On 9 October 2025, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) ordered the International Cyclists’ Union (UCI) to suspend the implementation of its maximum gear ratio (Maximum Gearing) in professional road cycling events (see, attached BCA press release). UCI had tentatively adopted a new Maximum Gearing standard that reflected the equivalent of a 54-tooth chainring with an 11-tooth sprocket (54×11) (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 22 September 2025). UCI must now temporarily abandon the standard and is supposed to do so no later than 13 October 2025 at the eve of the last race of the UCI World Tour which starts on 14 October 2025 in Guangxi, China.

According to the BCA, the standard must be disapplied because the procedure that led to its adoption and the associated tests did not satisfy “essential conditions of proportionality, objectivity, transparency, and non-discrimination”. BCA adopted the measures at the request of SRAM, one of the few major suppliers of transmission systems, which claimed that the new standard caused it to suffer serious harm that is difficult to repair.

The BCA’s measure is remarkable for several reasons: its effects span the globe and protect the economic interests of economic operators (SRAM and SRAM’s customers) that outweigh the safety reasons claimed to be at the basis of the UCI’s decision. Additionally, the interim measures are predicated on the existence of serious and nearly irreparable harm on the part of SRAM even though the standard was intended to apply only provisionally by way of a test.

The BCA urged UCI to adopt a new standard based on a transparent, objective, and non-discriminatory procedure.