The bicycling industry got a major shot in the arm last week when the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) agreed to rules for testing disc brakes at professional road races this season. Manufacturers expect the decision will give road cycling enthusiasts their most compelling reason to buy a new road bike in years.
During the 2015 UCI professional road season, all pro teams will have the opportunity to use bikes with disc brakes at two events of their choice during August and September. The testing will continue in 2016 at all events on the UCI professional road calendar and, if the experience is satisfactory, disc brakes will be officially introduced to the UCI WorldTour in 2017. The aim is to eventually introduce disc brakes to all levels of road cycling.
“Although disc brakes have been used for around a decade in mountain biking and for the last two years in cyclo-cross, their introduction to road cycling must be carefully studied in collaboration with all those who are directly concerned,” said UCI President Brian Cookson. “That includes riders, teams and manufacturers. This step is part of the UCI’s desire to encourage innovation in order to ensure cycling is even more attractive for spectators, riders, bike users and broadcasters.”
“This decision will further develop innovation and create new possibilities for the bicycle industry as well as additional performance for the riders,” said Robbert de Kock, Secretary General of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), which helped bicycle and bicycle component manufacturers hammer out the deal. “There is still some fine tuning to do on detailed requirements for the procedure, but it is very exciting to finally have reached this decision. The remaining open topics such as neutral race support or the UCI and Teams protocol will be tackled soon.”
