[JRB]

Is it the right way??? Seems like it's saying, you cheat long enough, we will cave in. More here.

 

[Velocity Girl]

I think that allowing the outside assistance will only further the gap between the folks on the big name/big budget teams and those struggling to work their way up the ranks. Keeping a hoard of backup parts is expensive enough as it is, let alone having to travel with it all! Yes, it is sad that the best rider in the world could loose "the big race" due to a mechanical but that's the name of the game. Downhillers deal with it all the time. You flat, break a chain, or bust a breakline during a race run you're f**ked!! As the article mentions, part of the sport is trying to figure out the best race setup for the bike. So is the next step allow for sanctioned rest stops during an xc or dh race? Maybe if you crash you can deduct the time it took you to recover from your overall time? Very silly in my opinion!

 

[JRB]

I agree that it is silly. Seems like the way of the world is to let the most powerful (with the most money) win.

 

[blue]

It will alter the very core of a sport in which the guy who sleeps in the back of his VW Westphalia and races a 10-year-old hardtail has just as much of a shot at beating Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski as Travis Brown does...big-budget teams will be able to station platoons of mechanics around the course, wrenches at the ready, while VW Guy just might be able to coax his girlfriend to hang out in a shady spot with a spare set of wheels.

So true. Down with the UCI. There's going to be a special place in Hell for whoever thought of this rule.