UCI Ban Skinsuits

[enduramil]

It's offical now boy's and churls.

http://www.transcendmagazine.com/arc...ns-skinsu.html

UCI Bans Skinsuits for DH - Updated
AIGLE, Switzerland (transcendmagazine.com) -- UPDATE: This is no longer a rumour. The UCI has officially banned skinsuits for competition in DH and 4x. The official announcement will be made to all Trade Teams and the Media Monday.
No details have been released as to how this will be enforced, but we imagine it will be a similiar sort of ruling as they currently have in BMX competition. You must be able to pinch 3cm of material between your fingers without stretching on the forearm.
Editorial: Unfortunately the UCI has felt the need to over regulate the sport once again. This is a speed based sport. Riders race against the clock, they should be able to take every aero advantage they can get, no matter how silly some people feel it looks.
You can bet that national federations will be protesting this on the cost factor alone. Most federations do 1 uniform. It is worn by everyone from the Road and pursuit teams through XC and DH. Now they need to do at least a BMX jersey, as even a long sleeve XC jersey will not pass the test, and many countries require long sleeves for downhill competitions.

[sgarstin]

well once people start wearing skinsuits you will only wear one to be as fast as everyone else, therefore the competitive advantage will be irrelevant. So why not ban them and keep the sport from looking like a fetish party.

[hcg1]

Amen

[Oldfart]

C&P from cyclingnews.com

UCI ban skin suits and open face helmets for some mountain bike competitions
By Matthew Cole, BikeRadar.com

Tracy Moseley rode this skin suit to a slim win in Australia
Photo ©: Mark Gunter
The UCI, the governing body for competitive cycling, has made some interesting changes to the rules for the 2009 season and beyond including banning the wearing of "tight-fitting clothing" and insisting that full-face helmets must be worn when racing and practising for downhill and 4X.

The wearing of skin suits has been a point of contention over the last year, notably in the Australian round of the mountain bike world cup. A skinsuit-clad Tracy Moseley (Kona) won the women's race by four seconds ahead of Rachel Atherton (Animal-Commencal), who claimed that the skin suit gave Moseley an unfair advantage.

"Fair enough to Tracey if she wants to do that to win, but for the sport and the longevity of the sport, to wear cool race kit and to make an image for yourself is more important than the odd win here and there," said Atherton.

Other notable additions to the new rulebook include a strong recommendation from the UCI that riders wear "protection for the nape of the neck and the cervical vertebrae", suggesting that we should soon expect to see the Leatt Brace and other such protective devices being worn by the downhill racers.

Riders must also wear back, elbow, knee and shoulder protectors, padding on shins and thighs and long sleeved shirts.


In my opinion rules should be safety and keeping things fair. I think the UCI want to keep races as a race between riders as opposed to an equipment race where those with the best stuff win. I have no problem with skin suits at all. I don't believe a skin suit is so much faster as to create a higher risk to the riders so I say let the riders choose. If I were racing DH, I would wear a skinsuit if allowed as every little bit helps and overly loose clothing is dumb. If you have to compromise you ability to ride and say alter the saddle height and run it super low just so you can ride baggy shorts and not snag the crotch of you shorts on the saddle, well that's probably a stupid compromise.

I mean wearing clothing specifically for its form rather than function demeans the sport for me. However I think the intent is to protect riders by forcing them to wear outerwear that that will provide some skid protecting which lycra and spandex do not do. And that is a logical and smart reason to have that rule. But they do make stretch cordura. It will be interesting to see if riders push the tight envelope with less baggy clothes that are not quite tight.

[connor]

Originally Posted by Oldfart

.


"Fair enough to Tracey if she wants to do that to win, but for the sport and the longevity of the sport, to wear cool race kit and to make an image for yourself is more important than the odd win here and there," said Atherton.

This is a lame comment


Riders must also wear back, elbow, knee and shoulder protectors, padding on shins and thighs and long sleeved shirts.

I'm pretty sure this is only a reccomendation

They should ban bushy eyebrows too..

[Oldfart]

It appears that pads as described are now required. The neck protection like a Leatt Brace is strongly recommended. No more piss pot helmets either only full face. And I agree with you, Atherton's comment is very weak. (sarcasm on) We all know that sports where tight outfits are worn are suffering a real crisis, like alpine and nordic skiing, swimming and Football. (Sarcasm off)

[Timmigrant]

Other tight fitting outfit sports may be doing well, but I think DH has carved itself a good image over the past few years. I personally don't want to wear to a skinsuit, I'd far rather wear my normal shorts and t-shirt. Its fair if everyone wears shorts and a t-shirt. I also think skinsuits would deter youths trying downhill racing, its one of the reasons I never went to race on my snowboard, skin suits are expensive, and aren't cool to wear.

[nick]

no shortage of young DH skiers... the skin suit ban is stupid.

[Oldfart]

Let's face it, skin suits do look funny. But you know what, so do motocross pants and full face helmets. So I gather what your saying is you don't care to wear clothes that reveal your wee wee or wish to see the outline of your competitors wee wee. I am guessing if the rule forbade men from wearing tight outfits but forced women into tight revealing outfits, you'd all over that?

[Buzom]

[nouseforaname]

It's riding a bicycle for gods sake. Not even 20% of the population think that it is respectable no matter what you wear. It is something "that kids do, and we need to grow up" is the majority workd view of mountain biking.
Most of the time that MTbing makes it into the mass media is some dumb XTREEME shit like riding down a volcano. Why bother to pander to this dumbed down idiot dominated segment of the world. You want to go fast - go fast. You want to look like some other sport?. Go for it. But don't tell me what to wear.

Not that i will ever feel the need to do it, but racing is against the clock - not whoever "had the best image whilst crossing the line".

[Oldfart]

Cycling actually has a history of clothing regulations. Used to be shorts had to be black and socks white. I think the rules still dictate that shorts have to come within a certain distance of the knee. Rules state shorts only for cyclocross. Soccer, shorts only. You do need rules do eliminate clothes that have an affect on performance or officiating or safety. Human powered sports need to be a teat of the athlete more so than the equipment. But at the same time you don't want to stiffle technological development. Road bikes can be made a fair bit lighter than the 15 pound limit we have now. maybe if riders could get on a 12 pound bike, particularly some 115# climber, there might be less incentive to inject some performance? Magnus Backstead I belive is just about the biggest road pro out there at 200#s. He can't set up his TT bike properly because the rules dictate how much set abck is allowed at the saddle. Not fair for him.

[phat-phur-knee]

hee hee
you said teat.
and stiffle.

[big-ted]

Originally Posted by Timmigrant

Other tight fitting outfit sports may be doing well, but I think DH has carved itself a good image over the past few years. I personally don't want to wear to a skinsuit, I'd far rather wear my normal shorts and t-shirt. Its fair if everyone wears shorts and a t-shirt. I also think skinsuits would deter youths trying downhill racing, its one of the reasons I never went to race on my snowboard, skin suits are expensive, and aren't cool to wear.

Amen Tim. Didn't the widespread use of spandex nearly kill recreational skiing before snowboarding showed that baggy clothing could work for snow sports also?

It's not unusual for governing bodies to ban the use of certain equipment if it benefits the greater sport as a whole. Eg: Winged suits in ski jumping, frames having certain tubular profiles in time trials etc etc. In these cases, it was deemed that the equipment in question wasn't sufficiently accessible to grass roots competitors, and so it was banned so as to level the playing field and encourage greater participation. If we all start donning lycra pretty soon the trails will be pretty lonely and covered in loam and....


Wait a minute. Where's my lycra?!

[Dropsonde]

they looked so funny