UCI wants to restart disc brake trial in June
UCI announced three weeks ago that disc brakes are suspended from the professional road peloton after Movistar’s Francisco Ventoso stated in an open letter that he was wounded by one at Paris-Roubaix. However, according to a report in CyclingTips, the sport’s governing body has decided to reinstate the disc brake trial at the beginning of June.
CyclingTips has learned that plans are in place to restart the trial beginning in June — most likely at the Critérium du Dauphiné and/or Tour de Suisse.
The UCI Equipment Commission held a private conference call last week with key cycling industry members of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) — essentially an industry lobbying group for Olympic sports — during which several key findings were shared.
Perhaps the most impactful finding is that a forensic medical doctor — albeit one commissioned by the WFSGI — has concluded that Ventoso’s gruesome injury was most likely caused by a chainring, not a disc brake rotor.
UCI Equipment Commission did acknowledge athletes’ lingering concerns of sharp edges on disc rotors, the possibility of contact burns from rotors that have become hot after braking on long descents, and the effects of a ‘two-tiered peloton’ where some riders are on rim brakes and others on discs.
June’s restart of the disc brake trial is said to include at least one key modification to existing equipment in order to address at least one of those issues — rounded edges on rotors, so as to minimize the chance of laceration.
