Until something like the T’red disc brake cover shown above becomes more mainstream (or, at least used in the peloton), it seems riders just aren’t ready for disc brakes. After one rider claims he was cut by a disc brake rotor during a late crash in the Tour of Abu Dhabi, the debate is heating up again. The UCI was (is) allowing disc brakes in early season races as a test, with the caveat that the rotors have rounded edges. But, the Association of Professional Cyclists says that’s not good enough, and now they are taking legal action. Full press release below…
PRESS RELEASE: After the first races of the season in which the testing of the disc brakes are officially started without applying the preventive security measures required by the riders, the CPA has sent a legal warning to the UCI. In that document, the legal department of the International Rider Association inform the UCI that the CPA is very concerned about the situation that has arisen since the authorization to use the disc brakes during the races.
“The trial has started – it is written – before that 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).”
In this regard the document recalls how the CPA and its representatives in the Equipment Commission have repeatedly stressed the need to round the profile of the discs and cover them with some protections. The fact that 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 CPA calls on the International Cycling Union to review their position on this point and to subordinate the possibility of using the disc brakes during the races to the application of a safety cover or to measures that can exclude an accidental contact of the discs to the body of the riders. 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).
“With the Equipment Commission we tried in every way the path of dialogue through the repeated letters and meetings we had,” said Gianni Bugno, President of the CPA. “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.”
