{"id":257866,"date":"2025-07-12T03:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/257866\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T03:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:15:17","slug":"cycling-is-close-to-its-ayrton-senna-moment-dan-bigham-says-we-will-have-blood-on-our-hands-if-pogacar-or-van-der-poel-have-a-life-changing-injury-branding-uci-ge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/257866\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCycling is close to its Ayrton Senna moment\u201d: Dan Bigham says \u201cwe will have blood on our hands if Poga\u010dar or Van der Poel have a life-changing injury\u201d, branding UCI gear restriction trial a distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Tour de France reached the end of its first week of racing in M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne on Friday afternoon, two starkly contrasting images from today\u2019s stage neatly summed up the opening seven days of racing. One, of course, was the now customary sight of world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar raising his arms in celebration at a finish line, the Slovenian easily sprinting to his second win of this year\u2019s race, and the 101st of his career, in the Breton town.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other was the more sobering image of Poga\u010dar\u2019s key UAE Team Emirates domestique Jo\u00e3o Almeida, bloodied and battered, rib broken, jersey torn, one of the ten victims, alongside Jack Haig (who failed to finish the stage), Guillaume Martin, and Eddie Dunbar, of the latest high-speed crash at this year\u2019s Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\"Jo\u00e3oJo\u00e3o Almeida crash, stage 7, 2025 Tour de France (credit: TNT Sports)<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the chaotic, fraught start to the Tour \u2013 a defining characteristic of the race\u2019s first week, often synonymous with tension and crashes \u2013 has ensured that rider safety remains at the top of the cycling agenda, after a year marred by injuries and tragedy, as well as plans to overhaul equipment standards and reduce speeds in the peloton.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Israel-Premier Tech\u2019s Michael Woods criticised Tour organisers ASO\u2019s pre-race safety presentation<\/a>, which he claimed appeared to lay most of the blame for crashes on the riders themselves, telling them that they \u201cmust also take greater measures to reduce risks, and if they don\u2019t, they may have to be forced to wear protective equipment in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t be distracted when you\u2019re driving down the street, so why are we doing it in bike races?\u201d Mike Woods calls for ice hockey-style gear and fewer \u201cdistractions\u201d in races, after hitting out at Tour de France for putting safety onus on riders<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In a lengthy blog post, former Tour stage winner Woods also devised his own four-point plan to make cycling safer, including scrapping the relegation system, which he says increases stress in the bunch, and reducing the size of the peloton, noting that the smaller bunch featured in the Olympics road race made it the safest event of last season.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old argued that speeds could be lowered by restricting bike and equipment design, and that steps should be taken to \u201creduce distractions\u201d, such as the use of race radios and the modern trend of riders constantly looking at information on their bike computers.<\/p>\n

\"StageStage 7, 2025 Tour de France (credit: ASO\/Charly Lopez)<\/p>\n

The build-up to the Tour was also punctuated by the UCI\u2019s decision to introduce a raft of equipment changes<\/a>, introduced ostensibly to deal with the \u201csafety implications\u201d of the increasing speed of professional races and thus increase safety.<\/p>\n

The new rules \u2013 most of which are set to come into effect from next January \u2013 will see time trial helmets banned in road races, a maximum rim height set, a new fork width limit introduced, and, most controversially, the implementation of a new minimum handlebar width of 400mm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the governing body also announced that it will trial a new maximum gearing rule at the Tour of Guangxi in China in October<\/a>, in another attempt to limit top speeds in the peloton.<\/p>\n

This junior-style gear restriction, suggested by Wout van Aert earlier this year<\/a>, will cap riders at a 54×11 gear ratio on 700c wheels, potentially hitting SRAM-sponsored teams hardest, as their 10-tooth cog setup will exceed the new limit.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0UCI to trial maximum gearing rule \u2014 but will it really make racing safer?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

However, speaking in Lille this week at the Tour de France\u2019s Grand D\u00e9part, the head of engineering at one of those SRAM-equipped squads Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Dan Bigham, argued that restricting gears will have no impact on speeds during races.<\/p>\n

During the Science and Cycling Conference in Lille, reported by BikeRadar<\/a>, Bigham \u2013 a former Hour Record holder and team pursuit world champion, famed for his understanding of aerodynamics and tech gains \u2013 presented his own analysis of the planned gear restrictions, which he argued were a distraction from the real changes that could be made to improve safety in pro cycling.<\/p>\n

\"DanDan Bigham, 2024 Paris Olympics (Ed Sykes\/SWpix.com) (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Wout van Aert, Tadej Poga\u010dar or Mathieu van der Poel have a life-changing injury, or worse, we will have blood on our hands,\u201d the 33-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the power to make changes. But restricting gear ratios simply distracts from making meaningful changes to rider safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my analysis, for reducing ratios to have an impact, we need to presume professionals would adhere to unrealistic cadence limits that aren\u2019t supported by the literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll impact on as little as 0.01 per cent of a race and will arguably reduce speeds by no more than 0.5kph. All of this to change entire groupset design? It really doesn\u2019t seem effective to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20242024 midrange bike vs superbike sram red axs crankset (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Referencing recent research by Kurt Bergin-Taylor, which showed an elite riders\u2019 maximum cadence can reach over 200rpm, Bigham continued: \u201cWhether you\u2019re a GC rider or sprinter, if you want to limit a rider to 75kph and they can pedal at 200rpm, that means a gear ratio of three or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, will riders have to ride with \u2013 solely \u2013 a 30-tooth chainring? Even dropping cadence to 130rpm with a UCI ratio of five, you\u2019d still ride at 80kph. But we know riders can do much higher than that for shorter periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assessing files from GC contenders at last year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, and Tour of Guangxi, Bigham found that, at the 5.0 gear ratio stipulated by the UCI as part of its trial, riders would be gear limited \u2013 compared to a 5.6 ratio \u2013 for 1.1 per cent of the race at 120rpm, 0.34 per cent at 130rpm, and 0.1 per cent at 140rpm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we see? That riders don\u2019t spend much time at high speed!\u201d the Olympic silver medallist said.<\/p>\n

He then pointed out that the highest speeds in races often happen on descents, where gravity \u2013 not gearing \u2013 is the most important factor.<\/p>\n

\"TadejTadej Poga\u010dar, stage 15, 2024 Giro d\u2019Italia (Zac Williams\/SWpix.com) (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe huge speeds happen on descents where you have huge input from gravity. If you\u2019re on a 15 per cent descent and you weigh 80kg, that\u2019s around 4,000 watts from gravity alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Riders descending at 75 to 90kph, Bigham noted, are putting in a maximum of 100 watts, which won\u2019t be affected by gear restrictions, which will likely only affect an extremely small percentage of the race.<\/p>\n

Bigham continued by arguing that the UCI\u2019s gear restriction plan has the potential to focus solely on one small aspect of racing, without making any meaningful impact. Instead, the British engineer says cycling\u2019s stakeholders should instead focus on four main \u201cpillars\u201d of safety: course design, bike design, rider protection, and medical response.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0UCI claims riders\u2019 own mistakes are \u201cmost common cause\u201d of crashes and outlines plan to trial gear ratio limit, but remains silent on controversial 40cm handlebar proposal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe must use data to improve the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cCycling is close to its Ayrton Senna moment. Ayrton died, and it changed things because he was a superstar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FIA took it upon themselves to use science and data\u2026 Formula One has a lot to teach road cycling about going faster, but also about teaching us about safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake rider safety. We should have race-relevant helmet standards. But road-race helmets are tested at 20kph impact speeds. That\u2019s not relevant or good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Tour de France reached the end of its first week of racing in M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-257866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114838092246627157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}