The former World Champion finished last, nearly five minutes down on winner Josef Cerny, after riding the prologue on his road bike
(Image credit: Dario Belingheri / Stringer)
Rui Costa was forced to switch to his road bike for the Tour de Romandie Prologue time trial after the chainring on his Cube time trial bike sheared off on the start ramp.
The Portuguese former World Road Race champion's chainring appeared to fall or shear off under his starting effort and was dangling off the chainset before Costa had even reached the bottom of the start ramp of the short 6.82km stage.
An Intermarché-Circus-Wanty team helper was on hand almost immediately but could only provide Costa with a spare road bike, not a second-time trial bike.
Costa was also visibly in pain after looking to have banged his knee on his time trial base bar after the chainring gave way. He finished last on the stage 4 minutes and 52 seconds down on stage winner Josef Cerny (Soudal-QuickStep) but appears to have survived the time cut.
Disaster for Rui Costa in Switzerland #TourdeRomandie pic.twitter.com/uOJtkN44uBApril 25, 2023
The Intermarché-Circus-Wanty team use Cube road and time trial bikes fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets and Rotor chainsets, the team appear to use the Rotor Aldhu chainset for road and time trial use.
The Aldhu chainset is a modular unit with carbon or alloy crank arms and an integrated power meter that can be set up in either 1x or 2x configurations with a splined spider that mounts directly to the arms. From the race footage, it appears Costa was using a 1x setup for the prologue with a Rotor Aero four-bolt chainring.
A Rotor Aldhu chainset and Inspider power meter setup from Paris Roubaix, being used here in a 2x four-bolt chainring setup (Image credit: Future / Peter Stuart)
It's unclear exactly what caused the failure to occur. It's difficult to imagine something as important as chainring bolts being left undone by team mechanics. Chainring bolt threads usually have a thread lock compound applied and torque specs are clearly marked. Perhaps the bolts themselves or the mounting holes failed under Costa's effort. We will update this story if we hear more from the team or Costa himself on the failure.
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Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.
He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track, and has ridden and competed in most disciplines. He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild. During his time at Cyclingnews, Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Alberto Contador. He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello, Ridley, Specialized and more, tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo, tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel, and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.
