Knob Magazine

The UCI and their perplexing tech rules strike again.

Cycling news reports that team mechanics are in a general freak-out regarding the possible enforcement of a new UCI technical restriction on the shape of aerodynamic tubes.  UCI technical ruling 1.3.024 requires that for every 3 inches deep an areo tube stretches it must have at least an inch of frontal area.  The concern was that most of the time trial bikes used at the Tour of California probably have at least one part that doesn’t satisfy this rule.

The UCI technical rules often seem arbitrary (why limit the length of bike seats?), but this one is particularly confusing.  Limiting the size and shape of areo dynamic parts seems only to level the playing field between teams, ensuring that technology plays as small a role as possible in the outcome of the race.  Why the UCI still seeks to make cycling more ’sporting’ is somewhat puzzling.

Every standard that the UCI sets essentially takes a ball out of play in a sport that is already maddeningly simple.  When a rider can bridge the gap by training to technology they will turn to pharmaceuticals.  It goes to reason that if we give riders a greater opportunity to experiment and innovate it may reduce the incentive to dope enough that riders who wish to race clean can still compete.

A great example of how this works is the weight restriction.  A UCI road bike cannot weigh more than 6.8 kilos.  Teams did not stop using lighter bikes, they just uniformly added SRM power meters to bridge the difference in weight.  Not only did take away the choice of whether to ride a light bike or a stiff bike, it also ended up taking away whatever advantage riders with great internal power meters might have had against those that didn’t.

The point is that if bikes are going to be expensive regardless, we should increase the opportunity for teams and riders to take risks, try new things and attempt to differentiate themselves from the crowd.  While it will not prevent doping by itself, it will help to reduce incentives to dope and give the fans something a bit more interesting to talk about on raceday.