Cundy hits out at UCI's changes to London 2012 Paralympic programme

PARALYMPIAN Jody Cundy has hit out at cycling's governing body, insisting that rule changes have left his London 2012 dream hanging in the balance.

HITTING OUT: Jody Cundy is not impressed with the UCI's changes to the London 2012 Paralympic programme

Sunday marks the two-years-to-go milestone until the London 2012 Paralympics but world governing body, the UCI, have made numerous changes to the schedule for both the Olympics and the Paralympics.

The UCI have announced that at least seven of the disability classifications for 2012 will be combined, seeing the results judged not by the first to cross the line but by a complicated new timing system.

And with the Games looming ever larger, Cundy is less than impressed with recent events.

"Everything has changed for me because UCI have changed the qualification process for the team and the events that are going to be on at the Games," said Cundy.

"They have opened up a can of worms because they have decided to do it on a factored system and combine disability groups in a race.

"It races two different disability classes against their own world record. This means it is confusing for the public and confusing for anyone who is watching, and you won't actually know the winner until it flashes up on the screen and has gone through a calculation process.

"So you might actually go faster than the guy next to you but they actually win the race, so it is not the best thing.

"We are trying to get it overturned but I can see the UCI sticking to it."

Cundy won gold in the pool in Atlanta and Sydney before switching to the bike and topping the podium in Beijing.

"It essentially ruins the next two years of cycling for us because nobody in their right mind is going to go and break the world record ahead of London 2012 because it makes their job harder at the Olympics," he added.

"I will be in a situation at London 2012 where I will be sat on the bike going round and looking at my coach to see if I can go faster or slower and that is obviously not ideal, and it is a learning curve for me.

"So we will do all the fast stuff behind closed doors when no-one is timing it."