The Cyclists Alliance has renewed its requires the UCI to replace the medical programme for Girls’s WorldTour groups in order that athletes endure a compulsory screening for REDS – Relative Power Deficiency in Sport – and bone mineral density testing yearly.
The decision comes after a Tour de France Femmes, which introduced points surrounding REDS, disrupted menstrual cycles, weight and efficiency firmly into the highlight, proper from steps to boost consciousness and educate on the problem by means of rider activism to questions targeted on points surrounding rider weight at post-race media conferences.
“We’re consistently working in the direction of making skilled biking a sustainable and fulfilling profession for girls,” Cyclists Alliance President Grace Brown mentioned in a press release. “Rider well being and wellbeing are important for profession longevity.
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“The present system will not be set as much as shield feminine well being, so I imagine it’s our responsibility to proceed educating and advocating for higher requirements that permit ladies to carry out with well-fuelled, robust, and glad our bodies.”
The alliance famous that it was disillusioned that girls in sport obtain a disproportionate quantity of scrutiny about their our bodies in comparison with their male counterparts and that it was dedicated to “encouraging constructive change within the peloton and to taking sensible steps to make that occur”.
One of many sensible steps that the organisation has been attempting to encourage is the introduction of the necessary screening for REDS and of bone mineral density by way of UCI laws, having put ahead a proposal in November final yr to incorporate this within the medical programme for UCI Girls’s WorldTeams.
“We as we speak invite the UCI to rethink our proposal, and we provide our help and experience,” mentioned a press release from the Cyclists Alliance, which put collectively a screening protocol when it first made the suggestion in 2024.. “Whereas we respect that this may increasingly require some work to make sure applicable implementation, we imagine that it’s greater than definitely worth the effort to introduce some type of protocol for each feminine and male cyclists racing professionally beneath the UCI.”
Cyclingnews sought remark from the UCI on the problem by way of electronic mail, which mentioned in response: “The UCI has been engaged on this matter for a number of months and is at the moment persevering with its discussions with its medical consultants. An official announcement will probably be made sooner or later.”
The Worldwide Olympic Committee put out a consensus assertion, knowledgeable by a panel of consultants, on REDS in 2023, emphasising that it hoped it will stimulate motion from sports activities organisations and different stakeholders. The Worldwide Federation of Sports activities Climbing launched a coverage with a multi-faceted screening process firstly of final yr, however thus far there hasn’t precisely been a rush of different federations following swimsuit.
The Cyclists Alliance would love that to vary the place biking is anxious and is constant its work on the problem. Earlier this yr, the unbiased voice for girls’s skilled biking put collectively a working group of riders and consultants within the area to look at the problems surrounding the subject of vitamin, (low) power availability and REDS in biking. The organisation may also be launching an training and consciousness marketing campaign on rider well being and wellbeing in autumn.
“Rider well being and elite efficiency should go hand in hand,” mentioned the assertion from the Cyclists’ Alliance. “The game as we speak has greater than sufficient scientific information, perception and human expertise to create sustainable, moral performances which don’t compromise rider well being.”
