Movistar steerer snap

[Roadguy]

Did anyone get any more information on this incident yet? Plenty of jumping to conclusions on the Conti bike explosion that never happened and yet nothing on this which looked to be a legit failure ...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0SiXJZcnkIM/U7xRTIq0s5I/AAAAAAAAT68/4h9pHeyY534/s1600/a8w2dqO.gif

[ShaneAtSilca]

only this

http://sidces.com/fotos/data/media/233/3_Bauke_Mollema_untangled_his_bike_from_Ion_Izagir res_bike_after_they_both_were_involved_in_a_crash_ on_stage_4..jpg

[Lewis Moon]

Who is the rider? That is one scary failure.

Got it: Ion Izagirre

[shovelhd]

Wow.

[Roadguy]

No idea - Canyon say they are looking at the bike. That is a scary failure and it looks like he got off lucky. It's not the funky acros no cap or whatever because the movistar boys use normal compression caps.

I love the new aero canyons too :\

[nooneline]

Who is the rider? That is one scary failure.

Ion Izagirre.

[leooooo]

.

[christian]

Jon Izaguirre. Don't know if he crashed earlier in the stage.

[oldpotatoe]

only this

http://sidces.com/fotos/data/media/233/3_Bauke_Mollema_untangled_his_bike_from_Ion_Izagir res_bike_after_they_both_were_involved_in_a_crash_ on_stage_4..jpg

Belkin involved again??? Seems suspicious to me. Mr Canyon not a happy camper. A broken bike during the TdF that hurts a rider is bad for biz.

[jpritchet74]

Shocking that this hasn't gotten more press. Especially the way that everyone jumped all over Specialized with Contador's bike being split in 2.

[Roadguy]

Yeah I recall a fork snapping on a cofidis rider years ago I think with a lawsuit involved even .. can't recall though - either way not great for business. But I just found it funny how unnoticed it went outside of finding out about it on weightweenies.

[Grant McLean]

Fewer Canyon h8ters out there I guess.

It must be a nightmare Tour for team mechanics this year.
After the stages with crashes, I'm wondering how they are diagnosing
all the bikes for safety? Stuff may look just find but could have structural damage.

-g

[wallymann]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0SiXJZcnkIM/U7xRTIq0s5I/AAAAAAAAT68/4h9pHeyY534/s1600/a8w2dqO.gif

[MattTuck]

Shocking that this hasn't gotten more press. Especially the way that everyone jumped all over Specialized with Contador's bike being split in 2.

I think Specialized has gone out of their way to be an ass within the industry. It doesn't go unnoticed, and many people are looking for reasons to put specialized in the gallows. If that means playing up a suspicious accident as a big cover-up, the perception is that Specialized would be the bike company to try to cover something up.

I have no opinion on Canyon, but that is not the kind of failure I like to see. GH can empathize. When they start suing the "Grand Canyon National Park" and the "GMC Canyon" for copyright infringement, you may get some more haters.

[11.4]

I don't see that Specialized is viewed badly within the peloton or among pro riders. They are one of the biggest sponsors these days and they go out of their way to support their pro riders. The small shop stuff that goes on, like recent infringement accusations, don't make it into pro circles. It was just Contador's bike, and it sounds like there were three Contador bikes getting rotated around, more than one with a race number, so people were more confused than anything. Mostly there were just some incorrect twitter and Facebook posts early on, and they went public before the team could respond and before Specialized even knew anything was going on. If it hadn't been Contador's bike, we might not even have heard about it.

On a Canyon fork snapping ... these things just happen. Nobody's going to make a zero-defect fork. There have been a number of broken frames in each major tour -- that's what you get when you try for a 700 gram frame and you are racing and crashing it like this peloton does.

