Jan Willem van Schip fell foul of the UCI yet again this week, this time disqualified from the Tour of Hellas in Greece for the way he rested his forearms on his handlebars during stage two of the race.
The 31-year-old Dutchman, who rides for Continental outfit Azerion-Villa Valkenburg, was informed mid-stage on Thursday that he was out. According to his team, the UCI ruled that the way he held his bars amounted to using his forearms as a “point of support” – a breach of the UCI regulation 1.3.008, which states that “the only point[s] of support are the following: the feet on pedals, the hands on the handlebars and the seat on the saddle.”
In 2021, van Schip was thrown off the Baloise Belgium Tour for using the Speeco Aero Breakaway Bar, with the UCI’s innovation manager, Mick Rogers, telling Cycling Weekly the bars contravened the same rule, 1.3.008. He was disqualified again from the 2024 Heistse Pijl over a Toot Engineering aero bar setup.
Whilst those incidents were equipment violations, van Schip was also disqualified from the men’s Madison final at the 2024 Paris Olympics and fined, after Britain’s Ollie Wood was sent crashing to the boards in which the Dutchman appeared to make heavy contact with Wood’s helmet.
