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news
Marc Sarreau (via AG2R-Citroen)AG2R-Citroen rider's broken handlebar behind crash at race in France that left spectator seriously injured
A broken handlebar is believed to have been the cause of a crash at a race in France that left two female spectators injured, with one of them reportedly in a very serious condition in hospital.
The crash happened at the end of the fifth and concluding stage of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, where the overall victory was taken by the Arkea-Samsic rider Connor Swift.
AG2R-Citroen rider Marc Sarreau was thrown over the barriers and into the crowd after his handlebars snapped, with police hypothesising that the component could have been damaged in a crash involving a number of sprinters.
The two women who were hurt are aged 67 and 64, with the former still unconscious and described as being in a very serious condition on Saturday morning according to a report on local news website Centre Presse.
Sarreau himself was treated in hospital in Poitiers after the crash and was discharged on Friday night but was said to be in a state of shock over the incident.
Team doctor Fabrice Descombes said that Sarreau had sustained a head trauma and lost consciousness, as well as suffering transient amnesia and injuries to his left ankle and knee.
The AG2R-Citroen sprinter’s 2020 season was curtailed almost as soon as racing resumed in August after he was involved in the same crash at the end of the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne that left Fabio Jakobsen of Deceuninck-Quick Step with life-threatening injuries.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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9 comments
That is tragic. I am assuming that the bars were carbon, the very reason why I would never consider carbon bars over alloy. A good friend of mine had some carbon bars snap on him on a descent and he ended up being catapulted into a stone wall. I have been told that a number of pro roders are asking for alloy bars again, I don't know how true that is.
I think the (minimal) weight savings could be made up more safely elsewhere.
I've wondered the same thing, but given most everything else on the bike is carbon, is the issue material failure or a failure to consider real-world realities? Frames take a pounding, and forks don't seem to have the same issues with early failures like carbon bars. I've heard of people's bikes blowing over when parked against something, and snapping a bar. Is it the way the carbon needs to be layed up, making it a questionable material for handlebars, or do they need to rework their process to make it safer?
I don't know where the bars failed, but I suspect it's related to clamping forces either at the stem or the brifters.
I've known of more alloy bars failing than carbon tbh, twice I've seen riding partners bars split in two while riding. Alloy is prone to corrosion and fatigue from stress points, and its failure mode is to shear off quite rapidly
without knowing the base rates, difficult to know what to make of that, beyond the fact that some alloy bars do fail also.
I wasn't offering anything beyond that
Very difficult now with the fully integrated bar/stem systems the current crop of top end bikes are using to hide the cables. Alloy bars used to be the first choice for pro bikes until aero took over.
seems like a situation where regulation is required, otherwise pros are faced with an invidious choice.