Canada has banned junior time trial bikes and it is not for safety reasons

Despite the fact that in recent years the safety of time trial bikes has been called into question due to serious accidents such as Chris Froome's in Dauphiné or Stephan Küng's in the European Championship, the idea of the Canadian Cycling Federation to ban time trial bikes in the junior category has been motivated by another aspect: the equality of competition.

Banning time trial bikes in junior as a measure to have a more equal competition

If there is a discipline in which the equipment used is of great importance in the result, that is time trial. In order for bikes not to be decisive in the result and to avoid inequalities in categories where access to equipment is much more complicated and often funded by parents and relatives of the cyclists, Cycling Canada, the federation of this country, has chosen to prohibit the use of time trial bikes.

This measure will apply to the Sub17 and Junior categories for the national championships that will take place in June so that they can only use a single frame for all disciplines in which they participate without the possibility of mounting aerodynamic extensions or lenticular wheels.

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This measure also aims, in addition to preventing the ability to spend money on equipment from deciding the result, to have the true ability of the cyclist define the result in categories where it is important to detect the talent of each rider and not be influenced by the technical means available.

However, this measure by Cycling Canada raises the question of whether riders in this category will be at a disadvantage when they have to face others in international competitions given the importance of having trained, having a studied position on the bike, and being able to adapt to the time trial bike in order to unleash their full potential.