Agree. I posted earlier I wondered if it was the bars, but they seemed fine at 23 seconds.

When I originally when I saw the video my first reaction was that it was a gust of wind, but figured not likely since he was using a disc wheel.

I watched the video clip over and over again, can't figure out what went wrong, and team report confirms there is no evident issue. I wonder if the guy just went too deep in the red zone and almost passed out, lost his balance and went down.

Me too.

If you watch the full-screen version of the crash, you can also see that at the exact moment the front wheel appears to go, the banner under the clock gets blown upward pretty dramatically. In absence of anything more compelling, my best guess is that the gust of wind took his wheel out from under him.

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I was just thinking the exact same thing. That is how I would imagine being blown off your TT bike goes, gust blows your front wheel to the right, you involuntarily massively over-correct to the left and you're done.

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Ed O'Malley
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I'm gonna be completely childish and say it was an EPIC fart at the absolutely worst possible time

Who's with me?

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I think if you are getting too much side-to-side weight transfer and a ton of weight on your front wheel you can hit a tipping point where the front tire hooks up and darts one way. It's more common on a mountain bike. On a motorcycle they call it a high-side crash.

Without further information, that's my final answer.

Looks like the front wheel broke or the tire came off?????

There is definitely a break of some kind
You can see where the front and rear wheel seem to become "disconnected" and start veering in opposite directions

This may sound odd, but i think he fell off the saddle, or his saddle broke. That is pretty much exactly what would happen on a TT Bike if your saddle failed or you simply slide off the front

Later race footage showed that his bike was just fine. No blown tires no broken wheels no broken components. The only thing visible was the chain was off. I think Thom got it right —it’s similar to a high side crash in motorcycling and even somewhat reminiscent of Chloe Dygert’s crash last fall which by the way —was there any conclusion on that crash?

This is why I thought that maybe his chain slipped or broke and lost connection to the rear wheel and then he would have literally fallen off the saddle if he had enough pressure on the pedals and suddenly there was no pressure on the pedals (especially if riding a short nose saddle)

My guess, not mentioned yet, he got dizzy/passed out from the effort. He’s basically falling off the bike and everything that happens is just the physics of the weight shift on the bike and the bars.

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Hmmmm good point. We have been focusing on the bike. The rider may have failed

Maybe, but hard to fail going in a straight line on smooth tarmac. You'd almost have to pass out or something, and he'd just smoothly navigated the chicane just prior.

I noticed there's a lot of sand being kicked up/blown around wherever he hits or slides across the ground. Possibly there was enough on the road to compromise traction as he's leaning into a crosswind?

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I downloaded the Eurosport coverage, and "falling off the saddle" is my best guess. I think he was so far up on the nose and pushing so hard that the saddle slipped to the left right when he was putting down force with his left leg. Everything on the bike looked fine post-crash.

So... UCI rules on saddle position are the root cause of the crash ! Wouldn't have happened if he could have had a triathlon saddle position.

Are their rule makers taking note ?
(No. Of course not. They're banning things that don't matter like the length of socks)

Possibly...

Maybe if he'd used a more appropriate saddle.

I too think it's an unfortunate combination of hitting a dusting of sand, a gust of crosswind, and at just a the moment that he's putting his head down to power out the last few meters:(.

Glad to see him get up (even if he should have just stayed on the ground). ..I felt his pain seeing him go down like that.

Going at 25% speed and freeze framing it, I am also going with slipped off the seat. The top part of the bike jerked to the left while his hips did not and he could not get it back.

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If this is the case, it's a good reason for the UCI to amend its saddle setback rules (assuming they actually cared about safety). The current rules basically force riders to sit way off the front of the saddle.

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I don't know exactly why, but I do that anyway, even outside UCI restrictions.

When going full-gas TT it's just the most comfortable position for me.

And I don't think I'm alone there.

Edit: That's Lionel Sanders, I think. Not me. :)

Exactly...a "short nose" split saddle and "junk off the front"...basically "perched" on just the sit bones...is what allows for an effective (and comfortable) rotated forward position

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On the plus side, it is good to see the smooth hoarding on the run into the finish, with no jutting barrier legs, etc to catch on. He basically just slid along it.

Not something you would normally think would be necessary at a TT finish.

Which brings me to something I've never understood-people go to all the trouble of buying fancy seats and getting fancy bike fits and then go race/ride sitting only on the very edge of the seat, and in a position that is nothing like the bike fit.

So with that being said is it the bike fits fault for not putting the seat further forward, or the athletes fault for creeping forward for whatever reason?