reasons aside, what a pity Sep couldn't exploit his potential. I like his style, and he's been due to win a big one for a while.

Sounds like the RD was damaged and there is no way to say that a mechanical RD would have faired any better. For perspective: I am a mechanical user all the way. No axe to grind against e shifting.

This race has utmost value toward the evolutionary improvement of a bike's comfort and reliability, that's for sure.

Put more of these kind of races on the calendar and production bikes can only benefit from it.

Maybe pay the riders extra.

I believe riders are only allowed to take spare bikes that come from one of the support cars. Bikes taken from someone at the side of the road are not permitted, afaik.

Cancellara used mechanical for everything on the road. He did use DI2 on his TT bikes from time to time, but never on the road bike.

Umm, nope:

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/features/tdu02c40.shtml

"Anyone got a spare C40? Spectator saves Rogers' day
By Gerard Knapp In Adelaide

Adam Pyke came to the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under to watch the cycling, but ended up saving the day for the new leader of the race on general classification.

Pyke, 29, was standing on the side of the road just half a kilometre into the climb up Mengler's Hill, when only 10 metres away, Michael Rogers came to a screeching halt after a tangle with a motorcycle had ripped his rear derailleur off the back of his bike and pushed it into his rear wheel. Cursing loudly, Rogers dismounted and looked down at his bike to assess the damage and realised he wasn't going any further on that machine, so he threw the blue, Mapei team-issue Colnago C40 onto the ground in disgust.

"So Michael's taken one look at my bike and he's taken off," Pyke said. In an uncanny coincidence, Pyke is the proud owner of a 56cm centre-to-top Colnago C40, which uses the latest Shimano SPD-R pedals. Oddly enough, it was the same size as Rogers' bike - "or close enough" - and also uses the same type of pedals (see picture)."

you are partially correct; racers cannot take bikes/wheels from spectators, but this rule is not always enforced, as it would generate really bad publicity

top of my head, I recall another rider taking a bike at a more recent edition of Tour down Under; also, someone took a wheel at Tour of California a while back (think it was Julich)

What about that german one hour record holder that ended a stage at the tour in a bike that belong to a junior rider?

Freddy Maertens was famously disqualified from the 1977 Tour of Flanders for taking a bike after the Koppenberg from the side of the road and not from a team car as his fellow breakaway riders did. He was notified of his dq while the race was unfolding and refused to stop. He towed Roger de Vlaeminck to the line, with RDV not taking a single pull in the final 70 km, before sprinting around Maertens to cross the line first.

The Tour Down Under was almost an exibition race at the time when the Rogers switch happened and the Commissars turned a blind eye to help the show and the sport in Australia, imo.

I watched the P-R replay yesterday and there was a point where he was alongside the Mavic car, I guess asking for a bike. He didn’t get one I guess they either didn’t have his size or his pedals. He changed bikes from team car with something like 7-8 km left when it was clear Gilbert or Politt would win the race.

Tough day for the EF support crew; hung two of their riders out to dry.

+1

Do we have any idea why he did this? What I’m getting at is, was it strategic or was it preference?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk