Bruyneel talks about French conspiracy behind new rules: "It’s a triangle, Prudhomme, Lappartient, and Madiot"

Bruyneel first tackles the gearing issue. Starting in August, the UCI will begin testing new gearing limitations in races. But the 60-year-old Belgian sees an immediate problem. “Professional cycling is truly professional,” he said on his podcast THEMOVE. “Everything is the best of the best, and then the UCI shows up with something like 54x11, or whatever the gear combo is. But teams using SRAM have a major issue, because their cassettes start at 10.”

It is a sign of an ongoing pattern at the UCI. “What baffles me is that they make these decisions without considering the industry. SRAM can’t just say, ‘Sure, UCI, we’ll go ahead and manufacture new cassettes that start at 11 before August.’” Technically, the rule is about how many meters a rider travels per pedal revolution. In theory, teams could adapt by using a smaller chainring and a larger cog in the rear, which would still allow SRAM’s existing 10-tooth cassettes to comply. But in practice, Bruyneel says, it’s not that simple. “You’d need something like 49x10, and SRAM doesn’t make that either,” he explained.

The former US Postal Service team director says this is typical cycling. They say you can block the 10-tooth cog, but then you suddenly have 11 gears instead of 12. Where are we going with this? Sure, descents will be a bit slower, but that’s the only real effect. It’s one of those things where you can tell they haven’t thought about the practical consequences.

“It’s the same with the handlebar width,” Bruyneel continued his rant. “We’ve seen all the discussion and criticism, and they’re right. You can’t just make one handlebar size for every body type. The women’s peloton will face huge issues.” But the same applies to men, he said. Take Jarno Widar, for example: “He’s tiny. You can’t put him on a 40 cm handlebar. He’d be riding like he’s on a chopper. I understand there should be limits, but they need to vary per person.”

In the name of safety, such a measure is understandable, even to Bruyneel. “In my opinion, a 40 cm handlebar is more stable. But you have to consider other things. A lot of riders grew up using narrower bars. That’s how they learned to ride. You can’t just tell them now to ride with handlebars that are two centimeters wider.”

Riders are used to the compactness of a peloton, but that will suddenly change with wider handlebars. “It changes how the peloton behaves. With a narrower handlebar, you see more gaps. Mentally, you still have that instinct. But now, with a wider handlebar, you think you can squeeze through, but you can’t, because your bars are wider.”

Marc Madiot recently spoke in favor of limiting gears, but Bruyneel sees a kind of conspiracy. "It all comes down to the same thing: the UCI president is French. But all these ideas come from Christian Prudhomme. He wants to make the riders slower. His close advisor is also French, namely Marc Madiot. Who thinks the same way. It's a triangle: Prudhomme, Madiot and Lappartient."