Guys get knocked off their bikes and injured (perhaps even killed) for years and the UCI does nothing but talk. Then two guy gets cut by a disc brake in a crash — maybe — and the UCI bans the use of disc brakes immediately.
What’s wrong with this picture? Seems like the UCI always tackles the easy problems while ignoring the long-standing, far more important and dangerous problems.
The issue of motos and race vehicles hitting riders during races has become almost a commonplace event that happens almost every race. It’s shocking that everybody from Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet to Taylor Phinney and numerous other riders have been taken down but no improvements to the situation have been made.
Then there’s the issue of rider safety in terms of dangerous finishes, lack of barriers, unpadded road furniture, exposed metal posts — you name it. We’v head a lot of hot air from the UCI but nothing else.
Perhaps the UCI felt this was a least one small thing they handle with a quick fix. Just ban disc brakes and you can say, see, we take rider safety seriously.
Four months ago, after, supposedly lots of thought and study and conversation with “stake holders,” the UCI gave the green light to disc brakes. Four months later, they pull the plug. It feels haphazard, in institutional improv based on the hazy recollection of Nikolas Maes (Etixx-Quick Step) and the unproved assertion by Movistar’s Francisco Ventoso.
Was the cut caused by a disc or the blade of an aero wheel? Brent Copeland, manager for Lampre-Merida sure isn’t too sure. This ban has over-reaction written all over it.
It would be nice if the UCI would return their focus to the bigger safety issues. It seems motos and course safety are just too complicated to deal with. Disc brakes off, motos still rolling.
Put me down as a skeptic of Ventoso’s claim. As much as I have tried, I cannot figure out how he cut the inside of his left shin on the rear disc (mounted on the left side) of another rider’s bike without – according to Ventoso’s own account – either one of them crashing. It is definitely possible that I’m just too dumb to visualize such a situation, but I have a lingering doubt. Not about Ventoso’s honesty – I’m sure he is 100% certain of what he recalls – but sometimes what a person recalls is not exactly what happens.
My gut tells me that if in fact he was cut on a rotor, it was a one-in-a-thousand chance rather than a ‘normal’ crash with disc brakes.
Hi Chris, thanks for dropping in. Yeah, crashes are chaotic and high speed. If I had to bet one way or the other I would say no, it wasn’t a disc brake. But hey, I wasn’t there and I’m not an expert. Still ….