Originally Posted by
carpediemracing
Properly glued tires don't come off. You can knock them sideways, you can do whatever you want, the tire will not flop off like it did Armstrong's (or Beloki's). Yes, a section can come undone, but not the whole tire. If I can find a picture of the bike after the crash, you can see that the tire is flopping around in the fork. It's painfully clear the tire wasn't glued on properly.
I've got in on our DVR and watched it again last night. The entire tire is off the rim. It's not a single portion, it's the whole damned thing. It didn't really click in my head until CDR mentioned it. I completely agree that it wasn't glued on properly, if at all. I don't own any tubulars, but I've seen a few rolled at races (generally because they used tape as opposed to glue). Anyway, at most, I've seen about 1/2 of a tire off the rim. This is the first time I've seen the entire thing peeled off. I bet someone put the tire on the rim, and just never glued it down. The glue residue from the previous tire and the air in the tire was enough to ride on, but when forced sideways due to the clipped pedal it peeled like a banana.
How would you like to be the mechanic responsible for destroying LA's chances in his final Tour. No thanks.