Crowd members with wheels

Bunneh

Who are they? I saw them all around the cobbled sections of the course - I know they're there to replace wheels for the riders who get snake bites but are they official wheels or are they just generous cycle fans hoping to get Lance using their wheels?

Ben6899

Are you sure they're crowd members who you saw and not mechanics placed strategically along the section?

bigpikle

The ones I saw were in Radioshack kit so I'm guessing they are team mechanics at convenient places.

pomtarr

That's correct. Happens in the cobbled Classics also.

donrhummy

They're mechanics and it was because the race judges said they were no longer allowed to have full bikes (due to the stupid "motor in Fabian's bike" crap). So now they can only have wheels.

Homer J

i can't believe that the judges were taking that motor crap seriously? :shock:

Team Banana Spokesman

donrhummy wrote:

They're mechanics and it was because the race judges said they were no longer allowed to have full bikes (due to the stupid "motor in Fabian's bike" crap). So now they can only have wheels.

but the yellow jersey holder had 3 bike changes today? 2 punctures + a change back to his yellow bike.

Anonymous

Team Banana Spokesman wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

They're mechanics and it was because the race judges said they were no longer allowed to have full bikes (due to the stupid "motor in Fabian's bike" crap). So now they can only have wheels.

but the yellow jersey holder had 3 bike changes today? 2 punctures + a change back to his yellow bike.

From the team car, not a road side assistant a la Cancellara...

donrhummy

Team Banana Spokesman wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

They're mechanics and it was because the race judges said they were no longer allowed to have full bikes (due to the stupid "motor in Fabian's bike" crap). So now they can only have wheels.

but the yellow jersey holder had 3 bike changes today? 2 punctures + a change back to his yellow bike.

Yes, they're allowed to change bikes that are on top of team cars (since those have been inspected), but it's very hard to geta team car into the rider on the cobbles when crashes are happening and there's a peleton there so what they used to do was place mechanics with bikes throughout the route to help riders in trouble. This is no longer allowed.

jairaj

Team Banana Spokesman wrote:

but the yellow jersey holder had 3 bike changes today? 2 punctures + a change back to his yellow bike.

Wowza never realised they swapped equipment so often, I thought it was just the odd wheel when they got a puncture.

I think they should change the rules and make the riders go round with a puncture repair kit and multi tool

afx237vi

jairaj wrote:

Team Banana Spokesman wrote:

but the yellow jersey holder had 3 bike changes today? 2 punctures + a change back to his yellow bike.

Wowza never realised they swapped equipment so often, I thought it was just the odd wheel when they got a puncture.

I think they should change the rules and make the riders go round with a puncture repair kit and multi tool

Today was unusual because of the cobbles, and Chavanel was particularly unlucky on top of that.

KevGuinness

anyone able to explain why watching ITV coverage one of the commentators was going on about maybe seeing G.T in yellow when he was in the same group as Cancellara who was ahead of him on time before the race started? I think I have that right anyway, bit merry after a post work pint!

He aint an easy guy to miss, even if he did not have yellow on him today

mr_poll

To be fair it got bloody confusing with the peleton split all over the place. However to be truthful the ITV coverage is crap. Watched yesterdays highlights on ITV and todays on Eurosport and the Eurosport coverage is far superior, less ad's (although the downside is seeing Contador flogging sidi shoes, like a pedo offering sweets at a playground), the highlights are the last 40 mins of the race and 10 mins of earlier highlights rather than shots of LA looking gritty and all round better commentary.

rc856

On a different note with the wheels, when the Mavic car/bike replace a team's wheel during the race, does
someone at Mavic keep a note of who's wheels they
have or do team mechanics go and try to find their wheels from potentially a few similar ones?

Gazzaputt

Why don't they carry an inflater with some kind of slime gunk? Take about 15 seconds to inflate and off they go. Once off the cobbles have a wheel change.

amnezia

Gazzaputt wrote:

Why don't they carry an inflater with some kind of slime gunk? Take about 15 seconds to inflate and off they go. Once off the cobbles have a wheel change.

and a multi tool incase they need to do any repairs / adjustments!

Gingerflash

"are they official wheels or are they just generous cycle fans hoping to get Lance using their wheels?"

Usually both.

Certainly at PR and Flanders, lots of spectators take their own wheels just on the off-chance. I read about a spectator giving Pozzato their own wheel at Paris-Roubaix. They went to claim it back at the end of the day (the year he was runner up i think) and were given a set of ultra-bling pro wheels as a thank you.

njee20

Because those inflaters are very hit and miss, and the wheel's usually out of their bike before they've even stopped moving!

shinyhelmut

jairaj wrote:

Wowza never realised they swapped equipment so often, I thought it was just the odd wheel when they got a puncture.

Here's why;

http://nyvelocity.com/content/toto/2010/toto-turns-190