Track bike racing could turn into an off-the-shelf sport soon, as the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced plans to force teams to use equipment that is commercially available. UCI chief Pat McQuaid noted that Britain, Germany and Australia – three track bike powerhouses – have been warned this past weekend that the use of illegal technological advances will not be tolerated, and that he had concerns about the way some teams continued to flout rules while using expensive equipment that is (in his words) “not commercially available.”
This is reminiscent of when Graeme Obree – a.k.a. “The Flying Scotsman – built a homemade bike and broke the one hour distance record on the track. In Obree’s case the bike wasn’t so high-tech as it was just ingenious, utilizing parts of a washing machine for the bottom bracket, but the fallout was a crackdown on equipment that wasn’t standard. McQuaid has not defined what is actually meant by “freely available” nor “reasonable price” when discussing the new rules, so there will no doubt be questions raised.
But as some teams were riding on bicycle prototypes that cost between 50,000 and 100,000 Euros each, we have to agree that while technology should help athletes, the playing field needs to be level. In this case, even if the track the competition takes place on is banked!