Gianni Bugno, the president of the CPA riders association (Cyclistes Professionels Associés) has described the UCI's decision to cut team sizes in races for 2018 as "bullshit" suggesting it will do little to improve safety for the riders in the peloton.
After a debate during meetings of the UCI's Professional Cycling Council (PCC), the UCI Management Committee rubber-stamped new rules that reduce the peloton to a maximum of 176 riders. Team sizes for Grand Tours will be reduced from nine to eight riders, with a maximum of seven riders per team in other races.
The UCI argued that safety concerns were behind the decision. However, teams and race organisers have used the changes to cut costs. Most WorldTour teams have reduced their rosters for 2018, some by three or four riders. There were 530 riders in WorldTour teams in 2017 but this number is predicted to fall by around 10 per cent in 2018.
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Bugno is concerned for the livelihood of the riders he represents.
"I don't want to hear talk about cuts to team sizes in races being done for safety reasons. Using safety as a reason to cut team sizes is rubbish," Bugno told Cyclingnews.
"You can't improve safety at races by just cutting 20 riders, it's a far more complex issue than that. Look at the debate on the use of disc brakes; we've been talking about their use for a year and a half and nothing has been decided. Yet they've managed to decide to cut the number of riders in races just a few months."
Reduced rosters means a reduced race programme
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