SRAM wins suspension of UCI’s maximum gear test at Tour of Guangxi as UCI hits back

In a statement on Thursday, the BCA said it had “decided to impose interim measures aimed at suspending the technical standard adopted by the International Cycling Union ("UCI") limiting the maximum gear ratio allowed in professional road cycling events to a transmission ratio of 54x11.”

Last month, SRAM sought an injunction against the UCI’s proposed new gear-restriction rules, which the component manufacturer claims is a breach of European competition law, a view that has now been provisionally supported by the BCA.

“The BCA recognises the legitimacy and importance for a sports regulator such as the UCI to ensure the safety of athletes,” read the statement. “However, the procedures for determining technical standards enacted for this purpose, as well as the related tests, must meet essential conditions of proportionality, objectivity, transparency and nondiscrimination in view of the economic consequences of these standards. They cannot result in an undue restriction of competition between sports equipment suppliers.” 

The UCI’s proposed gear restriction would essentially create a maximum gear ratio of 54x11, and it would outlaw the 54x10 ratio available with SRAM’s RED AXS groupset. The American company maintains that it is the only manufacturer affected by the new regulation, and so it appealed to the BCA.

“SRAM is one of the two main suppliers of transmission systems for road bikes used by professional riders and the only one that does not currently have a product meeting the requirements of the Maximum Gear Ratio Standard,” read the BCA statement. 

“The standard, adopted under disputable conditions, is likely to cause harm to SRAM that is serious and difficult to repair, thereby justifying its suspension. The harm also extends to professional cycling teams equipped with SRAM transmission systems.” 

The UCI had outlined plans to test the gear restriction rules at the Tour of Guangxi, though Visma | Lease a Bike manager Richard Plugge criticised the idea in an interview with Domestique in August, calling for a more robust process. “At this moment, it’s not at all a scientific test,” he said.

On Thursday, the BCA said that the “urgency of adopting interim measures” had been motivated by the Tour of Guangxi, which gets under way on October 14.

The BCA decision requires the UCI “to suspend immediately, and no later than 13 October, the implementation of the Maximum Gear Ratio Standard” and it has called on the governing body to publish a press release confirming as much within the next 24 hours.

In a statement released on Thursday evening, the UCI said it had taken note of the provisional measures ordered by the Belgian Competition Authority suspending the Maximum Gearing Test Protocol. As a result, the planned test at the Tour of Guangxi will not take place and the protocol is currently suspended.

The governing body expressed surprise at the intervention of a national competition authority “on a subject desired by all stakeholders of cycling,” noting that the case concerns “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.”

“The UCI deeply regrets that riders’ safety does not appear to be a shared objective with those who challenged the implementation of the Maximum Gearing Test Protocol,” the statement continued. “However, the UCI will continue to act in the interests of the safety of riders, other members of the peloton and spectators.”

The UCI confirmed it will appeal the decision and may modify the test protocol “to allow for the implementation of the tests desired by all stakeholders in professional road cycling.”

The UCI’s statement prompted an immediate reaction from EF Education–EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters on X, who suggested the governing body should focus on genuine safety concerns rather than gear ratios.

“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?”

Vaughters has been an outspoken critic of the UCI in recent months, most notably during the dispute over the test of GPS trackers at the Tour de Romandie Féminin.