[soulspinner]

i don't see that specialized is viewed badly within the peloton or among pro riders. They are one of the biggest sponsors these days and they go out of their way to support their pro riders. The small shop stuff that goes on, like recent infringement accusations, don't make it into pro circles. It was just contador's bike, and it sounds like there were three contador bikes getting rotated around, more than one with a race number, so people were more confused than anything. Mostly there were just some incorrect twitter and facebook posts early on, and they went public before the team could respond and before specialized even knew anything was going on. If it hadn't been contador's bike, we might not even have heard about it.

On a canyon fork snapping ... These things just happen. Nobody's going to make a zero-defect fork. There have been a number of broken frames in each major tour -- that's what you get when you try for a 700 gram frame and you are racing and crashing it like this peloton does.

+1

[Peter P.]

Carbon has a very fast failure mode. It's the price you pay when you lust for light weight.

[Vientomas]

Jra

[tiretrax]

I don't see that Specialized is viewed badly within the peloton or among pro riders. They are one of the biggest sponsors these days and they go out of their way to support their pro riders. The small shop stuff that goes on, like recent infringement accusations, don't make it into pro circles. It was just Contador's bike, and it sounds like there were three Contador bikes getting rotated around, more than one with a race number, so people were more confused than anything. Mostly there were just some incorrect twitter and Facebook posts early on, and they went public before the team could respond and before Specialized even knew anything was going on. If it hadn't been Contador's bike, we might not even have heard about it.

On a Canyon fork snapping ... these things just happen. Nobody's going to make a zero-defect fork. There have been a number of broken frames in each major tour -- that's what you get when you try for a 700 gram frame and you are racing and crashing it like this peloton does.

Regarding the first bolded portion - Phil and Paul didn't help either.

On the second, I had a shop tell me not to buy a lightweight carbon frame a few years back just for this reason. They didn't want to sell to anyone over 150 lbs. to avoid any liability, and I live in a state with major tort reform.

[Louis]

There's a simple solution to this problem: jack up the 6.8 kg UCI weight limit and the arms race for even greater lightness will go away.

[goonster]

There's a simple solution to this problem: jack up the 6.8 kg UCI weight limit and the arms race for even greater lightness will go away.

Surely you jest.

There is already enough room under the limit that they load them up with cameras and power meters.

[Grant McLean]

Regarding the first bolded portion - Phil and Paul didn't help either.


The photogs arrived just in time to see a mechanic putting the
broken spare from the roof of the team car in the trunk.
Those reports made it to the TV broadcast.

Many just assumed this was AC's broken race bike from the crash,
but it clearly has no SRM on the bars, and the tape is clean
as a whistle. We now know it's the spare that collided with
the Belkin team car on the roof.

It's all here to read or listen to :
http://www.ridemedia.com.au/tour-de-france/the-actual-story-of-contadors-frame/

-g

[Louis]

Surely you jest.

There is already enough room under the limit that they load them up with cameras and power meters.

I bet they (team doctors, tacticians, gurus, etc, etc) no longer consider power meters extraneous. The cameras, on the other hand, are there for the marketing guys...

I agree, there's a lot of junk on those bikes, but I doubt it's coming off any time soon.

[nooneline]

Yeah, it's currently easy to get a stock bike under the weight limit - sufficiently easy that teams have standard weights that they'll mount between a frame and the water bottle cages, or insert into seat tubes, in order to get a bike up to UCI code.

[rain dogs]

Ion Izagirre has crashed 3 (maybe 4) times in this Tour including that one. None have been his 'fault' but it's possible his bike was damaged in one of those.

He fell on stage 3,4 and 5. But I think he also fell on stage 1.

[progetto]

Who knows how many times that bike has been thrown down the road before the steerer snapped, more than likely damaged from previous accident.

[Roadguy]

good point on the previously damaged possibility - that is a fair amount of smashes and crashes

[Grant McLean]

That's what happened to George Hincape in Paris-Roubaix.

He crashed in a ditch early in the race, got up and the bike appeared fine,
got back on and continued in the race. Then later on the cobble section
the aluminum steerer broke off causing his crash that broke his collarbone.
That happened 8 years ago and it's still talked about.

