by Andrew G » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:10 pm
[quote="Sean Hogan - 何祥"][quote="Andrew G"]Saw this on Bikerumour. Good old UCI
nothing like stiffling R&D to knacker everyone.
Not everyone, more like Team GB
On the track they are one of the few teams with 100% custom made bikes. Others such as Holland ride, as you'd expect, Koga whereas France and many more ride Look. I've read somewhere that this is aimed at clipping Team GBs runaway technical success thereby introducing a more level playing field.
I agree that the ban on the pro being a test bed for new kit is very short sighted. It has been proven in Formula 1 that this kind of tricle down R & D is a success in the long term. The UCI in seeking to apply existing regulations have made a serious error here.
S.
As you say it's trickle down not just GBs track team. If the manufacturers have to use existing kit that's for sale in the high street as has been mooted then I think there'll be less development. They use the pro teams to test the equipment to find out if it works, if you can't use them, how do you do the proper testing in a convenient manner. Also if they don't get R&D results from a team then the reason to sponsor them goes for a lot.