Was Owain Doull's shoe sliced in half by Kittel's Disc Brakes in Tour of Oman Crash?
Mark Cavendish easily outsprints Greipel in the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour. Reports come in that Owain Doull's shoe was "sliced off" by disc brake in crash with Marcel Kittel
David Lozano (Novo Nordisk), Emanuele Mori (UAE), Kazushige Kuboki (Nippo), Artur Ershov (Gazprom), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani) and Artyom Zakharov (Astana) formed the escape group of the day and soon built a lead of around five minutes.
The sprinters' teams weren't going to allow the six escapees too much space however as they wouldn't risk missing out on a mass sprint in a very flat finale.The day's break of 6 riders had a maximum lead of around 3 minutes on the peloton, which was slowly whitted down as Quick-Floors and Team Dimension Data led the chase to reel the breakaway in.
With 15 km to go the bunch was back together confirming the expected outcome of a bunch sprint. The pace increased over 50 kph as the Sprinter teams set up their trains.
Alberto Contador was involved in a crash at about four kilometers to go. The Trek-Segafredo leaders was succesfully guided back to the peloton by his teammates however, and as such avoided a potentially significant loss of time.
The last several km's had two sharp bends and the last sharp bend at 1km to go funnelled the riders together. It was here that Marcel Kittel was seen on the deck and a Sky rider who at first was reported to be Viviani. Marcel Kittel who was generally regarded as one of the favorites to win the stage. The QuickStep rider appeared to have suffered some skin injuries but seemed okay to get back on his bike and finish the stage.
In the sprint Greipel was sat on Cavendish's wheel. Cavendish launched an incredible surge to come round Bonifazio and easily take the opening stage.
Greipel couldn't close the gap, showing that Mark Cavendish is in great form.
VIDEO: 2017 Abu Dhabi Stage 1 Final Sprint
#AbuDhabiTour LIVE: Final Sprint, Mark Cavendish wins stage 1 --> https://t.co/EyhOyyLq2c #RideToAbuDhabi #livestream pic.twitter.com/LcNwJGLKcO
— GranFondoGuide (@GranFondoGuide) February 23, 2017
VIDEO: 2017 Abu Dhabi Stage 1 Highlights
2017 Abu Dhabi Stage 1 Top 10 Results
1. Mark Cavendish (Britain / Dimension Data) 4:37:06"
2. Andre Greipel (Germany / Lotto) ST
3. Niccolo Bonifazio (Italy / Bahrain)
4. Simone Consonni (Italy / UAE Team Emirates)
5. Elia Viviani (Italy / Team Sky)
6. Roger Kluge (Germany / Orica)
7. Alexander Porsev (Russia / Gazprom)
8. Matteo Pelucchi (Italy / BORA)
9. Nicola Ruffoni (Italy / Bardiani Valvole)
10. Eduard Michael Grosu (Romania / Nippo)
Was Owain Doull's shoe "sliced" by disc brake, in crash with Marcel Kittel?
Reports are coming in reagrding a crash at the 1 km mark involving Marcel Kittel, Quick-Step Floors and Owain Doull from Team Sky. Pictures suggest that Owain Doull suffered cuts and bleeding and is very lucky not to have suffered anything worse.
The photos below seem to show that Marcel Kittel's disc brake near cut Owain Doull's shoe off.
If this is confirmed as correct, it looks likely that the CPA will demand that the UCI tighten up disc brake testing in the Pro Peloton for safety reasons.
The CPA recently raised further concerns that disc brakes weren't yet safe enough, requiring full guards, that have been independantly tested.
“My shoes cut the pieces, that’s definitely brakes that did that,” Doull said. “It’s gone straight through my shoe into my foot. That’s lucky it is not my leg. If that had been my leg it would have cut straight through it.”
“Unless there are covers on then you should not use them.”
Did Disc Brake Cut Doull's Shoe, Race Footage Suggests it could Have Been a Fence?
