Cycling's governing body the UCI, have rectified a rule regarding team cars in time trials after a flurry of teams recently began loading the roofs of their cars with more bikes than would ever be necessary in hopes of gaining an aerodynamic advantage.
At Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this year both INEOS Grenadiers' Filippo Ganna and Quickstep-Alpha Vinyl Team's Remco Evenepoel were both closely followed in their time trials by support cars adorned with no fewer than eight bikes. Considerably more than could ever realistically be needed during the 13.9km course. Furthermore, the use of a car to be directly behind a rider has been widespread used throughout the peloton, providing small but important aerodynamical gains for the riders involved.
In response to this new tactic, the UCI has not drawn regulations regarding the number of bikes a team car could carry. Rather they have adjusted the rule that discerns the allowed distance behind a rider the car is allowed to be. Formerly limited to 10 metres, it has now been raised to 15 metres.
It is believed that the change would all but eliminate any potential advantage gained by filling up the roof rack with excess bikes and will become an official rule change on January 1st.
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