Chris Froome questioned whether time trial bikes and gravel tracks are appropriate for professional road cycling, highlighting a number of safety and fairness concerns.

In the latest installment of his YouTube blog (opens in new tab), the four-time Tour de France winner discussed two recent events: the controversy surrounding the off-road summit finish at Volta Valenciana and last week's time trial bike in Colombia and the life-threatening crash of Egan Bernal on a time trial bike in Colombia last week.

Bernal crashed into the back of a stationary bus and spent two weeks in intensive care, and Tom Pidcock has already questioned the safety of training on a time trial bike. But Froome went a step further and even suggested that they should be banned from use in races.

Froome admitted that many of his victories were built against the clock, but he also had a similar experience to Bernal, who broke his leg and arm while scouting the time trial course at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné and was thrown off his career.

"The time trial is an art, a skill, very subtle indeed, and you need to know a lot as a professional cyclist. The strange thing about Grand Tour racing is the balance between pure climbers and riders who can also do time trials. [But after riding my TT bike this morning and thinking about recent events, the TT bike is not for riding on the road the way I need to ride for time trials. When there is a one-hour TT at the Tour de France, you have to ride a TT bike to simulate it. How many roads do you think you can ride for an hour in literally closed road conditions with no traffic, no stop signs, no traffic lights?

"When you're on skis you have to sit there because there are no brakes. You can have a horrible accident in a closed road race, but on the open road with traffic and people crossing the road, it's a completely different thing."

Froom further discussed whether time trial bikes should be banned for racing as well as training. In addition to safety concerns, he noted the impact of equipment on performance, highlighting the potential for inequity between big-budget and low-budget teams. [Undoubtedly, it would be a fairer playing field, and individual riders' skills would be tested more.

"Personally, I find it very ironic that the UCI is introducing things like restricting bike positions in order to make the sport safer.

Froom also touched on the topic of the gravel sector in road racing, responding to Matteo Trentin's recent comment to Cycling News that "we are going too far for a spectacle that we don't need."

Trentin mentioned the steep climb at the end of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, where a series of races have introduced off-road sectors.

The Tour de France has in recent years invited riders to gravel roads at the top of La Planche des Belles Feuilles and Plateau de Glières.

"It's tricky because it makes the race more exciting, but it also involves great risk," said Froome.

"Think about what it takes to race in the overall class. It's months of dedication, not just from the leader, but from the team around him, the entire support crew, the investment, the resources, literally everything could come to nothing.

"You get into cobblestone sections, gravel sections, wheels touching, and the race is over as you're fighting for position. It's exciting in some ways, but for the GC racers it's a roll of the dice between risk and reward."

Froom insisted that he was "all for" cobblestones and gravel roads in one-day classics like Paris-Roubaix and Strade Bianche, but drew the line at stage races.

"It's a shame to lose the big contenders in the GC," he said.