Found this article on Velonews:
http://www.velonews.com/tour2003/news/articles/4402.0.html
Millar is blaming the team manager for continuing to use an “underrated chainring” despite previous problems. These look to me to be the FSA lenticular chainrings.
How about that rumor of Millar signing with Postal for next year. That would be something…
Found this article on Velonews:
http://www.velonews.com/tour2003/news/articles/4402.0.html
Millar is blaming the team manager for continuing to use an “underrated chainring” despite previous problems. These look to me to be the FSA lenticular chainrings.
Can’t be FSA. Cofidis runs Campy and that’s a Record carbon crank. Good looks, crack-head performance. There were lots of these types of stories in the late eighties and early nineties at the TDF Prologue. Guys ran some even more ridiculously unreliable stuff then, with some equally spectacular failures.
I don’t think it has much to do with the ring. You run a single chainring without inner protection, derailleur or guide, and the chain is going to come off every once in a while. He doesn’t blame his mechanics, but if they didn’t make this call he did. In present times it is pretty tough to run a cycling team with a balanced budget, and they can’t spend endless amounts on equipment. Maybe Mr. Millar should be happy that his checks keep coming in unlike some other riders’. He can always donate a couple thousand bucks to the mechanics to buy some nice stuff for him.
Gerard
It sounds to me like Millar broke a major rule of racing and used an untested setup on race day. It’s bad luck that it failed, but he has to take the majority of the responsibility for that problem.
He is on one of the best pro teams yet seems to keep blaming external factors when things go wrong. I remember him blaming the Cofidis compensation structure early in the season last year, then pulling out of the Vuelta due to unsafe conditions, then this event. Maybe he is just too forthcoming during interviews, but based on what I read last year it looks like he needs to learn to roll with the punches a bit.
The ring is obviously labeled Tiso and my guess Tiso makes it.
No front derailleur on a TT course with cobbles? That mechanic should be questioned and Millar should be as well for even getting on the bike w/o a front der.
Can’t be FSA. Cofidis runs Campy and that’s a Record carbon crank. Good looks, crack-head performance.
It’s not a Campy. From cyclingnews.com:
Millar did not assign the blame to team mechanics or the lack of a front derailleur, despite the fact that several other riders on the team reportedly had similar difficulties. Instead, he told l’Equipe after the prologue that that Cofidis was not able to procure enough time trial chainrings from Campagnolo, and thus was forced to shop around for alternatives.
I’m personally getting tired of listening to Millar whine. He’s a great rider, and I’ve always wanted to see him do well, but he whines and complains more than any rider I’ve ever seen. He’s been complaining non-stop about Cofidis for years. He whined like a child (and protested) last year when he crashed in the Vuelta. People eventually stop listening.
Whoever’s choice it was not to use a front der. should take the blame. You can’t ride over cobbles on a geared bike with the chain slappin’ around without it eventually coming off. It’s not the chainring’s fault.
Millar said that it was the mechanics decision to run without a front der, they tested Fri and Sat morning he said he sprinted all out on it and there was no problem. Although there obviously was they did not test it enough.
He said the front chain ring WAS NOT campy but another manufacturers although they run campy throughout normally.
He said 5 of the 9 riders had the same problem and that they ran this gear without the front mech because the mechanics said it would be fine.
This is what he said in an interview with Euro sport or ITV’s Gary Imlach yesterday.
He also said someone would be in trouble for this because 5 for 9 based on someones advice is not good.
The ring is obviously labeled Tiso and my guess Tiso makes it.
No front derailleur on a TT course with cobbles? That mechanic should be fired and Millar should be laughed at for even getting on the bike w/o a front der.
Maybe it was a Tiso Bartol ring, the self-shifting system. That would be even funnier, if the ring actually did what it is supposed to do, shift when under a certain angle. I’d ask Millar, but I don’t think he would laugh.
that is not the Bartol system as that is a two ring set up with inner protection. I guess it could be a Bartol big ring (which would have been foolish but possible) which is set up to shift to the small ring when in the big cog in back but he wouldn’t have been there at that point in the race.
TISO makes great stuff, I am friends with the US importer. It is hard to imagine this was a chainring thing. It was either bad luck or poor choice to ride the cobbles without protection. If it would have stayed on would he have given credit to the chainring or the grams saved by leaving off the derailleur for his 10 second victory (which is where he was headed). I doubt it. S*** happens, just ask Levi.
that is not the Bartol system as that is a two ring set up with inner protection. I guess it could be a Bartol big ring (which would have been foolish but possible)
I didn’t say it was the Bartol system, just that it may have been a Bartol ring. Unlikely since that would be stupid, but then again running any chainring without a guide is pretty stupid, something Moser figured out in the eighties so there is no excuse for this happening in 2003.
as to whether foolish or stupid is the best descriptor if that were a Bartol ring 
For those not familiar with the ring it has a little cut out in the ring to facilitate the automatic shifting feature and to, also probably, facilitate the chain coming off on the cobbles.
Cyclingnews.com tells it like it is: http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2003/features/millar_derailleur
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It is a Record crank. I was referring to the chainring not being Campy. That ring and lack of front mech = crackhead performance.
Ah, I’m with ya. 