'It was not intentional; there's absolutely no doubt in my mind' - Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio on Lorena Wiebes' disqualification and the UCI minimum weight limit

Loren Wiebes' disqualification from stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia Women after her bike was found to fall foul of the UCI 6.8kg minimum weight limit has reignited the debate surrounding the rule itself.

Wiebes sprinted to victory on the opening stage of the race but was later disqualified after her bike was reportedly found to be 20 grams too light, according to a statement from her team.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio rides for the AG Insurance -Soudal team and is also a member of the UCI road commission. Pasio has spoken out in the past regarding the UCI weight limit and, in particular, how it negatively affects certain riders in the women's peloton.

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Pasio shared her thoughts on Wiebes' disqualification with Cyclingnews, as well as engaging with the UCI and how various stakeholders might work together in the future to create a more suitable minimum weight rule and weighing protocol.

"I was really shocked, to be totally honest, I mean, especially if we consider the fact that it was a super flat day and a really flat sprint finish". Pasio said.

"We haven't had any statement from the UCI side in terms of exactly what weight they say they came up with. The only information we received is through SD Worx, of course, and they're saying they were disqualified essentially for a 20-gram difference, so it was 6.78.

"They also mentioned from their side that they went to observe the weighing themselves, and it looked like a couple of weights came up. So I find it really harsh and very surprising that they would totally disqualify Lorena for a 20-gram difference initially.

"From my perspective, you would think that there would be a margin that they would allow in terms of making up for potential mistakes or inaccuracies in equipment."

Wiebes' disqualification came at the end of a flat, sprint stage, not a mountain time trial or hilly road stage, where a lighter bike would have offered a clearer advantage.

Wiebes Specialized S-Works SL8 bike was fitted with stock components, but a rumoured switch to a 1X single-ring chainset may have resulted in the bike being close to the limit, though in a statement, the team argued the same bike had been ridden and won many times this year already.

Pasio explained she didn't think Wiebes' SD-Worx squad would deliberately aim to make a bike so light for a flat sprint stage.

"It was not intentional. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind, they didn't intentionally try to make the bike super light for that stage," she said.

"This is just an indication; the bike brands are constantly pushing, the technology is evolving so fast and so radically. They made that decision truly on performance and not on bike weights, and then got totally penalised because they possibly overlooked the impact [fitting a faster 1x chainset] would have."

Two separate weight classes are something Pasio would like to see implemented. We often read of male stars making their bikes lighter; lightweight female riders may need to add weight to their race bikes before they even turn a pedal in a race. It's a point she has been in conversation with the UCI on for several years already.

A spotlight on the weighing protocol

Wiebes' disqualification and her team's statement have created interest in how exactly the UCI weighing procedure is carried out at races, and how often.

For Pasio, bike weight checks certainly haven't been a constant during her career.

"For a big chunk of my career, it was very seldom; it was just every now and then. You never knew when it would happen, but it certainly wasn't happening at every race," she said.

"In 2022, I finished on the podium at Strade Bianche, and the bike was taken away for its check, which also includes looking for any motor assistance, and at that point, my bike was overweight; it was, I think, 7.4kg, and I was quite shocked, to be honest.

The arrival of disc brake road bikes made race bikes heavier again for a time; we are now heading into a place where they can be comfortably under 6.8kg again. The widespread use of carbon fibre spokes on race wheels is one example of how weights have lowered in the disc era over the past few years.

"Since then, I'd say it's become a bit more consistent and more regular, but I can't accurately comment. I can't necessarily say that it's been every single race since then." Pasio explains.

"Usually, only when it's an uphill finish, and time trials always, for road races, I can't say that there is actually a really official protocol.

"I think it needs to be reinvestigated. I believe that there should be two weight classes, at least. That to me is the ideal outcome of all of this; if that doesn't happen, then I would say that there should be a tolerance.

"You're hanging a bike from a scale; that's the most accurate way to weigh a bike, and you know, just some wind or external factors could affect the weights. I do believe there needs to be a tolerance."

Currently, the UCI rules state that a rider will face 'disqualification or elimination' if their bike is found to be within the 6.8kg limit. A member of the UCI Road Commission, Pasio, made the point that the UCI commissaires tasked with weighing bikes were themselves following the UCI ruleset.

