Stefan Küng argues UCI rules are to blame for European Championships crash: "Every rider will always do what can make him fastest"

A concussion, face and hand fractures, and a terrifying bloody outcome was the state that Stefan Küng finished the European Championships time-trial event. This was because he crashed against barriers at high speed after looking down on his handlebars for a long period of time. However, he blames the current UCI rules for the incident.

"The UCI should tackle the problem. You can't tell a rider to just put his head up. Every rider will always do what can make him fastest," Küng said in an interview with Radsport-News. "The UCI must create better conditions. The conditions must be such that the sport can take place safely at the level at which it now takes place. The aerodynamic positions are becoming more and more extreme, which you as a driver are also very sensitive to. You say to yourself: if you can, put your head down. On the way back to Emmen you could do that and go all out."

The Swiss rider believes that the changes in regulations on the bike settings allowed for time-trials leads the tall riders to take on more extreme positions, which may lead to such events. "...They noticed a few years ago that smaller riders had an advantage in the time trial and so they adjusted the positions, but I am one of the larger riders and for me the space between the contact surface and the top of the attachments is 14 centimeters," he argues. "Maybe they should have left it as it was, but that's not my field."

"The fall was not necessary and of course it looked very strange, so we also looked at it carefully and drew our conclusions. But here too the ball is in the UCI's court." The Swiss specialist had a broken helmet and later admitted he could barely see as he finished his effort. It was a shocking incident which reignited the topic of concussion checks - but not that of time-trial bike regulations.