Giro d'Italia race organizer RCS Sport "abandoned plans for a fastest descender competition at this year's race" after riders slammed it as "life-threatening," according to Tom Cary of the London TELEGRAPH. The "controversial plans" -- which would have seen riders awarded €500 ($640) prizes for producing the quickest speeds on descending sections of the three-week course, with the overall fastest rider pocketing €5,000 ($6,400) -- "only became public days ago." But they "quickly gave rise to concerns from riders and even officials" from the Int'l Cycling Union (UCI). Team Sky rider Wout Poels tweeted that incentivizing recklessness could prove "life-threatening," while Trek-Segafredo's Jasper Stuyven said that organizers should be "ashamed of themselves" (TELEGRAPH, 5/3). CYCLING NEWS' Stephen Farrand reported RCS Sport Head of Cycling Mauro Vegni was "angry and disappointed by the way the prize was criticised by some riders," and "even" UCI VP Tom Van Damme of Belgium, "believing he has always considered rider safety a priority." Vegni said, "We simply wanted to create an extra classification and create more interest for the fans. Sadly some people didn't fully understand the idea of the prize and other people used it to kick up a fuss. We've decided to eliminate the classification and the prizes. We'll still time the riders and use the data to inform the fans about the speed of the riders on the descents." Belgian Cycling Federation President Van Damme called the idea "unacceptable" and said that he "asked for it to be banned" (CYCLING NEWS, 5/3).
