Australian rider Cameron Rogers has said that cycling is “brutal” after he suffered a race-changing mechanical during the under-23 time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal.
The misfortunate incident for the 21-year-old happened early in his effort on Monday, and presaged an angry outburst, which was captured on camera. According to his maths, he would have ended up on the podium had he not had the mechanical, although this is impossible to ratify. Ryan Gal of the Netherlands was a surprise winner, winning in 37:26 over the 31.3km course, 3:24 ahead of Rogers.
Rogers’ chain dropped off his chainring, leading to minutes on the roadside as a mechanic tried to get his bike going again. As a result, he slammed his saddle and shouted “f*cking piece of sh!t” as his chances of a competitive time went up in smoke. He ended up having to finish on a road bike at one of the biggest events of his season.
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Posting on Instagram on Tuesday, he said: “This sport is brutal. 3:17 – lost time spent standing still. 3:24 – time from the winner.
He said the facts of the incident were: “9.9km into the race, I lost my chain. It came off outside the chain guard, meaning the guard had to be removed with a tool before I could get going again.
“My derailleur had bent into the wheel and had to be bent back,” he continued. “The damage put the derailleur into crash mode, leaving me unable to shift for the remaining 21.4km. I was stuck in my biggest gear: 66×11. With 3km to go, I was forced to switch to my road bike to make it to the finish.”
“It took everything not to throw it all away and get in the car,” Rogers wrote. “But I’m glad I didn’t because afterwards I could look at the numbers and put the race into perspective. Despite everything that happened it showed me that it was possible, just wasn’t meant to be yesterday.
“I want to thank everyone who helped get me here and gave me the opportunity to stand on that start line in the best possible shape. To Netcompany-Ineos, AusCycling, Boy Sanders, Simon Watts, Dario Cioni and everyone behind the scenes who has supported the work that went into this, thank you.
“Yesterday wasn’t the result we came for, but I’m proud that I kept racing through it. There’s more to come.”
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