truth hurts... but atleast they are keeping it real.

I have several 1x bikes (including a 3t), but stick to electronic 2x for my road/crit racing.

I don’t think mechanical 1x is a great idea for the pro peloton.

this was a dropped chain, the theory is this caused by a rear derailleur tension issue.
that is generally less of an issue with 1x so if christian has anything to complain about it is srams RD, not anything specific to 1x.

i do note however the comment "the fucking bike just let us down again" - previous issues may or may not have had other sources

Maybe I'm looking at this too simply, but he lost 2 minutes to a dropped chain? Or was that the final difference at the end of the stage?

Did it lodge itself in between the frame and the chain ring or jump off in the back and lodge itself in the spokes?

jake

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Get outside!

Mark Christian (Aqua Blue Sport) got himself into the early breakaway on the sixth stage at Tour de Suisse before a mechanical in the final 30 kilometres cost the Manxman a chance to contest the stage victory. He eventually crossed the line 2:16 back in 46th position.

Lost contact with the breakaway due to to the dropped chain = race over (ended up 2:16 down on the stage)

 On Cycling news one of the posts to that article said that the team mechanics are not happy. They have to change the cassette,chain every day they race.

Yep, I missed that part scanning the page the first time.

I've seen plenty of dropped chains that result in a long fix, but I'm wondering if he tried to fix it or if he waited for the team car.

jake

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Get outside!

i understand their frustration, but it seems weak to me to be so aggressively negative about their sponsor. Aqua blue should understand what they signed up for here. if they had other bike sponsors on the table, they wanted the publicity and chose 3T and should understand the risks with being the first to run 1x in pro peleton - 3T didn't hold a gun held to their heads. if they didn't have any other bike sponsors on the table, that's on them, make yourself more marketable if you didn't want the 3T.

theyre right to have frustration, but mechanicals happen all the time, don't just go trashing your sponsor with F-bombs. it wont be the first or last time a mechanical costs someone who is using either 1x or 2x a shot at victory.

I dropped my chain in a recent TT. It cost a minute. But I'm 57 years old and it takes me 20 seconds just to swing my leg over the top tube. So 2 minutes sounds like a cry-baby excuse -- or it was something more complicated than a dropped chain.

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I don't think 1x makes sense for road racing, either.

In a way, this reminded me of the Andy Schleck chain drop in the TdF in what '09? Lotsa folks jumped all over SRAM

What I found more interesting was the team owner's statement about the lab rat thing now costing results. Not good when the team owner is bad mouthing the bike supplier. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

trashing sponsors is never good.
1) Current sponsor won't take too kindly to it, especially as it seems there is more to the story than a simple dropped chain
2) Future sponsors look at how you handle issues and treat you as damaged goods. if you're willing to drive a bus through an organization publicly, you're likely to do it again to someone else.

Our CO State crit champs was last Sunday. Cat12 champ was on a 3T. They're winning something.

I talked to a couple of guys on the team (FAVE) last month and they loved the bike.

Chain drops should be easily fixed. Not hard to rig up a simple chain drop device.

https://www.facebook.com/favecycling/

It is the end of the sixth day of racing. Even if he only lost 20-30 seconds, the solo effort to close the gap to the break pretty much empties the tank. In a sport that rewards the guy who does the least something like a dropped chain is game over for the stage win. Your race winning effort was wasted on getting back to the break. My guess is that once he knew his day was over he just sat up and waited for the field.

If you listen to the cycling news podcast that interviews the aqua blue mechanic you can sense the disdain for the bike. Every day different chains, chain rings, and cassettes for every bike. Hints at regular issues in training.

Now I also suggest that di2 fails all the time in world tour races with no report like this so let's keep it in perspective.

I know from cold hard experience that doing the least gets you a pack finish. Which isn't that rewarding.

But this wasn't a TT.
If you drop back enough to be unable to re-join the break, or to do it with enough left to challenge for the finish, that's what counts. He was stage hunting, not contending for GC. Once he was out of contention, of course he would lose additional time. To suggest the margin was too big for the complaint to be legitimate is silly.

You're doing it wrong ;)

I know people that do less W/kg than me (in both AP and NP terms) and usually get much better road race results than me. And yes, I'm also doing it wrong, but road racing has never been that important for me. I smoke them in TT's ;)

It's funny reading triathletes (or people only doing TT's) discussing road racing (not responding to you in particular). Whoooooole 'nother thing, power and time/placing is not nearly as linearly related as in triathlons/TT's. You can have a mishap, be placed badly in the group, or just not being attentive for 10 seconds and your race is over - doesn't matter if you put out 400W for the remaining X hours of the race, forget it, it's over.