The UCI are suspending the testing of disc brakes in professional cycling. Laura Mora, the press officer of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) or Association of Professional Cyclists confirmed the news to procycling.no.

The PCA had called for the UCI to suspend the testing of disc brakes and following on from accidents involving Nikolas Maes (Etixx-Quick Step) and Fran Ventoso (Movistar) at Paris-Roubaix at the weekend, the UCI have agreed to CPA’s request.

Earlier today, Ventoso posted a detailed, open letter providing details about his accident and his concerns with the use of disc brakes in professional cycling. The Spanish rider was left with a large gash in his leg following the incident.

“Was there really anyone who thought things like Sunday’s wouldn’t happen? Really nobody thought they were dangerous?”, Ventoso asked in his letter. “Nobody realized they can cut, they can become giant knives?”

“We’ve talked about the risks of using disc brakes for several months and had sent a letter to the UCI and the organizers to avoid such risks,” confirmed Mora. “Now we have finally been heard.”

Harald Tiedemann Hansen, President of the UCI Equipment Commission confirmed the news.

80 COMMENTS

  1. Arron, so let’s remove helmets, I mean it’s a sport, they all take risks. Helmets are aesthetically unappetizing and hold the sport back from what it should be.

    That’s what you sound like dude.

  2. Arron it’s about mitigating risks, your logic is that by mitigating risks (taking away disc-brakes from the peloton) you’re somehow ‘taking away from the sport,’ so by that logic we should mitigate no risk.

  3. Why are cyclist such babys. Disc are far better in every way. Put your kneecap in a spinning wheel with rim brakes and see what happens.

  4. I am not convinced his wound was from a rotor at all for the following reasons: 1. He did not see the incident occurring. He assumes his leg was cut by the disc after he notices the wound. 2. It is his left lower leg. He did not fall off the bike, so how did the antero-lateral aspect of his left leg get cut by the rotor of another bike in front, while he was still straddled across his own? Surely this is the result of contact with the right side of the rear of another bike? 3. The wound appears to be quite jagged in the photo. Not linear as one would expect from a rotor.

    • You’re correct in saying that he didn’t fall off, but he was caught in a pile up in which there were bikes flying everywhere. It’s entirely plausible that a disc may have hit his leg at some point. Not our place to disprove. Seems like a strange thing to lie about.

    • Wayde Brown he did not lie, but came I think to the wrong conclusion. He just did not actually see the incident when it happened. So how can he say he was cut by a rotor? more likely it was a cut from a bladed spoke.

  5. Are what about the big F#%* OFF SERRATED EDGE CHAIN RAING, and are the UCI going to ban them in MTB to. Let ban riders that fall over.

  6. Why not put a cover on top of the rotors? Indeed, I see a lot of injuries that can be caused by the exposed rotors, specially when they are hot.

    • I’d be interested to know how many accidents were avoided as a result of having brakes that still work well in wet weather. Would the benefits of this outweigh the risk of hitting a disc in a crash?
      Also, surely there could be some sort of guard put over them to help prevent bad lacerations

    • I can see how in road biking, discs pose a danger that they just don’t in MTB. Riders are next to never side by side in MTB. When you get close to a disc turning with a wheel doing 60km/h, the thing could act like a deli slicer. To be honest though, I think that a little guard like they have on some moto trials bikes would solve the problem entirely. It’s a way smaller problem than the article is making out.

  7. Could see this coming all day. Road bikes don’t need disc, wait until we get reports of someone cooking the brakes failing to stop at high speed or the pads coming away from the back plates as they have done several times on several brands on my MTB’s, that will be another interesting dilemma. Nah good set of rims and pads is all that’s required. I will leave the disc brakes to my mountain bikes.

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