It is the dumbest rule ever made by that corrupt bunch of muppets. Most of the women's peloton will be under that and quite a large number of male riders especially asian and south american riders. The rule has absolutely zero data/proof/science behind it and will be changed to something sensible because there is already a big pushback from teams and manufacturers.
Instead of bar widths and sock height the UCI should do more about the REAL dangers like street furniture that is unflagged(Copenhagen Sprint most recently)causing crashes, speed humps within the last kms (Vuelta a Burgos) of a sprint stage, cars and lorries getting on to the roads due to poor marshalling(Étoile de Bessèges ) and roads being opened back ip to traffic while the race is still on(Trofeo Alfredo Binda) and so on and so on.
Those are the real safety problems.
Anyhow....i happen to use the narrowest bars you can get. They are the Worx WXR track bar which are 33cm at the ends and about 24ish at the hoods and I use them on gravel and byways. I am a wide shouldered 6' chap too.
The reason for using them is that they feel comfier to me than wider bars and there is a significant energy saving if you are on long road stretches into headwinds. I absolutely wouldn't go and use them on some fast downhill singletrack , jumping all over the place, but for everything else they are spot on. For me, anyway.
