Ever since I watched George Hincapie crash out of Paris-Roubaix yesterday, I've felt down about it. How can you not feel sorry for the guy? The one race he's always wanted to win, he's at an all-time-high confidence level after a big stage win in the Tour last year, and he's in a break with two of his teammates (with Boonen isolated!). Then his steerer tube snaps, and after a few seconds of keeping upright admirably over the cobbles, he endoes dramatically into a ditch. When the cameras showed him crying on the side of the road, I kind of wanted to cry, too.
Then I found this interesting exerpt, taken from a pre-race interview with Trek's Scott Daubert, about the changes to George's Paris-Roubaix bike:
Scott Daubert: One thing I forgot to tell you about is that George is running with a different fork; it has a longer axle to
crown dimension, and it has a longer rake than the normal Bontrager Race Lite fork.
CN: Is this something new you'll bring into the Trek line?
SD: No, it's actually from Bontrager's Satellite line, almost from their commuter level, but it has dimensions that are
appropriate for Roubaix. It's an in-house made fork, made at Trek from OCLV carbon, it's just on a different model bike.
CN: Is it a steel steerer?
SD: No, it's aluminium; it's been blasted then anodized black.
Even Boonen was using a steel steerer tube... Why does Hincapie end up with an aluminum steerer? You'd think a commuter-level fork would be a bit heavier and built to last, but even a year of solid bike commuting on the toughest route wouldn't come close to equalling the stress of a big, powerful guy riding Paris-Roubaix. Just proves the old saying about Paris-Roubaix: "To finish first, you must first finish."
