No celebrations for the team members: the rule that mortifies the team

Try to imagine the goal of the century (last), that brilliant serpentine by Diego Maradona at the 1986 World Cup that made the Argentine commentator scream his desire to cry. And try to imagine if while Victor Hugo Morales asked him “which planet did you come from”, his companions had been forced to hold back their celebration, not to run towards him, not to hug him, not to throw themselves on the ground with him. Well, in cycling it happens, or rather it will happen. When the first stage race of the season, the Tour Down Under, starts, for the first time the article of the regulation that prohibits the winner’s teammates from celebrating at the back will be in force. Maybe not all successes will be immortal masterpieces, winning one stage among many is not like arriving ahead of everyone in a classic Monumento, but in cycling only one wins and all things considered there aren’t that many opportunities to raise your arms to the sky. For those who work as a wingman by profession, they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. This is why seeing your teammates rejoicing in the center of the group for the captain’s victory has always been one of the most engaging images of racing: because it explains better than any other gesture the ambivalent nature of cycling, which is simultaneously an individual and team sport. The new UCI rules, however, establish for the first time the definitive distance between the winner and his followers: to him honor and glory as well as the permission to raise their arms to the sky, they forced to be good soldiers until the finish line.