Cancellara and the bottle

TheBlaaMan

I'm surprised that very little has been said (in public anyhow) by the cycling authorities on the proliferation of accidents involving discarded bidons in the past few weeks. The latest casualty was Cancellara on the Ronde, but Cavendish and Biel Kadri have also fallen victim. Is this series of coincidences or have bottles always been such a problem ?

On another point, what next for Spartacus? His Radioshack team have been fairly poor in terms of being able (or perhaps willing ?) to provide decent support to his spring campaign, (MSR, E3, Flanders - could he not have been protected a bit better?) so is he destined to remain just a super-domestique for the Schlecks with him picking up odd wins here and there (leaving aside his TT prowess for a minute) or is it time to cut-and-run and look for a team that can give him decent support? He doesn't sound as if he dislikes being in RSNT........but surely his patience must be wearing thin?

ryan_sherlock

Whatever the UCI says about Frames, Wheels, weight limits, freakin' shoe covers - I would be happy if they had a strict guideline on bottle cage and bottle! In our races, often bottles jump out of cages and cause problems. I have been using the Specialized Rib Cage for 5 years now on road and MTB, not a single lost bottle... I don't get it - lose a bottle once, bin the cage...

Was Cancellara's bottle a thrown one? (Didn't see a video of what happened)

goldencleric

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

On another point, what next for Spartacus? His Radioshack team have been fairly poor in terms of being able (or perhaps willing ?) to provide decent support to his spring campaign, (MSR, E3, Flanders - could he not have been protected a bit better?) so is he destined to remain just a super-domestic for the Schlecks with him picking up odd wins here and there (leaving aside his TT prowess for a minute) or is it time to cut-and-run and look for a team that can give him decent support? He doesn't sound as if he dislikes being in RSNT........but surely his patience must be wearing thin?

Don't know if I agree with that 100%, in MSR he had Bennati with him and RSNT had three in the top 25 at the Ronde, with a whole team surrounding Fabu when he hit said bottle. Certainly a lot stronger than '10 it would seem.

TheBlaaMan

goldencleric wrote: »

Don't know if I agree with that 100%, in MSR he had Bennati with him and RSNT had three in the top 25 at the Ronde, with a whole team surrounding Fabu when he hit said bottle. Certainly a lot stronger than '10 it would seem.

MSR was a tough one insofar as his team probably did what they could up to the last 20km, after that he was on his own. In Flanders, yeah, his team all surrounded him when he was on the ground, and his fall wasn't actually broadcast, though it seems they were with him, but didn't protect him enough (there appeared to be plenty of bottles flying in the feed zone). Maybe he's just unlucky, or plain clumsy.....

Chips Lovell

Cancellera's crash and Cavendish's were both caused by tossed bottles, so secure cages isn't really the issue here. The last serious crash I remember caused by a lost bottle was when Jimmy Casper hit the deck face first coming down the Kemmelberg in Gent - Wevelgem in 2007, a cobbled descent.

I thought Cancellara had a decent team at the weekend. Rast, Gallopin and Roulsten were all up there near the end and Popovych and Bennati had done a lot of work. Sure, they don't have quite the embarrassment of riches that Quick Step have at the moment, but nobody else really does either. As for "protecting" him, I don't see how a team could stop him hitting a bottle.

Vladimir Kurtains

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

As for "protecting" him, I don't see how a team could stop him hitting a bottle.

Ya I don't get it. People are talking about it as if his team should have been pushing a huge broom down the road in front of him.

It was just bad luck. Nothing more, nothing less. Boonen must be delighted though, really improves his Paris-Roubaix chances.