Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Chris Froome calls for time trial bike ban in professional cycling

"Is it really necessary for us to have time trial bikes in road cycling? At what point do we start thinking logically about our sport and introduce measures to make it safer?"...

Chris Froome has made the case for banning time trial bikes in professional racing, suggesting using road bikes would be safer and fairer.

The four-time Tour de France winner acknowledged that even despite his time trial pedigree, and the fact most of his major wins have involved excellence in the discipline, he still believes the bikes are not safe for use on open roads.

Froome's comments come two weeks after his former teammate Egan Bernal suffered a devastating crash while training on his Pinarello time trial bike in Colombia, while Froome himself also suffered career-threatening injuries in a fall while training on his time trial bike at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.

The 36-year-old echoed Tom Pidcock's comments about time trial bikes being too dangerous for training on public roads, but went one step further and suggested using road bikes for time trial events too.

"Is it really necessary for us to have time trial bikes in road cycling?" Froome asked in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. "Being out on my time trial bike this morning, and in light of recent events, time trial bikes are not really meant to be ridden on the roads the way that we need to ride them in order to be ready.

"To be able to get ready for an hour-long time trial you have to get out there on your time trial bike and simulate that. How many roads around you do you know that you can ride for an hour in almost closed road conditions where there is no traffic, no stop signs, no traffic lights? Those conditions do not exist in the real world.

"When you are on the skis (handlebar extensions) you have no brakes. You need to sit up, it is not really that safe. It is one thing when you are racing with closed roads, and even then we see some pretty horrendous accidents, but it is completely another thing when you are out on open roads with traffic and people crossing the roads.

"Given the dangers involved with training and racing on time trial bikes, and given the discrepancy in equipment in terms of time trialling, would it not be a lot more uniform to have time trials done on road bikes?

"Without a doubt I think it would make it more of a level playing field, and it would make it a lot more about the skill of the individual riders, as opposed to so much about aerodynamics, time in the wind tunnel, and basically the funding that goes into a project.

"I find it quite ironic that the UCI has introduced things to try and make the sport safer, by limiting the position you can use while on the bike but, in my opinion, something like this which would be easy to introduce would have a far greater impact on the safety of professional cyclists."

Froome was quick to point out a time trial ban would most likely impact his own fortunes negatively but stressed the bigger picture of rider safety is more important.

"Most of my big victories...there have been time trials in there," he admitted. "I love time trialling, it is an art, a skill, it is really nuanced. It is something you really need to know a lot about to get it right as a professional cyclist. That is one of the magical things about Grand Tour racing and the balance between climbers versus guys that can time trial.

"I realise most of my accolades have come from events with time trials in them, but at what point do we start thinking logically about our sport and introduce measures to make it safer?

"It would probably leave me at a disadvantage if it was implemented but it definitely got me thinking about the bigger picture and safety of athletes as a whole."

In the video, Froome also addressed the perennial question of do cobbles and gravel stages have a place in Grand Tours?

In 2014, the then Team Sky rider crashed out of defending his yellow jersey on the Paris-Roubaix stage during the fight for position before the race reached the cobbles.

"It is a tricky one," he continued. "It does give excitement to the race, but it is just such a big risk as well. When you think what it takes to be ready to go into a race for general classification. It is months of dedication, not just from the team leader, but the team around him, the whole support crew, everything.

"Which can literally all be for nothing if you get into a gravel or cobbled section. I see the excitement side, but it really is rolling the dice in terms of risk versus reward for the GC guys. When it affects a whole stage race or Grand Tour I think it is a big shame."

Finally, addressing his own training and ambitions for 2022, the seven-time Grand Tour winner said doubts remain about his race programme, although the Tour de France remains top priority.

"My race programme is still to be decided, I will most probably start racing at some point in March but we will decide as we get closer to the time and see how the numbers and condition are as I get through the next training camp.

"Still the big goal will be to be in peak condition for the Tour de France but we are keeping a very flexible approach to the season and build-up to that point."

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

Add new comment

38 comments

Avatar
Ihatecheese | 2 years ago
1 like

Time trial bikes don't really work on open UK roads where there is less space and no respect by those not engaging in the training. I agree with the logic shared in the article, but.... it's also fun to have lots of gadgets and things up until the point you reach the enlightenment that they are not necessarily safe

Avatar
Bmblbzzz | 2 years ago
3 likes

There's an irony in these remarks coming from Froome, known for his "staring at the stem" position which has even been called, erm, "frooming". But for the same reason, we can know he is talking from experience.

Avatar
Rapha Nadal | 2 years ago
3 likes

Does crashing into the back of a bus make a TT bike unsafe?  In Bernal's case here, obvs!

Avatar
Miller | 2 years ago
6 likes

I'm done with time-trialling as of last year but I managed 25 years (can hardly believe that, 25 years) of TTing in the aerobar era and managed to crash my TT bike precisely zero times. But I can see where Froome is coming from with his remarks. There's a low-quality video in which Bernal can be seen in the distance having his scary incident and it looks like classic head-down riding. If that had been in a CTT event he'd have picked up a six-month ban from competition, lol. I do hope he makes a full recovery.

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to Miller | 2 years ago
1 like

I think it is partly a question of ability, experience and awareness. I've seen too many TT riders training solo on poor weather days struggling to control their bike - which might(???) be acceptable on a competitive marshalled event, but on a weekday mixed in with motorists of whatever mindset they happen to be in on the day, is hardly wise. We have enough problems with cyclists who lack good judgement without equipment that might seem to reward foolhardiness.

I've questioned what the competitive benefit is in road cycling, and for TT riders, it is a significant cost to run a TT bike if you want to compete. Ban TT bars, solid wheels, perhaps a couple of other safety issues, like TT helmets encouraging a less observant posture, you can still have excellent competition and you broaden the appeal.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to IanMSpencer | 2 years ago
4 likes

It probably comes down to that - maximising safety in training.  No doubt you want to train and pretty hard, if you're into TT in the first place.

As I've said before if it was just speed (in company) you were after there may be safer and indeed more comfortable options (see the BHPC for races):

 

 

Avatar
chrisonabike | 2 years ago
6 likes

Ready with the popcorn.

Avatar
Slappers66 replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
0 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Ready with the popcorn.

 

Beat me to it....

 

Pages

Latest Comments