Luxembourg federation lodges official complaint over Marie Schreiber's lost European title, but how can they hope to overturn the decision?

Luxembourg's cycling federation has officially lodged a complaint in a bid to overturn and reinstate Marie Schreiber as the winner of the European Cyclo-cross title.

Schreiber crossed the line first in the elite women's race at the weekend's European Cyclo-cross Championships but was relegated to second place for what was deemed an irregular sprint by the race officials.

Schreiber moved to the left in the two-up sprint to the line with Lucinda Brand (Netherlands), which the jury of UCI commissaires punished with relegation to second place, a decision that has proved controversial.

After Schreiber complained that "it’s disrespectful to steal the biggest moment of my career", the Luxembourg Cycle Sport Federation (FSCL) announced that it had taken the issue up formally with the race organiser, the European Cycling Union (UEC).

"Following the women’s race at the European Cyclocross Championships, the FSCL officially filed a complaint with the UEC regarding the jury’s decision," read a statement.

"That is why the FSCL is calling for the race standings to be determined based on the order in which the riders crossed the finish line."

How can the decision actually be appealed?

It is unclear exactly how the FSCL hope to see the decision overturned.

It states it has filed a complaint with the UEC, which organises the European Championships but does not officiate them from a disciplinary point of view. This responsibility, as with all UCI-sanctioned races, falls to the UCI, which applies its rulebook via a jury made up of a number of commissaires.

The UCI's regulations state that infringements relating to race incidents – of which an irregular sprint is one – "are not subject to appeal", except for any fine that has been applied. So the monetary element of a punishment can be disputed but nothing else.

However, the UCI's regulations do leave some wiggle room, later stating that its Disciplinary Commission, which usually deals with more general and more serious issues, can intervene and even overturn a decision.

"The Disciplinary Commission may, at its own initiative or upon request, decide to suspend the implementation of a decision by the Commissaires' Panel," state the UCI regulations.

The Disciplinary Commission can decide on race infringements "which may have an influence on the sporting conduct or the result of an event", such as this one.

However, the same section of the rulebook also states that the Disciplinary Commission can step in "in case the facts were not observed by the Commissaires' Panel or in case all relevant facts for the assessment of the infringement were not available at the time the Commissaires’ Panel disbanded". Only in the latter case will the decision of the Disciplinary Commission replace that of the Commissaires' Panel, according to the rules.

What this suggests is that the Disciplinary Commission steps in when there's been a flaw in the process – not to review a fully-informed judgement made by a commissaire. In this case, the commissaires had all the facts available in the form of the video footage, so it's difficult to see any provision for overturning their decision under this section of the rulebook.

Schreiber and the Luxembourg federation could in theory take legal action and lodge a case with the international Court of Arbitration for Sport, where the UCI is regularly challenged on disciplinary decisions.

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