UCI sport director Peter van den Abel admitted to Sporza.be on Wednesday that a mistake was made in informing the peloton of the time gap and breakaway in last week's UCI Road World Championship road race.

After Lemko Evenpoel's solo victory in the elite men's road race, the riders complained that they did not know what position they were sprinting in.

Michael Matthews (AUS) said he did not know he had won the bronze medal until minutes after the finish.

"We didn't know who was where, so we were in the peloton talking about what we were racing for. '"

Matthews said on Sunday. Even in the last 500 meters. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sprint for a top-10 finish, but then I saw the French teams lining up for Laporte, so I jumped on it and did my thing in the sprint."

A similar problem arose at last year's Tokyo Olympics, where Annemiek van Fluten (Netherlands) attacked for gold, only to learn after the finish that she had finished second behind Austria's Anna Kiesenhofer.

Van den Abel called the timeboard mishap at Wollongong a "learning experience" and said he would look for a more experienced timeboard operator or other communication options for future competitions.

"We need to evaluate after every race and make adjustments for the next race," Van den Abel told Sporza. In Australia, "we have so-called ardoisiers or signmen (people who ride on the back of a bike and hold up a board showing the time difference between them and the rider; they are called 'signmen.') That is why the UCI has already decided to hire experienced riders for the next World Championships"

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"We can ask people with experience in the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Tour of Flanders, etc., or we will no longer outsource to local organizations or federations. We want to avoid that; we want to have everything in our own hands."

In the absence of race radios, which are banned at World Championships and the Olympics, there are other options for athletes to understand what is going on in the race.

"We could also increase communication by putting up electric signs in the feed zones so that riders can see who is where. Incidentally, this has already been done under the finish arch, showing the difference between the leader and the riders.

The UCI is not considering allowing riders to communicate with team cars by radio at world championships; the UCI tried to ban race radios from road races in 2011, but faced strong opposition from teams who felt they were necessary to communicate safety information. The federation settled on a ban in environments where the courses are more controlled, such as the World Championships and the Olympics.

Van den Abel said the ban was unlikely to be overturned because of problems communicating time gaps. David LaPartient, the current president, is not in favor of reversing the ban."

"The race should be more attractive. It would create chaos in a healthy way. Without earpieces, riders would be forced to rely on their own impulses and would be less likely to be guided by the instructions of follow cars.

"On the other hand, rider safety must not be compromised. At the World Cup and Olympic Games, which are primarily run on closed circuits, that safety is easier to control.

"As long as the race takes place on a closed circuit, the safety risk is low and therefore acceptable. On open circuits, earpieces are used for safety reasons.