FWIW,I've seen prolly a dozen or more bikes come into my clinic with Conti's that have the crosshatched pattern sidewalls like in the above pics that had sidewall damage. Most didn't look like anything had torn them,they just looked like the sidewall was going to pot like the old skinwalls used to. Actually appears it could be a design flaw. Also really freakin' annoying that Conti tends to put the inflation instructions in the sidewall pattern so you're practically reading braille to see how much air to put in the tire.