Broken handlebar in ToC

[aatores]

Does anyone know what happened with the broken handlebar in the Tour of California?

[Black Dog]

It was a broken steerer tube and not handle bars. The rider was Canadian rider Guillaume Boivin from Optimum.

[Ken Robb]

I'll bet it was a really light steerer, right?:rolleyes:

[kramnnim]

Diamond...crack?

[Keith A]

I saw that too...reminded me of George Hincapie in PR several years ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZg1vrvGbdE

[Fivethumbs]

The silence on the circumstances surrounding this crash is deafening.

[Bruce K]

Not sure if they're using D'back bars and stems or something else

The Optum cross bikes use HED bars and stems

BK

[Shortsocks]

I saw that too...reminded me of George Hincapie in PR several years ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZg1vrvGbdE

Holy crap. I had seen pictures of that one, but never the video. That's scary. He just took his hands off his rig and let gravity screw him...wow. Kind of a surreal situation. Poor guy.

[Mayhem]

From Boivin's Twitter, no details of the crash:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFOwFyRUgAAFbTS.jpg:large

[Fivethumbs]

Obviously an equipment failure like that could have gotten him killed. Imagine if it happened the day before during a mountain descent. I cannot find any information about the part that failed and why it failed. Did the steerer snap off at the headset? Was the bike crashed prior to the failure? Was the stem tightened too much? All I could see on the broadcast was him holding the bars in his hands attached to the bike only by the cables. Is the equipment sponsor keeping the details from being reported?

[qnelson]

Obviously an equipment failure like that could have gotten him killed. Imagine if it happened the day before during a mountain descent. I cannot find any information about the part that failed and why it failed. Did the steerer snap off at the headset? Was the bike crashed prior to the failure? Was the stem tightened too much? All I could see on the broadcast was him holding the bars in his hands attached to the bike only by the cables. Is the equipment sponsor keeping the details from being reported?

I remember when people were having this issue with Trek, Trek constantly said it was an over tightening of the headset bolts that was causing the failure. I find it hard to believe that a professional mechanic would make that kind of error though. Will be very interesting when/if they release the details.

[Davist]

It looked to me, when they picked him out of the hay bales, like the steerer tube snapped off at the top tube and down tube, catastrophically. I deleted the recording, however. Uncle Phil (who's getting pretty old) called it handlebars, which made my son and I both yell at the TV. Glad he is (reasonably) OK, as above coulda been tragic.

[David Tollefson]

It looked to me, when they picked him out of the hay bales, like the steerer tube snapped off at the top tube and down tube, catastrophically.

Steerer, or head tube?

[Davist]

Steerer, or head tube?

Head tube, sorry, leaving the frame without a "front", we saw the head tube with the steerer/fork in it swinging around a bit. Kinda like this:

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.imdserve.com/images/news/2013/05/01/1367405595011-1x3b6n9igck40-700-80.jpg

[Ken Robb]

Head tube, sorry, leaving the frame without a "front", we saw the head tube with the steerer/fork in it swinging around a bit. Kinda like this:

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.imdserve.com/images/news/2013/05/01/1367405595011-1x3b6n9igck40-700-80.jpg

Look for this picture soon in a Rivendell BLOG. :D

[Mayhem]

I just realized I had it recorded. Looks like the steerer tube snapped. You can see when it breaks, he continued moving forward on both wheels with no hands until he hits the wall. In the mangled mess in the ground you can see the stem sticking out and it appears the fork came all the way out of the headtube on impact. I think that team's bikes have orange headtubes?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/snuffster_2006/005_zps8uoqwapp.jpg

[Davist]

[QUOTE=Mayhem;1759566]I just realized I had it recorded. Looks like the steerer tube snapped. You can see when it breaks, he continued moving forward on both wheels with no hands until he hits the wall. In the mangled mess in the ground you can see the stem sticking out and it appears the fork came all the way out of the headtube on impact. I think that team's bikes have orange headtubes?

http://www.roadbikereview.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DB16-PodiumOptum-Black-Frameset-900x595.jpg

They do! I guess the "loops" of the D and B made it look like we were looking into the top and down tubes, my bad..

[jwess1234]

Deep looking cut. I'd be worried to see what a hot disc brake rotor would be capable of. Hopefully don't have any examples when ushered in, in the not so distant future.

[Highpowernut]

Watched that and could almost feel it, hope he'll be ok.