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Wednesday 21 July 2010

Hell no, we won't wait

The recent "Chaingate" events during stage 15 of the Tour de France, has focussed Team Grumpy's collective consciousness on the thorny question of what to do in the event of mechanical mishap during two-up events.

Past precedent would suggest that the prevailing opinion on the TG team bus can be summarised as "Hell no, we won't wait".  There have been occasions when TG performances have been marred.  For example "Grumpy" Art's cassette collapse while descending the Neath bank some year's ago (a clear consequence of violating TG rule #2) - Grumpy Bob just kept on going, and this year's Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25', when "Grumpy" Art punctured - at least Grumpy Bob paused to see what was happening.  Similarly, the last two TG outings at the Icknield sporting TT have essentially been solo rides due to pre-start malfunctions.

What, you might ask would be the consequence of problems during the Duo Normand?  There have been issues, ranging from the cramp episode in TG's first ride in the event to "Grumpy" Art's chainset loosening, and in both cases TG continued as a team.  But what about a puncture?

Now that a following car appears compulsory, TG would probably try and effect a rapid wheel change, whereas in the past Grumpy Bob suspects it would just be a case of "Adios"! For what it's worth, it's a race, not a club run!

1 comment:

Art Vanderlay said...

well, if you had just attacked in an effort to drop me and then had a problem, then obviously I would go it alone. But as I sailed past I would have gestured in an approriate manner. This is where I find fault with Contador. It would have been so classy had he blown a raspberry and made a suitable hand gesture to Schleck as he went away. You don't get many opportunities so you have to take those that present themselves. All Contador has to show for it all now is that yellow jersey - I can buy one of those online for next to nowt, but you can't buy smug satisfaction. Can you?

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