Demi Vollering has been sanctioned by the UCI after winning the rainbow jersey at the Road World Championships, with "Using a non-compliant position or point of support on the bicycle" landing her a 1000 CHF fine, a 25-point deduction in UCI rankings, and a yellow card.
She wasn't the only rider to be highlighted in the post-race decisions of the commissaires' panel, with Austria and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Katharina Sadnik receiving the same punishment for the same breach of the regulations.
The article in question is 2.12.007.9 of the UCI regulations, which focuses on rider positions, and before the World Championships this season, 34 riders had already been hit with yellow cards and fines for the same offence.
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No specific moment in the race, or clarification over what the illegal position was, is detailed in the race communique. But it won't matter to Vollering too much, as the decision had no change on the end result of the 180km race, with Vollering emerging victorious from a thriller ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland).
The Dutch rider was the heavy favourite for Saturday's race, and after a stellar lead-out from the Netherlands team and a final surge from Puck Pieterse, it looked as though Vollering would go solo to her first world title from 38km out.
But a chase group of stars behind her didn't give up, with huge pulls from Marlen Reusser (Switzerland), then a move from Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), seeing Vollering get caught with 15km to go.
Still able to muster up the strength, she pulled back in an opportunistic move made by Longo Borghini ahead of the final 13.3km lap, then dropped her on the key Camillien Houde climb. With just Niewiadoma-Phinney left to contend with, Vollering held onto the Polish rider's one big attack before settling in for the sprint.
Even after doing the lion's share of the work to ensure they weren't caught back by the Italian or Swiss rider, Vollering still had the strength to outsprint her long-term rival, who cramped as the pair came to the line after 180km of all-out racing.
An emotional Vollering celebrated adding the world title to her already illustrious and growing palmarès, describing it as "the best victory of my career" in the aftermath. Just this season, she had already won the Tour de France Femmes, Giro d'Italia Women, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, Tour of Flanders, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
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