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UCI to ban supertuck descending starting April 1st.

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Crazy, just crazy. I'm all for banning the littering - even if there are people picking the stuff up, it's just annoying to see people just throwing their trash around. But to forbid everything a decent bike handler can do, taking all skills out of the sport, when their is no real cause to do so, that's just show stuff - look here, what we are doing for security.
Teams and riders should look deeper at the crashes that happened in the last five years - in which situations did they happen, what caused them, what was the outcome in each case. Which causes were there for the most severe accidents? Statistics. Then make the CPA and UCI work on that. Otherwise ban all road races and have e-races only, every rider on their home trainer, then the crash rate should drop under 0,1 per race.
 
Using the TT position on a road bike or littering outside the designated zones are now also punishable by disqualification. Absolute insanity, no doubt this is going to cause another Eekhoff situation in a big race.

*** this *** is stupid. *** hell. The UCI are just a bunch of morons and imbeciles if they think this will not create major scandals.

It's not the littering rule I oppose but the TT position combined with the supertuck.
 
This is honestly insane. No f*cking words to describe how shocked I am by this decision.
I dislike the supertuck decision, but at least I see some arguments. It is indeed extremely dangerous for amateurs, even for pros it certainly doesn't make 100 kph descents safer and if everyone is using it, everyone might as well not use it.
But the TT position? Are the out of their mind? No amateur rider is gonna copy that cause it's uncomfortable as hell and no 16 y.o. person will think it looks cool. For a pro rider doing it on a straight flat road it's not the least bit dangerous and to top it all off, this rule actively makes racing worse cause the position is mostly used by attackers in solo breaks which will now become harder to pull off. This is so unbelievably stupid, I'm seriously struggeling to believe this will be an actual rule.
 
This is honestly insane. No f*cking words to describe how shocked I am by this decision.
I dislike the supertuck decision, but at least I see some arguments. It is indeed extremely dangerous for amateurs, even for pros it certainly doesn't make 100 kph descents safer and if everyone is using it, everyone might as well not use it.
But the TT position? Are the out of their mind? No amateur rider is gonna copy that cause it's uncomfortable as hell and no 16 y.o. person will think it looks cool. For a pro rider doing it on a straight flat road it's not the least bit dangerous and to top it all off, this rule actively makes racing worse cause the position is mostly used by attackers in solo breaks which will now become harder to pull off. This is so unbelievably stupid, I'm seriously struggeling to believe this will be an actual rule.
I ride with my elbows on the handle bars quite often but I've never seen anyone else do it. And I generally ride on an MTB.

If they really wanna ban dangerous stuff, they should ban crashes.
 
Next, they'll regulate how long you can have your hands off the handlebar to eat or put on a rain jacket.
That makes way more sense than banning the super tuck or aero road position. I mean, I've actually seen several crashes caused by that. Banning arms on handlebars is ridiculous. I rode like that for 20 minutes straight yesterday.

I assume it was already on their radar and not Wellens use during his Bessèges win that made this happen. Seems to have happened too quickly for the latter but it still makes the decision look that much worse.
 
The UCI really need to pull their heads out of their asses. This is just pathetic.

The peloton have to stand up all together. When a rider gets fined or relegated for a tuck or a TT position, just refuse to ride the following race or stage. In the end cycling is nothing without its athletes. The UCI need to realize what they are doing is pure nonsense, and not at all a constructive sollution for the real problems at hand.

I'm also not 100 % agreeing with the littering, for (young) fans a cycling bottle is a nice souvenir so in areas with people it should still be allowed.
 
This is even more ridiculous, insane than banning the super tuck. Who doesn't ride from time to time with their forearms on the bars?
This likely will not only stop a solo break, it may have riders sit up and wait for the peloton if there is less than 8 to 10 riders at minimum in a break.
 
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So the standard position of article 1.3.008 is "The rider shall normally assume a sitting position on the bicycle. This position requires that the onlypoints of support are the following: the feet on the pedals, the hands on the handlebars and theseat on the saddle. " So will they penalise riders for standing in the pedals on a climb? And are the hoods really part of the handlebars? Perhaps they are banned too.
 
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I'm also not 100 % agreeing with the littering, for (young) fans a cycling bottle is a nice souvenir so in areas with people it should still be allowed.
There's a difference between tossing a bidon or musette to a fan as a souvenir, versus just dropping squished gel packets and sandwich foil willy nilly in the countryside; nobody wants some Flemish domestique's chewed up clif bar wrapper to frame and hang up. The fact that the UCI are going to start fining over it, suggests that the riders themselves haven't been careful enough about using the designated drop zones, which frankly is a bit disappointing. What seriously is the weigh penalty of hanging onto your ziploc bag in your pocket an extra 10km?

I do it too. And I have never come close to crashing because of it.

I also do it. If I've ever come even remotely close to crashing, it was due to an unseen pothole, which would have caused issues no matter the position of my hands. I use it less lately due to Covid-attributable weight-gain making it harder to reach the bars with my elbows.
 
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Next:

Sprinting only in the saddle.
Climbing only in the saddle.
No raising your arms crossing the finishline (in case of victory).
No putting on a rain jacket unless after coming to a complete stop at the side of the road.
No taking supplies unless after coming to a complete stop at the side of the road.
No looking behind you.
No drinking from the bidon while riding.
No putting sunglasses on or off while riding.

Honestly, i can understand they wanted to ban the supertuck. I wouldn't really have gone that far, but ok, i get it. Banning the "TT position" however, is insane. It will harm the sport because nobody in the actual peloton does this, except for the guy leading the bunch or the guy in the attack. In any case, the person has a clear view in front of him and a straight stretch of road ahead. Nobody will assume that position on a downhill or going into corners. The only reason why and the only moment when a rider assumes that position, is when everything is clear on a long straight stretch, when it actually makes sense to use it.
 
Next:

Sprinting only in the saddle.
Climbing only in the saddle.
No raising your arms crossing the finishline (in case of victory).
No putting on a rain jacket unless after coming to a complete stop at the side of the road.
No taking supplies unless after coming to a complete stop at the side of the road.
No looking behind you.
No drinking from the bidon while riding.
No putting sunglasses on or off while riding.

Honestly, i can understand they wanted to ban the supertuck. I wouldn't really have gone that far, but ok, i get it. Banning the "TT position" however, is insane. It will harm the sport because nobody in the actual peloton does this, except for the guy leading the bunch or the guy in the attack. In any case, the person has a clear view in front of him and a straight stretch of road ahead. Nobody will assume that position on a downhill or going into corners. The only reason why and the only moment when a rider assumes that position, is when everything is clear on a long straight stretch, when it actually makes sense to use it.
Cipollini once said that TT position is dangerous when you are leading the peloton because your rear wheel is moving around a lot more, so the chance of wheels touching and a crash happening is much higher.
That said, I can't remember a crash that happened because of it.
Overall I kinda get why they ban the supertuck and I don't have a strong opinion on it (sometimes I even use it for a short time on a wide, straight downhill). That said, it's not exactly a burning issue that needed to be regulated by the UCI.
 

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