Zabriskie's 4th stage crash
 

I read yesterday in a local paper that his crash was caused by a snapped chain - isn't this a rather rare occurrence, with the quality level of modern chains? Has ANYBODY here ever snapped a Dura-Ace 7800 series chain?

Actually I think DaveZ said it was a "skipped chain" and Basso said that it was not...

Basso felt it was just a mistake made by DZ.

Hit his elbow with hi knee.

But it's less embarassing to blame equipment than yourself.

That's what he gets for hammering in the drops! Is Zabriskie long-legged? :eek:

Not really, I don't think. Just his extreme postion.....super low and forward.

I read that he touched wheels with the bike in front.

Cheers,
Dusk

From the replay, in slow mo, it looks like the chain skipped... Happend to Boardman in a TT couple of years back...

That's why I am wary of the 11-tooth cog on cassettes... On my hardtail mountain bike, everything perfectly adjusted, I can torque hard enough in the 42-11 gear combination to get it to skip. Never happens in 42-12.

I would believe that frame flexion would be another candidate to blame...

As others have said, there's some doubt about the chain being a problem but I wouldn't rule it out. I suspect only Zabriskie would really know. That said, I haven't snapped a CN-7800 because I've never run that chain but I have snapped a CN-7700 on my MTB. It's the same chain used in the XTR group. I switched to a SRAM PC-99 after that happened and later moved to the Wippermann Connex 908. I never had a problem with the SRAM and Wippermann chains.

This BF'er just snapped a Campy chain...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=119906

I saw that the OLN guys were speculating on this, but have you seen any other confirmation that this is what happened? The OLN guys were pointing out that this was likely because of the low profile of the bike, etc.

But the guy is a TIME TRIALER. I doubt he'd be confused about how to ride a time trial bike.

It's always possible he made a mistake, but in the absence of some evidence, I don't think I buy the elbow-knee thing.

Brought on by fatigue....after producing that effort for so long, it's easy to make a little slip towards the end. Elbows and knees are very close together.....have a look at some pics of DZ from stage 1,

I've fallen off riding out of my driveway through lack or concentration.


Maybe we'll never know.

If you look very closely at the film, you can just make out a shadowy figure on the grassy knoll ...

Maybe DZ can tell us who spat on Keith Hernandez?

On the infamous "Zabriskie film" you can clearly see that his chain went back ... and to the left ... back ... and to the left.

Exactly...Bjarne Riis speculated that it might be the cause... The OLN guys said they think thats what happened....

I saw his right foot accelerate rapidly when his bike was upright which indicates that the chain skipped... I didnt notice the back and left motion though... Lets see if I can get a clip someplace...

Um, it was a reference to the scene in Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" where they were reviewing the Zapruder film. He said "Back and to the left" (referring to Kennedy's head) about 200,000,000 times during that scene. I was just playing off of the Grassy Knoll reference made earlier.

(sigh) I live in Dallas and drive by the Grassy Knoll and Dealy Plaza every day, too.

the "magic" chain flipped up and turned around...in mid air mind you...back down.

there was a puff of smoke behind the grassy knoll, but it was just some chick with her gitanes

I was riding my newly built TT bike today, at about 19mph. The cables are new, and haven't stretched all the way yet. The chain skipped on the rear cog, and even at 19mph, when your hands are on the clips and your CG forward over the front wheel, it is very easy to lose it. I was surprised at how unstable I became very quickly.

If I was on the rivet at 38mph plus, and the road was wet, I would have stacked it up pretty good.

It's a joke, champ.

Yeah got it... just a tad late... :o