Scott have announced that their Plasma 3 time trial bike – which we had a first look at last year – has been authorised for use in International Cycling Union (UCI) races.
The bike, which was used by HTC-Columbia in last year’s Tour de France, is one of the first to bear the new approval sticker, along with Felt's DA.
The UCI announced last year that all new frames and forks used in professional races must be tested in advance to make sure they adhere to their new technical guidelines. Previously, approval was given on a more ad-hoc basis. The new rules require every manufacturer to send in technical drawings, plus one of each size of each product, to the UCI’s lab for analysis.
The resultant approval sticker is designed to give race officials an easy way to check all the new designs comply with the regulations. Despite being controversial in some quarters, Scott are fully behind it.
“For many years we've been pushing for such a validation process and we're glad that the UCI have decided to go this way,” said vice president Pascal Ducrot. The bike is available now for £7,999 with SRAM's Red groupset. For more information, visit www.scott-sports.com.
