DartanianX wrote:Specialized PR Machine gearing into action early...
"The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are unique and beautiful races, and at the same time, extremely technical and exhausting. The many infamous cobbled sectors in these Monuments increase the possibility of a tire puncture, and managing the replacement of wheels is one of the main issues for all competitors — especially those aspiring to a great result. In a time where bikes with disc brakes have not yet been adopted by all teams, there exists a discrepancy in mechanical assistance along the course. For these technical and strategic reasons, working closely with our teams and riders, we’ve decided to supply Tom Boonen (for whom Paris-Roubaix will be the last race of his career), and all of our riders competing at both Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, with Roubaix bikes that have traditional rim brakes. This is a platform that’s UCI-approved and could be commercialized, that is if it’s determined to have enough consumer demand."
beautiful. let me translate it to english - "when it comes to the biggest races our riders don't give a single damn about our marketing strategy and the pressure we apply on them to ride what we tell them to ride. and honestly, the whole disc brake thing makes for too many potential complications and unknowns where a fast wheel change is necessary. we've decided to stick to a race proven solutions and leave the experiments for lesser races that we can afford to lose - if Boonen lost his last P-R due to a disc brake situation, we'd be f***ed both in terms of image and sales. so there you go - a rim brake Roubaix bike, which is 100% perfect for the job, go get one now!"
BTW, has there been a rider who punctured during/after the Arenber and still remained in contention? I don't remember such a case
