If you preferred the way cycling looked about five years ago, great news. The Union Cycliste Internationale has your back. They have announced some forthcoming rule changes that are designed to take us all back in time just a little. As the world’s foremost slightly-sarcastic appraiser of UCI rule initiatives, naturally it falls to me to run the measuring tape over the un-innovations. (Unnovations?)
The new rules have a simple purpose. They are designed to make road bikes and riders a bit less aerodynamic, and hence a little more old-fashioned.
“It will mean the invention of a UCI shoulder-width measuring device”
Dr Hutch
The problem, and it’s not a small one, is that most women were riding narrower bars for years before most male riders made the change, and that was because “standard” 40cm bars weren’t just a bit sub-optimal, they were obviously way too wide to use comfortably. No one seems to have thought about this. There are smaller…