"The UCI deeply regrets that riders’ safety does not appear to be a shared objective" - Gear restrictions at Tour of Guangxi cancelled

The UCI planned on rolling out a test at next week's Tour of Guangxi regarding gear restrictions, with the aim of providing input for a potential improvement in safety in cycling. However this will not move along after SRAM's pushback, with the likes of Jonathan Vaughters also criticizing the UCI over its focus on aspects that should not be the priority.

"As a result of the provisional measures imposed by the BCA (Belgian competition authority, ed.), the test planned for the Tour of Guangxi will not take place and the Test Protocol is currently suspended," the UCI announced in a press release this Thursday. 

The goal of this test, as had been proposed months ago, was of understanding the impacts of gear ration limiting in order to reduce speeds in the peloton and thus increase safety for the riders, a heavily debated subject this year, and one with plenty points of view.

The UCI was very critical of an intervention that made it impossible to move forward: "Especially considering that the decision is issued by a Belgian authority responding to a complaint from a US company against a Swiss sports association regarding a test to be carried out on Chinese territory."

Many would say no, many would say it's a small part of it. However over the year many observations have pointed out different aspects of the sport that should be taking priority, with gear rations rarely being one of the main points.

Reacting to the press release, EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters was critical of the UCI's observation itself: "Perhaps things like making sure parked (and still moving) vehicles are not on the race course, blind corners with rock piles in the apex are not on race courses, and motorcycles aren’t part of the peloton take precedence over gear restrictions, sock lengths, and handlebar width?"