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news
Disc brake and hub.jpgPro riders' union threatens to go legal in row over disc brakes in the pro peloton
The CPA, the organisation which represents professional cyclists and is often termed the 'riders' union', has threatened the UCI with legal action regarding the governing body’s resumption of its trial of disc brakes in road races this season without putting previously-requested safety measures in place.
In a press release issued yesterday evening, the CPA said that it had sent the UCI “a legal warning” in which it said it “is very concerned about the situation that has arisen since the authorisation to use the disc brakes during the races.”
At last week’s Abu Dhabi Tour, Team Sky rider Owain Doull claimed that his shoe had been sliced through by a disc rotor on Quick Step Floor rider Marcel Kittel’s bike, although it is unclear if that is actually what happened.
> Kittel ditches the disc brakes after Doull controversy
http://road.cc/content/news/218082-marcel-kittel-ditches-disc-brakes-aft...
At the weekend, Lotto-Soudal rider Adam Hansen, the CPA’s representative on that race, said that the UCI had ignored riders’ safety concerns, including requiring protective covers to be put in place.
> Lotto-Soudal’s Hansen says Specialized is trying to force disc brakes on peloton
In its letter sent to the UCI, the CPA said: "The trial has started before … some appropriate test were conducted on the risks to which the riders are exposed in the event of accidental contact with the discs (for example during a group fall)."
The riders’ association said that it had “repeatedly stressed” to the UCI’s equipment commission “the need to round the profile of the discs and cover them with some protections.”
The CPA’s legal department says its failure to do so makes “the UCI inevitably responsible, for the permission they gave to use the disc brakes without applying the necessary preventive measures, for any damage or accident that should happen to the riders.”
It has called on the UCI to review its position and to require protective covers to be fitted during races so that disc brake rotors cannot come into contact with riders’ bodies.
“Failing that the CPA will proceed with all the necessary legal actions to safeguard the health and safety of its members, to which, as workers, must be guaranteed the adoption of all the appropriate preventive measures required by the legislation on the safety at work (eg. EEC directive 89/391),” it added.
CPA president Gianni Bugo said: "With the equipment commission we tried in every way the path of dialogue through the repeated letters and meetings we had.
“Now we feel compelled to act in a stronger way to be heard. As we have always said we are not against the disc brakes but against the non-implementation of the security measures that the majority of the riders asked before making the tests on the disc brakes in the races."
Not all riders share their organisation’s concern, however.
Yesterday we reported how Kittel’s team mate at Quick Step Floors, former world champion and seven-time Monument winner Tom Boonen believed the current furore over disc brakes had been blown out of all proportion.
Speaking ahead of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the weekend, he insisted the technology was not dangerous. “It’s absurd,” he said. “Disc brakes seem at the moment to be the biggest problem in the world.
“I can’t understand the fuss. A crash involving 30 riders with broken legs and arms isn’t news. But one abrasion, allegedly caused by a disc brake, is worldwide news.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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21 comments
Rim brakes are sh*t.
I'll never ride a bike without hydraulic discs ever again.
However, cycle SPORT can use wooden blocks on the bottom of their shoes for all I care as long as they all use the same thing.
Ban rim brakes and cut the crap.
I think this is the fifth road.cc article since the weekend about disc brakes in the pro peloton.
None of it matters to the rest of us who buy/ride their own bikes, it's just bollocks cooked up by marketing people. Great for ad revenue, I'm sure, but useless for anyone living in the real world.
So, on one hand manufacturers can not back down now because that would send a negative message that discs are unsafe. On other hand if someone in pro peleton getts injured by disc for real, then negative message will be even stronger. Manufacturers are in "lose, lose" situation and have to make most of it, that is, maximum exposure for disc.
As Simon said, for us in the real world it makes no difference. I still be riding my road bike with discs because I like it and not because marketing says I should.
I'm not sure why you bother trying to have reasonable discourse with trolly mctrollface?
Braking is overrated.
To be fair. The pro don't need to use brake most of the time unlike we do in commuting in the city so why push them to use it?
I think they should get to decide what they want to use or not use.
It seems that those Pros without access to disc brakes (due to frame or groupset sponsors) are vehemently opposed to them whereas those who have access to disc brakes are far more enthusiastic.
Anybody who had used disc brakes knows that the modulation and wet weather performance is far superior to rim brakes.
This will obviously confer a competitive advantage to those with discs.
I think that is the root cause of the protests.
These bogus safety complaints are being instigated to try and stop their rivals from accessing a significant marginal gain.
I'd like to see a survey across the peleton asking who wouldn't wear a helmet if given the option.
What would an IQ test prove?
"Yesterday we reported how Kittel’s team mate at Quick Step Floors, former world champion and seven-time Monument winner Tom Boonen believed the current furore over disc brakes had been blown out of all proportion."
He's correct. Fucking cry babies.
Just a thought, but rather than banging on about discs and crashes all the time, maybe if the riders were that concerned about safey & stopped and thought about it, they could come up with a plan as to how to avoid half the peleton going down all the time on a wide straight flat road, you know, like they managed 10 years ago. Both Millar and Cancellara have both voiced concerns about the increase in the numbers of crashes recently.
Otherwise, use discs, don't use discs, not sure anyone really cares anymore...
So these guys are :
And suddenly they are concerned about about their safety!
Give me a brake.
note: if those whining had access to disc brakes, there would be no problem at all.
What kind of brake, caliper or disc?
Full leathers and full-face helmets needed. Got to be safe.
It is not up to the riders to prove that the discs are dangerous. It is up to the governing body to prove they are safe.
Clearly many of the members of the CPA are not convinced they are. Even if these concerns are all based on a false premise of hazard, the UCI, the teams and the manufacturers have to spend more time and effort showing the riders there concerns are overstated.
if you crash into them you'll get hurt, in that sense they're not safe. but no different to any other part of a bike.
get a grip lads.
That is your opinion. I may even agree with you, but it doesn't answer the point I was trying to make.
Maybe I should have phrased it this way.
It is up to the governing body to prove that disc brakes do not introduce significant additional hazard into an already hazardous sport.
Should enchase everything in a protective case of sorts. Good thing I don't need to clean the chain ever again.
Not sure what they are going to do about spokes though.
What about the danger of decending at high speeds in the wet or even in the dry?
I think they might just open a massive can of worms here if they aren't careful.
If discs are deemed dangerous enough to ban or require sufficient safety measures to be allowed, but proven to be no more (and I believe a fair bit less) dangerous than spokes and chaninrings, the whole industry would be left in utter chaos, cause surely they would also have to ban spokes and chaninrings or require sufficient safety measures for those as well.
Just imagine Dura Ace or Campag chainsets with chainring guards fitted, or the Tour de France being raced on Dandy Horses with disc wheels front and back.
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. There's been no conclusive evidence whatsoever that Owain was injured by the disc yet off they go, forming a lynch mob. 'Bike had discs so it MUST have been the disc which caused my injury, can't possibly have been anything else.' Christs' sake.
Interesting. If it was to go to court then presumably there would be a more rigerous examination of the Doull, Ventoso etc injuries?