25 July 2019: 

Dear Mr. Lappartient,

Dear UCI Management Committee Members,

Global Athlete would like to draw your immediate attention to the current situation where over 7000 cycling athletes have signed a petition requesting an open dialogue with the UCI President and Management on recent rule changes that were announced by the UCI on the 20 June 2019.

These rule changes directly affect professional cyclists and the fact that the UCI has made these changes without significant athlete engagement and subsequently ignored Athletes' requests made on the 24 June and 17 July 2019 for them to gain an understanding for why such rules changes were introduced is once again a sign of sporting organizations being out of touch with their number one stakeholder: the Athletes.

We call on the UCI to actively engage these athletes, to provide answers to their questions and develop an open dialogue to ensure the athletes’ voices are heard and their points of view are understood. It is not acceptable in 2019 to just to say that athletes are the most important stakeholder. Athletes want to see actions that respect and support such words.

As leaders of the sport of cycling, you have a duty to your athletes and, as a result, surely athlete engagement would be at the top of your agenda.

Kind Regards, 

Rob Koehler 

Director General, Global Athlete