Pogačar's 5,000 CHF Liège-Bastogne-Liège Fine Quietly Revoked Five Hours After The Podium — UCI Article 1.3.072.6 Cited For "Incorrect Publicity Placement" On The Rainbow Jersey
The afterglow of Tadej Pogačar's fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory yesterday was briefly interrupted by an unusual UCI bookkeeping episode that has rolled into Monday morning's cycling press: a 5,000 Swiss-franc fine handed down by the race jury moments after the trophy ceremony, and quietly revoked five hours later with no public explanation from either the commissaires or the UCI.
The original race communique, released by the Liège jury at 18:42 CET on Sunday, cited UCI Article 1.3.072.6 — the regulation that governs the equipment of the World Champion — for "incorrect placement of publicity on the world champion jersey during the award ceremony". Reporters in the mixed zone at the time noted that Pogačar had unzipped his rainbow jersey to a mid-chest level for the podium photo and the post-race interview, exposing the underlay of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG base layer. Whether this — or some other detail of the on-podium photo — was the precipitating factor was never stated.
By 23:30 CET, the same race jury had issued a follow-up communique reversing the fine. UAE Team Emirates-XRG's communications office told La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday that the fine had been "withdrawn after a review" and that the team had "no further comment". The UCI's own press desk in Aigle has not addressed the episode. The fine — 5,000 CHF, equivalent to approximately €5,200 — would have been the largest single-event jersey-equipment penalty issued to a male WorldTour rider since the rule was redrafted in 2018.
Article 1.3.072.6 sits inside the broader UCI Equipment chapter and prescribes precisely how publicity (sponsor logos, manufacturer marks, national colours) may appear on the equipment of riders wearing distinctive jerseys — World Champion, Olympic Champion, national champion, leader's jerseys at Grand Tours and stage races. The clause restricting visible team-sponsor placement on the rainbow jersey is the one most often cited and is the regulation under which Mathieu van der Poel was fined a smaller amount at the 2024 Cyclocross Worlds. Pogačar, world road champion since September 2024, has worn the rainbow jersey at twenty-three race days in 2026 without prior incident.
The episode has reignited a quiet but persistent debate inside the WorldTour rider community about whether the world-champion jersey rules — and the way they are enforced inconsistently across races and across genders — need rewriting. Lotte Kopecky, the women's reigning World Champion through 2024 and 2025, was fined 200 CHF at the 2025 Tour of Flanders for a similar publicity placement. The disparity between the men's and women's tariff has been raised at the last two CPA (rider-association) general meetings without resolution.
For Pogačar himself, the fine — issued, retracted, and never paid — is functionally a footnote to a Sunday that delivered his third straight Liège title, his fourth career La Doyenne, his ninth Monument win, and the black-armband tribute to the late UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Cristian Camilo Muñoz. It is also Pogačar's last race day before the 2026 Tour de Romandie prologue rolls out tomorrow morning in Villars-sur-Glâne — his first stage race of the year and the start of his Tour de France build phase. UAE confirmed Monday morning that Pogačar has travelled directly from Liège to Lausanne and will start the 3.2km opening time trial.
Whether the UCI publishes any subsequent clarification on the rule, or on what specifically triggered the original fine, is now a Tuesday-morning question. Until then, the most expensive jersey breach in modern Monument history has, on paper, never happened.