The Equipo Kern Pharma team has confirmed that Marc Brustenga’s freak crash on stage 2 of Étoile de Bessèges resulted from an earlier incident in which the rim was damaged.
As the Spaniard began his sprint in the final few hundred metres of the race into Marguerittes on Thursday, his rear tyre blew and a cloud of tyre sealant exploded out, failing to seal the apparent puncture.
As a result, Brustenga veered left and slid out, crashing into the barriers. Fortunately, he avoided serious injury, but out of precaution he opted not to start stage 3, and despite the peloton charging behind him, nobody else was affected by the crash.
It was unclear at the time what caused the puncture, nor indeed whether the tyre came off the rim in the initial blowout or in the subsequent impact with the barriers.
But after a ‘thorough investigation’, Brustenga’s team has confirmed to Cyclingnews that the incident was caused by a hole in the road, which Brustenga hit at high speed a few moments earlier.
“A few hundred meters before the puncture, Brustenga entered a roundabout and hit a hole, which slightly damaged the Cadex rim due to the speed. However, he felt that he could continue riding, and he did.”
The wheels in question are the 50 Ultra Disc Tubeless wheels, provided by Cadex Cycling, which is the component subsidiary of Kern Pharma’s bike sponsor Giant bikes
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A Giant spokesperson reiterated to Cyclingnews that the cause of the incident was the “result of wheel damage sustained when he struck a hole in the road at high speed,” adding that it was “not the result of a tyre or rim malfunction.”
The wheels are constructed using a proprietary Cadex hub, deep-bladed aero spokes, and a 50mm deep carbon fibre rim with hookless bead.
Hookless technology was at the centre of a safety debate in the spring of 2024 when Thomas De Gendt’s tyre appeared to blow in a similarly unexpected fashion at the UAE Tour. He was using a Vittoria tyre and a hookless Zipp rim at the time, and the incident prompted an investigation by the UCI, despite later being proven that the rim was damaged by the Belgian hitting a rock in the road.
Brustenga’s rim suffered structural damage in the incident too, with a significant crack to the rim sidewall, as shown in the image below.