-g

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/apr06/roubaix06/roubaix_postbikes/Hincapie_Bike_Close_up.jpg

[ultraman6970]

That trek steering tube is super thin compared with the BMC forks I had before, even the carbon ones look thicker than that aluminum steering tube.

Frames are so light now a days that put some reinforcements in the steering tube that add some weight to the fork is not like a super problem you know.

[wallymann]

Frames are so light now a days that put some reinforcements in the steering tube that add some weight to the fork is not like a super problem you know.

totally agree, but then the marketers cant trump up having the next sub 800g frame.

my new CF grinder has what appears to be internal (aluminum?) reinforcement in the TT where handlebars tend to bang and the ST where the front-mech clamps in place. im very happy to see that, a couple dozen grams of added weight is cheap insurance for frame longevity.

[ultraman6970]

Well the idea is to have the dudes to pay more when the bicycle is actually cheaper and faster to manufacture :) BB30 and all those new BB formats are just that... they add like 500 bucks to a frame when is actually cheaper for the manufacturer.

Hope some manufacturers still do threaded BB's or I will be stuck with my old stuff forever.

[JonB]

It didn't get any coverage because it happened immediately after the Froome crash.

Phil descibed the Movistar (Canyon) crash as a circumstance of the Froome crash which it clearly wasn't.

[nooneline]

That trek steering tube is super thin compared with the BMC forks I had before, even the carbon ones look thicker than that aluminum steering tube.

Frames are so light now a days that put some reinforcements in the steering tube that add some weight to the fork is not like a super problem you know.

well, the other thing about that is that they put a commuter fork (Bontrager Satellite) on his Roubaix bike.

[Mark McM]

Carbon has a very fast failure mode. It's the price you pay when you lust for light weight.

I've seen a rider crash when his steel steerer broke. This failure was very fast, too. Actually, the crash was faster than with Canyon fork, because the steerer broke at the bottom, and the front wheel and fork immediately separated from the frame. Fortunately, the rider wasn't going very fast at the time.

[yoshirider]

I've read other discussions on this crash and it seems most people are convinced that the top cap/stem failed not the fork. At least this is what I hope as I just received my Canyon Ultimate CF SLX frameset this week (maybe one of the few in the USA :hello: at the moment)!

Here's what Bauke Mollema had to say...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-mollema-unsure-of-what-caused-crash

[Lewis Moon]

I've read other discussions on this crash and it seems most people are convinced that the top cap/stem failed not the fork. At least this is what I hope as I just received my Canyon Ultimate CF SLX frameset this week (maybe one of the few in the USA :hello: at the moment)!

Here's what Bauke Mollema had to say...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-mollema-unsure-of-what-caused-crash

Yeah...it looks like it failed at the top. My best guess is it sheared somewhere above the top headset. It would be hard to have the type of failure seen in the video if the stem just "came off".
My theory: 'roid rage induced by Spanish beef.

[nicrump]

well, the other thing about that is that they put a commuter fork (Bontrager Satellite) on his Roubaix bike.

correct. and the consensus at the time wasn't that it was thin but rather cheaply made. the aluminum steerer in those forks was very crudely turned on a lathe leaving a very definable tool mark which serves as a nice focal point between stem and upper HS bits.

[merckx]

correct. and the consensus at the time wasn't that it was thin but rather cheaply made. the aluminum steerer in those forks was very crudely turned on a lathe leaving a very definable tool mark which serves as a nice focal point between stem and upper HS bits.

I think that an additional compounding factor is that the top compression cap on that iteration of King headset caused a stress point on the steerer tube.

[Elefantino]

Phil descibed the Movistar (Canyon) crash as a circumstance of the Froome crash which it clearly wasn't.
Depends on whether or not he jerked the handlebar, which it appeared he did, to avoid Froome.

Not that I'm defending the addled Mr. Liggett. He is fast becoming the Mr. Magoo of sports announcing.