OP, UCI (and by extension, USA Cycling) do not like the "Superman" Position that Graeme Obree pioneered. He got the idea from watching skiers. It worked.
Obree developed another riding position, the "Superman" style, his arms fully extended in front, and he won the individual pursuit at the world championships with this and Old Faithful in 1995. That position was also banned.
UCI basically said, the saddle should be far back and the hands cannot be far forward.
UCI has a hard-on for Eddy Merckx.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_...aithful_banned
Watch
The Flying Scotsman for the story. It used to be on Netflix.