Perhaps some tolerance for the rule could generate goodwill and reduce damaging fallout if a rider's bike falls foul of the weight limit by a handful of grams.

"In this case, a commissaire has taken the rule book from the UCI and has implemented the rules precisely and exactly, and essentially that's how rules should be implemented," Pasio said

"You can't technically fault the commissaire because they've implemented the rules; they've done their job, but if you take into account, okay, it's a flat stage, it's 20 grams, if we implement this rule, so precisely, what are the consequences?

"The rule says if the bike is underweight, the rider will be disqualified, but it doesn't say, well, if it's 20 grams under, maybe we could consider just relegating on a flat stage.

Wiebes' team cited the financial impact of losing her from the race; a relegation instead of disqualification may have gone some way to de-escalating the situation.

"I think that there could be room for it, and I have a lot of respect for the UCI, so I don't want to be here bad mouthing the UCI; they have a lot of things they have to consider", Pasio explained.

"I believe there could be room in terms of the UCI, sometimes making themselves look better, because a lot of the time they're relying on people externally implementing rule sets, and they have 1000s of commissaires that they're working with, and hundreds of races happening potentially all at once."

Lightweight riders suffer the most

Pasio explained that a similarly specced bike in a larger size would not have troubled the 6.8kg limit. Wiebes is reported to ride a size 52 or 54 frame, both common sizes. Some smaller female pros ride bikes in very small sizes, which can result in them being too light straight out of the box.

Pasio, and likely plenty of other lightweight riders, had to add weight to their bikes to make them legal to race. Pasio explained that the added weight, not incorporated into the bike itself, led to an undesirable ride quality that was frustrating to live with.

Weight limits for different frame sizes are one of the ideas she has to try to update the rules on bike weight.

"We've never taken into account the average weight of a female cyclist, so I really tried to put pressure on them [the UCI] that it needed to change," Pasio said.

"I've done quite a lot of calculations myself to kind of look into it and to look at where the sort of inflexion point is, and from the calculations that I've done, I kind of feel like the inflexion point is around the weight of 56kg.

"The impact of the bike weight rule is a lot less than it is for riders that are 56kg and lower, and this extrapolates when you're starting to get below 50, so you've got riders that are probably weighing 46 or 47kg, you know, they're at a massive disadvantage, and this disadvantage on like a 10 kilometer climb at average 10% can be like close to a minute.

"Whenever we talk about watts per kilogram, we never include the bike weight in the calculation, but actually, it does make a difference.

"I've been in contact with the UCI about this rule for quite some time; things need to change, and their feedback has always been 'Thanks. We realise it needs to change, but you know it's not happening anytime soon.' This was back in 2019; now it's 2026, and it still hasn't changed."

Why have things stayed the same for so long?

The UCI minimum weight limit has been debated for many years, and it's been easy for amateur riders to assemble and ride a sub-6.8kg bike for a long time now.

Bikes can comfortably be manufactured safely and weigh less than 6.8kg, so why haven't things changed?

Part of the issue from a racing perspective is that riders have to use what their team supplies; for some, that means the 6.8kg weight limit will never be an issue, although all riders, of course, will want the lightest bike possible.

Depending on the model and components, it's still also potentially difficult to get some bikes down to around the 6.8kg figure, which begs the question: Why change?

For others, in particular sub-60 kg female riders, adding weight to a bike may well be a necessary step in being able to race at all.

"I'm actually on the road committee for the UCI, and we do discuss these types of things, but then the commission doesn't make a decision," says Pasio.

Not every rider, depending on what bike and in what size, will be troubled by the UCI 6.8kg rule; that's part of the argument; another is that could bikes become lighter en masse if unshackled from UCI 6.8kg weight restraints.

Pasio believes the rule is there to keep the greatest number of riders safe, making the point that if the minimum weight was lowered to 6.2kg, as an example, whilst it may be simple for a rider on a 50cm to achieve, would a larger rider on a big frame size potentially make their bike unsafe in trying to get it down to a lower overall weight?

"I think it's probably better to either do it on bike size or on rider height," says Pasio.

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