UCI sock length checks: The checking of cyclists' sock lengths is now happening at the finishes of Tour de France stages as well as at the start.
The UCI has added random end of stage sock length checks to the Tour de France to bolster the checks they have been carrying out before stages.
Pulling riders for measuring their sock and overshoe
lengths at the end of stages appears to be designed to assure riders checked
before stages won’t then slip on longer socks to gain an advantage.
Nicolas Roche has been writing about the issue in his
Tour Diary today in the Irish Independent.
A photo of a UCI official checking one of the Team Sunweb
riders pre-stage has been shared heavily on social media.
However, Roche has now revealed that after-stage checks
have also been introduced, though he told stickybottle he had not been targeted
yet.
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“These checks have been going on all year, but because
it's the Tour de France I think it's the first time the general public have
noticed it,” he said.
“There is actually a rule about sock length in the UCI
handbook that basically says they can't go higher than halfway between your
ankle and your knee.
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“The rule has been there a while, but this is the first
year they've actually enforced it.
“And, in their wisdom, the UCI have even come up with an
expandable plastic sock measuring contraption to keep us all in check.
“In the event that somebody might get past the rule by
pulling their socks down a little bit before they're measured, they even have
random checks at the finish.
“It's ridiculous. Our sport definitely has more important issues than sock height.”
Lance Armstrong also revealed in a recent podcast that he
believed the rule to limit sock height was initially aimed at ensuring he could
not wear compression socks at the Tour during his racing days.
He said when his team tested compression socks after
seeing British long distance runner Paul Ratcliffe using them, they concluded
the body was more efficient at pumping blood back to the heart in riders
wearing the socks.
He explained that around the same time he had turned up
for lunch with the then Tour de France director Jean Marie Le Blanc while
wearing compression socks.
When Le Blanc asked him what he was wearing, Armstrong
said he explained the team had been trialling compression socks and planned to
wear them at the Tour de France.
However, Armstrong said Le Blanc was horrified and very
soon afterwards the UCI issued a rule about sock height.
He believed Le Blanc had gone to the UCI and relayed their
conversation, with the new rule – the first of its kind relating to socks –
being introduced as a direct result.
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