Gear News

Riders union threatens UCI with legal action over disc brakes

Professional Cyclists Association demands further safety measures, including covers and rounded rotor edges, are implemented

The Professional Cyclists Association (CPA) have threatened the UCI with legal action if safety measures are not implemented during the ongoing disc brake trial in professional cycling.

In a letter to cycling’s governing body, the latest in the dispute between the two bodies regarding safety in the peloton, the CPA criticised the fact disc brakes were reintroduced to the peloton ‘before appropriate tests were conducted on the risks to which the riders are exposed in the event of accidental contact’.

The CPA have called for disc brake covers and rounded rotor edges, and claim the UCI bears ultimate responsibility for any injuries suffered while these measures aren’t implemented.

The CPA have threatened the UCI with legal action if further safety measures aren’t implemented during the trial of disc brakes in the pro peloton (pic: Hope)

A press release issued by the CPA reads: “The fact the UCI did not take into account these suggestions, according to the legal department of the CPA, make 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.”

The letter calls on the UCI to ‘review their position on this point’, with the CPA threatening legal action ‘to safeguard the health and safety of its members’ should that not happen.

CPA President, former world champion Gianni Bugno, reiterated: “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 for before making the tests on the disc brakes in the races.”

The issue of disc brakes in the pro peloton returned to the fore again during the Abu Dhabi Tour, when Team Sky’s Owain Doull shared photos of his injured foot and lacerated shoe, which he said was caused by Marcel Kittel’s disc rotor when the two crashed on stage one.

Kittel shunned disc brakes the following day, despite video evidence raising doubts as to whether the rotors had actually caused the damage, and went on to win the following day’s stage.

The CPA want rounded disc rotor edges and brake covers to be implemented

The trial of the disc brakes in the pro peloton has already been suspended once, after Fran Ventoso suffered gruesome leg injuries at Paris-Roubaix last year – again, something he claimed had been caused by disc brake rotors.