Giro d'Italia drops plans to give prizes for speediest descents
Wednesday 3 May 2017 13:00, UK
The Giro d'Italia has dropped controversial plans to award prizes for downhill speeds after coming under pressure from riders and officials.
The year's first Grand Tour begins its 100th edition on Friday and was scheduled to include awards for riders producing the quickest speeds on descending sections of the three-week course.
The UCI and riders' groups were among those to express concerns to RCS Sport about the plans, the Giro organisers.
A statement from RCS Sport said on Wednesday: "The spirit of the initiative was to highlight an important skill which is an integral part of a cycle race without putting the riders' safety in jeopardy.
"Rider safety is, and remains, the priority of the Giro and the race organisers.
"Comments have been made suggesting that this initiative could be potentially misunderstood and generate behaviours not in line with the safety principle.
"The race organisers have taken these comments on board and change an initiative that could be misinterpreted.
"Therefore the race organisers have decided to eliminate all such classification and prize money as per the race regulations, leaving the timekeeping of the descents purely as statistical data for the fans."
