Dura Ace Cars in Olympics

arcing

Watching the huge number of official cars flying past during the road racing this weekend, one puzzled me. It had a roof rack full of Dura Ace wheels and a couple of bike with Shimano paint jobs.

Are they Shimano service people ready to replace wheels for any riders that use there stuff? What's the deal with the bikes, are they just there a bill boards?

Thanks

TommyEss

Yep - neutral service - on the Tour de France it's Mavic, so Mavic wheels and I think they were actually Cannondales painted up in bright yellow. I think one of the websites did a piece on neutral service a couple of years ago. I'll try and dig it out.

The bikes aren't billboards - they're for if someone has a mechanical too far away from their own support car - especially the break away riders.

arcing

Thanks

thegreatdivide

Vittoria run the service cars during the Giro. Here’s a piece from Bike Radar on this year’s race

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/i ... ort-34144/

NB – it comes with the usual moaning comments at the end ;-)

Pumpkin Positive

I noticed these cars too but they were AHEAD of the peloton and breakaways which confused me. I'd clocked the fact that were neutral service cars but I couldn't figure out what they'd do if they were needed. Reverse back up through the field to find the unfortunate rider?

alihisgreat

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

I noticed these cars too but they were AHEAD of the peloton and breakaways which confused me. I'd clocked the fact that were neutral service cars but I couldn't figure out what they'd do if they were needed. Reverse back up through the field to find the unfortunate rider?

they were probably following the guys who got dropped.

TommyEss

Yeah, the cars did look a bit out of sequence on the hill circuits, but we also watched the "End of Race" car get prevented from driving the final circuit because they'd already put the barriers across to turn the left to the hill into a right back to London - it, and a number of other vehicles had to duck into the petrol station and await the race!!

nickellis

Once of the South Korean riders jumped on one around lap five of the route. One of the cars came past shortly after with his Giant bike on top. A few laps later he came back past back on his bike. I seem to remember that he was in the first big break on the box hill circuit.

greasedscotsman

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

I noticed these cars too but they were AHEAD of the peloton and breakaways which confused me. I'd clocked the fact that were neutral service cars but I couldn't figure out what they'd do if they were needed. Reverse back up through the field to find the unfortunate rider?

Generally, you put a neutral support car ahead of all the riders so that when a break goes and the time gap is big enough, usually 30 seconds, you can then drop the car into the gap. This is done by pulling over by the side of the road, letting the break past, then pulling in behind. If it was behind the bunch, it would never get past them into the gap behind the break. Not sure if this is what you saw though.

Pumpkin Positive

greasedscotsman wrote:

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

I noticed these cars too but they were AHEAD of the peloton and breakaways which confused me. I'd clocked the fact that were neutral service cars but I couldn't figure out what they'd do if they were needed. Reverse back up through the field to find the unfortunate rider?

Generally, you put a neutral support car ahead of all the riders so that when a break goes and the time gap is big enough, usually 30 seconds, you can then drop the car into the gap. This is done by pulling over by the side of the road, letting the break past, then pulling in behind. If it was behind the bunch, it would never get past them into the gap behind the break. Not sure if this is what you saw though.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. Many thanks!