Proposal 99: 3D.6 Ungeared Awards [ Revision 4 ]
Committee: 3. Road RacingSubmitted on 2025-07-20
Status: Passed on August 16, 2025
Background
The current rule is problematic in several ways. It appears in section 3D, which concerns organizers and is therefore largely unknown to most competitors. More importantly, the attribution of these awards depends on the number of geared competitors rather than the number of ungeared participants, which is inconsistent with the intended purpose of rewarding ungeared performances. This lack of transparency means that many competitors are unaware of the existence of the award or cannot anticipate whether it will be attributed, leading to a general lack of interest in this ranking — a surprising situation for what is supposed to be an “expert” classification. In practice, it often rewards ungeared 36" riders, while some competitors on standard 29" setups, sometimes faster, are overlooked. At UNICON, local riders are also disproportionately represented among the ungeared 36" participants, simply because transporting such a large wheel internationally is difficult and often impractical. While the introduction of this award may have made sense in the context of the 10km, which lacks a 29" category despite welcoming many ungeared riders with wheels larger than 24", its relevance in other races like the marathon, climbing road race, or criterium is questionable. Personal experience has shown that while standing on the podium for this category is pleasant, the medals awarded do not carry much meaning.
Proposal
Old rule:
3D.6 Ungeared Awards
At Unicon, if there are fi ve or more geared male riders in an Unlimited event, the fastest three ungeared male riders will be awarded with an ungeared title for that event. Similarly, if there are fi ve or more geared female riders in an Unlimited event at Unicon, the fastest three ungeared female riders will be awarded with an ungeared title for that event. This is only for the overall classi cation, not for Age Groups. Other events can choose to award the fastest three, one, or none of the ungeared riders as they wish.
New rule:
Body
see discussion
References
Discussion
View DiscussionChange Log:
- Revision 4 changed by Simon JAN (07 Aug 04:20)
deletion of 3D.6
- Revision 3 changed by Simon JAN (04 Aug 05:35)
Title changed to "Ungeared 29 Awards"
- Revision 2 changed by Simon JAN (30 Jul 05:35)
- Formatting of the proposal
- Replaced "29 standard" with "29 Class" and "ungeared 36" with "Unlimited Class"
- Added "This is only for the overall classification, not for Age Groups."
- Revision 1 changed by Simon JAN (20 Jul 05:13)
Votes on this proposal:
10 out of 14 voting members have voted.
Agree: 7, Disagree: 3, Abstain: 0.