GRAEME OBREE, the former world champion, has launched a bitter attack on cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union, following their decision to ban the aerodynamic position known as "superman" which he devised last year.
Obree won last year's world track pursuit championship using the position where the cyclist holds his arms out in front of his face, effectively removing them from the aerodynamic equation. The style was widely adopted to set Olympic records this year at Atlanta and was also used by Obree's long time rival, Chris Boardman, to take this year's world pursuit title and to break the world hour record.
Obree and the ICU crossed swords two years ago when the governing body banned the tucked in position similar to that adopted by downhill skiers which the Scot used to with the 1993 world championship.
Yesterday, Obree was outraged. "This is a personal vendetta against me which is also against the interests of the sport, and it is unacceptable.
"The position is not being banned on safety grounds - could it possibly be because the position has been credited to me? - I think the ICU is embarrassed because this position is called the Obree position and I won the world championship last year using it. It is going to make the sport look very silly. It's verging on incompetence."
The ICU's case, put by their president Hein Verbruggen, is that in recent years technical developments have obscured the physical demands made by cycling and have made it harder for the public to identify with elite level cyclists. "We do not want any innovations which give technology preference over performance," said Verbruggen yesterday.
He denied the charge that the ICU are involved in a vendetta, but said: "Obree has been the catalyst in the process. He has outsmarted us time and again."
Verbruggen feels that when a record is broken there should be no doubt that it is due to physical ability rather than "because the rider has a better bike".
Boardman agrees with Obree: that cycling's governing body looks rather foolish after twice allowing new positions' to be used, over a long period before deciding to ban them.
While the controversy is set to rumble on, it will not weigh on the result of today's elite time, trial title in Lugano, Switzerland. The twist hair pinned descent would be highly dangerous if attempting in the "superman" position even it were still permitted. As winner of the title in 1994, Board man will start as one of the favourites, in the absence of the defending champion Miguel Indurain, but is likely to be pushed hard by home stars Tony Rominger and Alex Zulle.
