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Oil from crashed moto may have caused Fabian Cancellara's Paris-Roubaix fallMons en Pevele Cancellara crash site 01 (copyright Matthew Evans).jpg

Oil from crashed moto may have caused Fabian Cancellara's Paris-Roubaix fall

Tourist motorcycles had come down at same spot half an hour before race went through
by Simon_MacMichael
Tue, Apr 12, 2016 15:42
6

Spilled oil from a crashed motorcycle was the most likely cause of the crash that ended Fabian Cancellara’s challenge at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, road.cc has learnt from a spectator at the point where it happened.

Matthew Evans was standing at the roadside at the Mons en Pevele sector of cobbles, which runs for 3,000 metres starting at 48.5 kilometres from the finish.

He told us of how the engine oil came to be on the precise spot where the Trek Factory Racing rider crashed, ending his hopes of winning the race for a record-equalling fourth time.

“Three vehicles in a ‘tourist’ moto convoy went down around 30 minutes before the peloton arrived,” he explained.

“One of the motos that crashed heavily on its side spilled thick black engine oil on the *exact* spot that Fabian’s wheel slipped out.

“A couple of locals (shown in the picture below) mopped the worst of it up with newspapers, but the cobbles were left coated in grease,” he added.

Mons en Pevele Cancellara crash site 02 (copyright Matthew Evans).jpg

Cancellara had been riding in a group including world champion Peter Sagan of Tinkoff and 2014 Paris-Roubaix winner Niki Terpstra from Etixx-Quick Step when the crash happened.

The first two were chasing hard to try and reel in the lead group containing eventual winner Mat Hayman of Orica-GreenEdge plus Terpstra’s team mate Tom Boonen and Ian Stannard of Team Sky when Cancellara’s front wheel slid out.

The crash ended any hopes Cancellara had of contesting the win, and also resulted in Terpstra abandoning the race with a knee injury. Sagan narrowly avoided coming down by executing a spectacular bunny hop.

Here’s Terpstra being treated at the roadside – luckily he sustained nothing worse than a contusion to his knee.

Mons en Pevele Cancellara crash site 04 (copyright Matthew Evans).jpg
Mons en Pevele Cancellara crash site 03 (copyright Matthew Evans).jpg

All pictures copyright Matthew Evans

Fabian Cancellara
Paris-Roubaix 2016
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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surly_by_name | 8 years ago
2 likes

"May" have.

Cancellara's front wheel slipped from (rider's) right to left off the crown into the depression to his left and he lost control. The bunch was lined out on the crown so when Cancellara went everyone behind him was going to go down as well (save for those with cat like reflexes and a lot of luck). The cobbles at that point were visibly wet. In my limited experience, wet cobbles are very slippery. I don't know there's much value in looking for scape goats.

And if there was oil on the road - an inevitability on what are, after all, public roads for the remainder of the time - why didn't we see more crashes at that same point on the route from other groups? It wasn't as though it was stage 2 of the 2010 TdF.

 

Avatar
racingcondor | 8 years ago
1 like

It's just one of the many road conditions that is part of racing on open roads.

Unlucky for Cancellara this time but we wouldn't even have heard about it if it happened further back in the bunch.

Avatar
KiwiMike | 8 years ago
3 likes

Inept people on motorbikes with slick tyres should not be allowed on the course *30 minutes* before the second-biggest cycle race in the world. WTF were organisers thinking?

Avatar
usedtobefaster replied to KiwiMike | 8 years ago
3 likes
KiwiMike wrote:

Inept people on motorbikes with slick tyres should not be allowed on the course *30 minutes* before the second-biggest cycle race in the world. WTF were organisers thinking?

 

Too right .... they should be in the race convoy carrying a photographer or commisaire with all the other "inept" moto pilots

 

Avatar
KiwiMike replied to usedtobefaster | 8 years ago
0 likes
usedtobefaster wrote:
KiwiMike wrote:

Inept people on motorbikes with slick tyres should not be allowed on the course *30 minutes* before the second-biggest cycle race in the world. WTF were organisers thinking?

 

Too right .... they should be in the race convoy carrying a photographer or commisaire with all the other "inept" moto pilots

 

 

Random members of the public who might have obtained their licence the day before are a world away from certified race moto pilots. Not saying that pilots are 100% perfect by any stretch, but compared with the general public?

Public vehicles shouldn't be on courses like this the day of the event, full stop. The chance of them causing incidents/becoming stuck etc is too high, there's just no reason to allow it. Potentially ending someone's career let alone race, so some lazy edjit can view the course from the seat of a private vehicle is just madness.

Avatar
STATO replied to KiwiMike | 8 years ago
1 like
KiwiMike wrote:

Random members of the public who might have obtained their licence the day before are a world away from certified race moto pilots. Not saying that pilots are 100% perfect by any stretch, but compared with the general public?

Public vehicles shouldn't be on courses like this the day of the event, full stop. The chance of them causing incidents/becoming stuck etc is too high, there's just no reason to allow it. Potentially ending someone's career let alone race, so some lazy edjit can view the course from the seat of a private vehicle is just madness.

 

Well thats the end of UK road racing then. We can barely get rolling road closures nevermind a whole day of closed roads.

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