Nat Bromhead
World cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has announced it will reinstate the trial of disc brakes from the start of 2017.
The latest development in the ongoing saga comes months after discs were banned from the pro-peloton due to safety concerns relating to potentially sharp edges.
According to the Union Cycliste Internationale discs will be again be permitted so long as they don’t have 90-degree sharp edges.
“Following extensive examination of the equipment and a detailed safety report, it has been agreed with manufacturers that the trial will restart on January 1st 2017 exclusively with discs which should be modified to ensure the perimeter edge of the brake rotor does not contain any 90 degree edges but are smoothed or chamfered,” the statement reads.
The disc trial first began in August 2015 and went smoothly … until this year’s Paris-Roubaix.
During a pile-up in the iconic race Movistar rider Francisco Ventoso suffered a nasty injury he claimed was due to a disc rotor cutting into the back of his leg. Days later he penned a long-winded letter to the UCI, pleading for discs to be banned.
“The most worrying thing, as I stated before, is that disc brakes in its actual concept are giant knives, ‘machetes’ when crashing against or crashed by them at a certain speed. And in some points, we reach 80, 90, 100 kilometres per hour,” he wrote.
“I’ve been lucky I didn’t get my leg chopped off …,” he continued.
Despite much discussion and controversy, and many doubting a rotor was the actual cause of Ventoso’s injury, the disc trial was suspended.
According to the UCI the new 2017 trial will be closely monitored and regularly reviewed.
