SD Worx-Protime Hire A Lawyer And Threaten CAS Action Over Wiebes's 20-Gram Giro Expulsion
The bike-weight ruling that ended Lorena Wiebes's 2026 Giro d'Italia Women before it had really begun is now turning into a legal fight over the UCI's own process. SD Worx-Protime have hired a lawyer, are calculating the financial damage and are openly preparing for the possibility of a case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Wiebes crossed the line first on Stage 1 in Ravenna, only to be removed from the race when her bike was judged to be below the UCI's 6.8kg minimum weight limit by a reported 20 grams. Elisa Balsamo inherited the opening victory and the first Maglia Rosa, and SD Worx-Protime lost the fastest sprinter in the race before Stage 2 had even started.
"We are going to hold the UCI liable and have hired a lawyer," team manager Erwin Janssen told Wielerflits. "Aside from wanting to restore some honour, this disqualification also has an enormous financial impact." Janssen said the team is still working through the full cost of Wiebes's removal, citing missed prize money across several stages, lost UCI points and clauses in sponsor contracts.
The team is no longer treating the expulsion as a closed sporting matter, and Janssen made clear that CAS is a realistic next step — driven in part by what he describes as a wall of silence from cycling's governing body. "There is a good chance it will go to CAS," he said. "The UCI simply isn't responding. Nobody is picking up the phone. Only our lawyer has managed to reach someone higher up at the UCI."
Much of the team's anger is now directed at the procedure rather than the number on the scale. Janssen claimed team management was never given a measurement report to sign and was offered no opportunity for a counter-assessment. "It is just bizarre that we are being brushed off like this," he said, arguing that the check was carried out in what he called an unprofessional manner while teams are themselves held to the highest professional standards.
SD Worx-Protime are even examining whether the weather skewed the result. According to Janssen, Wiebes's bike had consistently weighed between 6.83 and 6.85kg, and he suggested the gusty conditions during the check were a factor. "That bike was blowing from left to right," he said, adding that experts had told him wind can make "an enormous difference" to a measurement — a line of argument the team is now investigating.
The UCI's position, by Janssen's account, has not moved: "They say: too light is too light." For now the ruling stands, Wiebes remains out of the race and Balsamo keeps the Stage 1 win she inherited, a result she has since reinforced with three more stage victories on the road. What began as a routine post-stage weight check has escalated into a dispute over lawyers, liability and a possible arbitration battle that could outlast the race itself.
On the road, Anna van der Breggen has handed SD Worx-Protime a happier storyline, seizing the Maglia Rosa with a commanding Stage 4 time trial. But off it, the Wiebes affair has become one of the defining controversies of the women's season — and a test of how the UCI's equipment rules hold up under legal scrutiny.