The UCI is slowly preparing to scrap the rule stipulating the minimum weight of a bike which says a road or track bike must weigh 6.8kg or more. It’s about time given some teams have resorted to dropping chains or lead weights down the seat tube to add weight but if the rule is scrapped there are more profound changes to consider.
The UCI announced it had reached agreement with teams and race organisers for the upcoming World Tour reforms in a press release this week. Tomorrow’s World Tour will look a lot like today. A lack of vision or sensible stability?
What have world championship medallists Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews and Ramūnas Navardauskas got in common? Aside from the obvious, they’re all forced to pay a share of their prize money to fund the CPA rider union. Only they’re second class citizens when it comes to getting their voice heard.
There’s a pressing need for a rider union. In fact there is a union, so what’s needed is a strong one that’s visible, in regular contact with riders and demonstrably acting on their behalf. Take the topical tale of disc brakes, they’re coming and the CPA union has decided to poll its members about it… days after the UCI press release saying disc brakes trials will continue for 2016 “with a view to definitively allowing them to be used in professional road cycling from 2017”.
At the start of the year 10 riders were picked for 2015, some promised a breakthrough and others were trying to keep their career on the road. What happened?
