Minimum age to compete in road races
Comments about this discussion:
Started
It seems to me that we've never discussed the question of a minimum age for taking part in road races.
I hadn't thought about it at all, even though it's a very important subject for which I've just been questioned for the next CFM.
In the French regulations, a minimum age of 16 has been defined for taking part in a marathon, and with the organization of a hill climb race for the next CFM, the question of minimum age also arises.
As far as competitions in France are concerned, under-11s cannot take part in most competitions; they all take part in the "challenge poussin" event.
We're also wondering whether we should set a minimum age for a "espoir" hill climb (8km/450m d+) or a half-marathon or a 20-30km race. Could it be 13? What do you think?
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When I wrote “espoir”, I mean a beginner or intermediate race.
To go further, I'm thinking that if for a race, there's an expert event for 16 year-olds and over and a beginner or intermediate race for 13 year-olds and over (for example). Could we leave registration open to all in the beginner or intermediate race, but only reward 13 to 15 year-olds (if we were to retain the proposed ages)?
Perhaps this could also apply to muni races (unless the idea of setting a minimum age for expert muni races makes no sense).
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I’m not sure that I would like the rulebook to limit the opportunity to race by age. I don’t think this is a thing we have done for other disciplines and unless the IUF has a compelling reason to do so, I think it is best left to competition organizers. The age that is appropriate to race seems to be defined by insurance policies, legal frameworks, and cultural expectations. The international rulebook not enforcing one understanding of appropriate racing age seems the best path forward in my opinion
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I agree with Tim.
As long as there is no significant money in the sport and no one is financially rewarded for the performance of minors I would not be imposing age limits. Unicycling is still more of the passion than professional sport.
(significant historical appearance: Nora Tveit (NOR) at age 13 was on the podium of Expert Female, 10k unlimited, Unicon 18)
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It's true that insurance policies can vary from country to country, but I don't see what this has to do with the fact that there's no monetary gain.
Age limits in other federations seem to have been put in place to protect children's health, i.e. to respect their physical and psychological development.
> (significant historical appearance: Nora Tveit (NOR) at age 13 was on the podium of Expert Female, 10k unlimited, Unicon 18)
I was thinking more of longer events than the 10km, in particular the marathon (or longer) and a hill climb. And any event that might require intense effort for 1h30 or more.
Comment
I don’t believe the data bares out that kids are fragile with regard to endurance events. Sporting leagues have to protect from injuries that kids might sustain by pushing too hard. Things like tennis elbow, rotator cuff injuries, etc. The UCI used to require juniors (U19) to race with limited maximum gearing but they now believe the science doesn’t support that as a protective measure. Their maximum gain ratio for juniors was ~7.3, which is higher than any competitive unicyclist has ever used.
This paper attempts to address adolescent athletes and overtraining, but we are talking dozens of hours weekly which I don’t think is similar to a 2-3 hour endurance cycling event
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10847077/
I think there is a meaningful discussion about social pressure and world champion titles for young riders. In the main committee there was talk of 2 officially recognized world champions, a junior and adult champion. I think that is OK, but that splitting to another world champion at a younger age (in the 10-15 range) would deserve further scrutiny on that front.
Comment
> This paper attempts to address adolescent athletes and overtraining, but we are talking dozens of hours weekly which I don’t think is similar to a 2-3 hour endurance cycling event
Yes, it's true that it's not the same to do an isolated 2-3h run as it is to do 15h of sport a week, but the quest for 2-3h performance can encourage you to specialize in an endurance activity (and therefore increase your training volume). There are many papers that discourage early specialization in endurance sports. Here's a link to a meta-analysis from 2025: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40422269/
> The UCI used to require juniors (U19) to race with limited maximum gearing but they now believe the science doesn’t support that as a protective measure.
The UCI doesn't offer any homologated international events for the under-17s, which explains why there are no limits for the youngest riders. Up to the age of 16, the rules are set by the national federations. I've done some research and the rules are cultural, sometimes rules, sometimes recommendations. In France, the distance of road races is limited to 40km for 13-14 year-olds. In Italy, races are limited to 90 minutes for 13-16 year-olds. In USA and UK, it seems to be more a question of technical rules on gear ratios.
I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that this issue is being addressed in France to discuss it here.
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I don't believe there should be rules either. If a race is likely to be too long/difficult for a child, the parents and/or organisers will have the final say. I would leave it to them to negotiate this.
Having raced a young Scot Wilton (age 14) at Ride-the-Lobster, I think many youngsters are capable of riding long distances if they are well supported and know their limits.
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Although I would agree that a general rule on an age limit might not (yet) make sense for unicycle competitions, one could think about explicitly including in the rules that organizers can set a minimum age for participation in a particular event? This would allow the organizer to work in accordance with the rules without having to specify a generally binding age limit in the rules.
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There might be something there. I’m hesitant to endorse limiting competition by age but I can definitely see a perspective that would make the case for it. Especially an open-roads marathon length race. I think if your course feels too unsafe to where you want to limit it to 18+ the course needs to be reevaluated, but if you wanted to limit it to 13+ I don’t necessarily agree in totality but I do consider it a valid perspective.
I think maybe a rule about the possibility of age restriction is a more general concern than a distance specific one, to be honest. But racing on live roads is among the most reasonable reasons to restrict it. Another would be extreme courses at expert Muni, where poor judgement may have severe consequences.
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If you want to create a proposal out of this discussion, please remember that today (20.07.) is the last day to do so!
The wording of the proposal can still be adjusted in the coming days, but the proposal must be created today.