Spotted: UCI officials taking lever position seriously at Tour Down Under

After the announcement of a clampdown last year, measures are already in place to make sure brake levers aren't turned in too much

16:08, Friday 12th January 2024

Alex Hunt

Junior Tech Writer

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UCI commissaires have been spotted using a measuring jig to check riders lever position

News broke at the UCI’s annual conference that in 2024 and 2025, fresh rules and regulations would be coming into effect to control the latest aero trend of riders pointing in their brake levers. At this year's women's Tour Down Under, UCI commissaires can be seen checking riders' bars with a neat little profile tool that looks to gauge if the levers are parallel to each other.

The rules that are changing have been cited as a safety concern as turned-in levers deviate from the manufacturer's intended use. The UCI claims that having turned-in levers can compromise the effectiveness of braking whilst riding and looks to have an official regulation change in place for 2025, with measures being put in place this year.

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The aero trend has actually come into existence as a workaround of another UCI rule which states that handle bars cannot be narrower than 350mm. There are obvious aero benefits to reducing your frontal area and the width of the handlebars is a limiting factor in this. In order to get around this rule riders would fit UCI rule-compliant bars and then turn their levers in, so the hoods would measure a far narrower width.

It is interesting to see the UCI already taking such a firm stance on this, only a matter of weeks after the regulation changes were announced.

Do you think this is a rule change that the UCI has got right or do you think it is taking things too far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.