$10 says he had over inflated to get optimal pressure on smooth roads
Vittoria and Zipps
https://youtu.be/GFyC9RKmMM4?si=O3imZN2SlsM4Abee
The Roval wheel is the spare. He lost the tire on the Zipps
this is the second blow off i’ve seen in the pro peloton in recent months. the other was a very celebrated blow off during a finishing sprint that was ascribed to hookless, but it turned out to be a hooked rim (DT swiss if i remember correctly). there is one commonality to both cases. i’m surprised you didn’t notice.
I am not sure what that commonality is. Please share.
In this case it was a Zipp 353.
There is a great article on Escape collective, explaining the need to adhere to the restrictions of hookless
https://escapecollective.com/...is-a-warning-to-all/
foam inserts. i have zero data. i only note that the two blowoffs shared this commonality.
beyond that, nobody gives a spit what i think and nobody listens to me. i’m not complaining, just noting. but since the beginning of the whole road hookless thing i’ve said: ride a 5mm delta between inner bead width and nominal tire size and don’t ride a tire narrower than 28mm. in the case of this wheel tho it means a 30mm tire. or larger. this is my favorite wheelset. i unreservedly recommend this wheelset and i’ve got so many friggin wheels i’ve run out of ceiling hooks in the workshop (and i have a lot of hooks). this wheelset never sees the hooks, because it’s always on one of the two road bikes i ride. it’s just bang on a perfect wheel. but. i only ride that wheel with 30mm tires or larger because of its 25mm internal bead width. so…
i think it’s worth noting the inserts and it’s not a case of inserts + hookless because arnoud de lie lived through a blow off with hooked rims. and maybe it’s just much ado about almost nothing because this is so rare. nevertheless, there you go. beyond the inserts question - which again, is to me not much of a question because of the apparent rarity - i would be more interested in the width of the tire in this case you just mention. if he was riding a 30mm tire the chance of a blow off approaches zero.
He was riding a 28.
Maybe it’s the inserts.
One thing for absolute certain after testing, is you cannot ride 28mm tires at optimal pressure on those specific road and abide by the 5bar rule.
So maybe it’s the inserts, maybe it the tire pressure…we will never know. But I do know a 28 at 5bar (the max on hookless) is not optimal in those conditions.
My bet is he was over 5bar