# Vacansoleil rider borrows a bike to finish the stage



## dougydee (Feb 15, 2005)

Gorik Gardeyn crashed during the Tour de Wallonie and was left behind by his team thinking that he'd abandon the race and hop in the broom wagon. After being treated by the doctor he decided he was ok to push on. Only problem was his bike was broken, the solution was to hop on a bike from a spectator. Now thats madness.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gardeyn-saved-by-spectator-in-tour-de-wallonie


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## Mark Kelly (Oct 27, 2009)

Famously Jens did just that a couple of years ago in the TDF... but the bike he borrowed belonged to a kid - wrong size and with toeclips to boot. Jens still mashed it. BTW there was no red on the Saxo Bank kit that year.


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## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

Mark Kelly said:


> Famously Jens did just that a couple of years ago in the TDF... but the bike he borrowed belonged to a kid - wrong size and with toeclips to boot. Jens still mashed it. BTW there was no red on the Saxo Bank kit that year.


mavic service bike?


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## erj549 (Jul 26, 2008)

No, I think it was a neutral service bike from a nearby junior's race if I recall correctly.


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## Ventruck (Mar 9, 2009)

A house of lies has come about.

Jens did borrow a Mavic service bike. He only described that it was sized for a kid (the guy is 6'2") and many over-extrapolated from that. Why paired with a small bike then? It was out of urgency to throw him onto the descent. You can make out (even without the translation) that the host notes it's a Mavic support bike.







It was of their older stock of CAAD9's that ran full Chorus:









Newer models appear to run FSA SLK cranks.


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## Oasisbill (Jan 15, 2011)

With Toe clips? Hard to believe..... Maybe it used to be a Mavic service bike...


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## JoelS (Aug 25, 2008)

Jens is definately on a Mavic neutral service bike. They have toe clips so that they can be used by all the riders. Otherwise, they'd need a LOT of bikes to accommodate all the pedals. They're supposed to be temporary to get the rider back to his follow car for a team bike.

Very generous of the fellow to loan the guy his bike. Great story.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

Oasisbill said:


> With Toe clips? Hard to believe..... Maybe it used to be a Mavic service bike...


No.

All the neutral bikes have toe-clips on them. They can't keep a bike with every kind of pedals on the roof of the Mavic car. Toe-clips inconvenience everyone equally.


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## Oasisbill (Jan 15, 2011)

Ah yes, good point....


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## grrrah (Jul 22, 2005)

At the tour of california, Bobby Julich borrowed a (9speed) rear wheel from a spectator, and finished.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum....871;page=1;mh=-1;;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC


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## Tugboat (Jul 17, 2006)

And the spectator got to ride in the broom wagon so probably saw a great deal more of the race than he was expecting. Good deal!


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## Jwiffle (Mar 18, 2005)

Tugboat said:


> And the spectator got to ride in the broom wagon so probably saw a great deal more of the race than he was expecting. Good deal!


Probably didn't see much, since they'd have been behind the race and all the team cars. But if any of the other riders bailed, he would have had a nice chance to gab with the pros.


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

Here's a good older story:

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/features/tdu02c40.shtml

Anyone got a spare C40? Spectator saves Rogers' day

By Gerard Knapp In Adelaide

Adam Pyke came to the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under to watch the cycling, but ended up saving the day for the new leader of the race on general classification.

Pyke, 29, was standing on the side of the road just half a kilometre into the climb up Mengler's Hill, when only 10 metres away, Michael Rogers came to a screeching halt after a tangle with a motorcycle had ripped his rear derailleur off the back of his bike and pushed it into his rear wheel. Cursing loudly, Rogers dismounted and looked down at his bike to assess the damage and realised he wasn't going any further on that machine, so he threw the blue, Mapei team-issue Colnago C40 onto the ground in disgust.

"So Michael's taken one look at my bike and he's taken off," Pyke said. In an uncanny coincidence, Pyke is the proud owner of a 56cm centre-to-top Colnago C40, which uses the latest Shimano SPD-R pedals. Oddly enough, it was the same size as Rogers' bike - "or close enough" - and also uses the same type of pedals (see picture).


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