they shall be allowed to ride in the final in addition to the 10 women elite and 30 men elite riders already qualified. |
No More Timed Training?
The biggest casualty of the new rules could be the removal of the most important event of a racing weekend, Timed Training. In the latest rule amendment, it would appear that rules regarding making sure a Timed Training session exists have been completely removed from the training section. While this may not mean the complete removal of a timed training session with the rule being removed it most likely means it is no longer mandatory at a World Cup round.
Despite the potential removal of this timed session, we will still see the same number of timed runs in a race weekend with the new addition of semi-finals, although it will be sad to see no more early glimpses of who may or may not be going fast at the races.
