A cross-country athlete gets pregnant and puts her race bike in the corner. She later wants to get back into racing, but the points are gone and the racer starts all over again. To make it easier to get back into racing, the UCI has included pregnancy status in the rules. The new UCI regulation 4.10.012 provides for the following: The national federation or team of a rider who only participates in fewer than three World Cup races in a season due to pregnancy can apply in writing for "recognition of pregnancy status" by December 31 of the interrupted season. The starting position for the first World Cup race of an athlete with this status is calculated as follows: The average points scored per race in which the rider participated, multiplied by the number of World Cup races in which she was absent due to pregnancy, equals the starting position for the first World Cup race. This special position is limited to the first round of the UCI World Cup in which the rider participates in the following season.

According to Lisa Broder, Team Manager of the JB-Brunex Superior Team, this new regulation is not expedient and explains this using the team's internal example. "Our athlete Nadine Perks announced the happy news that she was pregnant at the beginning of March 2023. As she could lose important points as an athlete and we as a team could lose our UCI elite status, which could also affect other riders and teams, we applied to the UCI for the following rule change in the interests of all teams." If an athlete's pregnancy is confirmed by a medical certificate, the athlete's individual UCI points will be frozen for one year from the date of the medical certificate. This means that these points will remain with her and her respective team for the entire twelve months.

For initiator Broder, the proposed paragraph would have been the right way and protection: "An athlete should not have to choose between elite sport and pregnancy. It is also important to protect unborn life. This means that no athlete should have to expose herself to major risks or even decide to terminate her pregnancy due to insufficient protection in the regulations."

Despite the circumstances, Perks remained with "JB Brunex Superior Factory Racing", took on other tasks and continued to train, adapting to her pregnancy. In late autumn 2023, the German cross-country specialist gave birth to a healthy son and started the 2024 racing season in the same team colors - still without World Cup appearances.

Broder therefore sees the new UCI regulation as an alibi exercise, as this special status applies for exactly one race, but hardly any rider is back to her old level by then. It is highly likely that the rider concerned will be at the back of the pack again for the second race. "The construct that the UCI is now selling as progress for the athletes is a slap in the face for every female cross-country rider. We believe that the UCI should go back to the drawing board. Child and professional sport must be possible nowadays, and even with the new regulations it is only possible under difficult conditions," concludes Lisa Broder.