Take2 weeks ago
The UCI's 2026 safety response — 65mm rim caps, 400mm handlebar minimums — answers a question Plugge isn't asking. He's not arguing bikes are too fast; he's arguing that 200km point-to-point races on public roads cannot be secured, and that SafeR has become, in his words, a "political construction where compromises are constantly being made."
Neither UCI president Lappartient nor any governing body official has publicly engaged with Plugge's circuit proposal — the institutional silence is its own answer. EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters called the equipment measures "ridiculous little" changes that sidestep the actual problem: traffic on race roads. The structural gap is now visible: team leadership on both sides is rejecting the UCI's incremental frame, while the UCI has not acknowledged that a different frame exists.
Sources
Plugge suggests radical race change after Tarling death amid growing safety fearsVisma-Lease a Bike boss slams 'lack of anger' over Fin Tarling's death and suggests safer circuitsUCI statement on its recent decisions regarding changes to equipment regulations based on SafeR recommendationsCycling chiefs criticised for response to Fin Tarling's death