As the UCI considers officially implementing a policy to protect riders from the dangers from extreme weather, and the professional riders in North America banded together to ensure better treatment, the USA's amateur riders are getting no such protections. After soaring temperatures at the USA Cycling Amateur National Championships in Truckee, California, several riders succumbed to heat stroke and almost 100 riders dropped out of Wednesday's races, but when one rider took to Twitter to complain about the lack of neutral water support, he was fined by race officials.
Jon Crowson, a 26-year-old elite amateur from Knoxville, Tennessee, dropped out of the championship race on Wednesday after running out of water and becoming dehydrated. Unaware that the race would not offer neutral support for water, he vented on the social media outlet after his ordeal, tagging the national governing body in each comment:
"@usacycling you charge $100 for a road race that starts at 3:30 in the afternoon and decide NOT to have neutral feed?!!!' #RoadNats
@usacycling you charge $100 for a road race and you don't have any sort of wheel truck, no neutral wheels?!!! #RoadNats
@usacycling you charge $100 and you have a single sag wagon for 2 races that have over 100 ppl per field?!!!!! #RoadNats
@usacycling you call this "amateur" #RoadNats yet you are expecting competitors to have pro level support?!!!
@usacycling I watched (from the sag wagon) a guy sitting on the road with an IV in him who had been passed by every single race vehicle.
@usacycling that guy had been stopped there from the u-23 race and stayed there probably 30-40 minutes before the sag wagon stopped," he wrote.
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Friends later informed him that the race communique included a $20 fine slapped on him for "USAC Rule 8A5(i) Actions not specifically covered by the rules but bringing discredit upon the sport".
When contacted by Cyclingnews, USA Cycling's VP of National Events Micah Rice said that the organization itself does not fine riders, and especially not for complaining. "If I did that, I would be rich," he quipped. The head official at the race responsible for the fine could not be reached for comment. Crowson insists he did not speak to any officials or give any other reason to warrant a fine, other than to complain from his Twitter account.
The unprecedented action of a race official fining a rider for complaining on social media aside, holding a race at altitude where temperatures soared to 100 degrees (F) in low humidity holds obvious dangers for riders, including dangerous dehydration, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke.
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