kny wrote:
s5100e wrote:
well that was a crash fest... pretty bad when the riders neutralize racing because of the danger. Hope everyone is Ok and no ill effects of the crashes. This first week is going to be treacherous. The GC guys just need to get through without loosing time.
So much for disc brakes and their superior braking in wet conditions.
I did, however, see a super slow rear wheel change and Alaphilippe's front disc fully locked up requiring a full bike change rather than the 3 second front wheel change in the old days.
That wheel change took forever. I am surprised he did not just jump on the spare bike immediately. In any case, the mechanic fumbling around with the drill to unspin the bolt on the through axle kind of looked comical. Do you remember Denis Mechov's crash at the final Giro ITT in Rome on the cobbles, and his mechanic following in the team car was as fast as a cat, jumped out of the car, and had the spare bike off the roof rack and Menchov back on the road in sub 10 seconds to save the Maglia Rosa?
I was watching the entire debacle with Alaphillipple standing helplessly while the mechanic kind of fumbled. In any case, I was riding a downhill 3 days ago with a friend who joined for part of the ride. He was 30 lbs heavier than me and we were descending a 75kph steep hill (its 15% in places coming up) and it ends in a roundabout. In any case, he was on his Felt IA disc and just slammed the brakes and literally stopped on a dime. Even with my lighter weight on rim brakes it was pretty hairy for me to stop in time. But if we were on slick wet stuff, he would have locked his rear wheel (he actually said that right afterwards...."lucky there was no rain, I slammed too hard and would have locked up"). In any case a mixed peloton in terms of brake technology and variations in stoppping power and you can see how this can be problematic especially when its the first rainfall in 6-8 weeks in Nice....those roads must have been grease laden from the entire summer!!!!