Looking to the Duo Normand

Grumpy Bob emailed the organisers of the Duo Normand to enquire whether UCI regs would be enforced, and in which categories. He thinks that Grumpy Art has entered Team Grumpy in the Corporate category again this year. Hopefully a response will arrive in due course, and he will post it here when it does appear in his inbox.

A few months ago, Grumpy Bob examined his bikes for fit to UCI regulations (aka the "Luddite" regs), and was disappointed that both failed (see a recent post in this blog). One, however, failed only on the handlebar arrangements, so that should be relatively easy to sort out, by transplanting kit from his fixed wheel TT bike. But of course that's not ideal, and Grumpy Bob isn't inclined to cough up for a nice set of bars just for one event. Grumpy Art claims his bike is UCI-legal, but when prompted to think about the front forks confesses he hadn't thought of that.

One wonders why the UCI didn't stay true to their ideals when ruling that ASO had to permit the use of race radios on Friday's stage of the Tour de France. Grumpy Bob had almost expected their ruling to be:

1. Race radios are permitted.
   
2. Race radios must not contain transistors or microprocessors
3. Race radios must respect the primacy of archaic technology over the new, and should conform to the technology available to Maurice Garin.
4. Therefore all race radios should use valves (tubes to any colonials who may visit this page)