Yes, exactly. Their job is to help the brand, not hurt the brand.
Of course, but they don’t mention any of this to the public. They are private product testers, not public ones.
DC Rainmaker and Shane Miller are good examples of public product testers. They don’t get paid by brands so they can say what they want.
I wonder if the mechanics test ride any of the bikes after working on them? Seems like an incorrect limit screw adjustment is something they should be able to catch with a test ride.
It goes way deeper than just affecting SRAM in this case - it effects the bike manufacturers who signed a contract with that team. Often, the components that are on the WT bike are offered as a model for sale for the bike brand, so, he is not only potentially negatively effecting sales of SRAM components, but, of TREK, who have a lot of bikes equipped with SRAM that they have to sell. So, his comment probably pissed off SRAM AND Trek.
The fact is World Tour teams have literally hundreds of bicycles per team and the mechanics have a really hard time keeping up with them. The front derailleur is the most fickle component of the bike and dropped chains are very common (except for 1X). Everyone has a preference and pros probably more so. However, the professional part has to outweigh the emotional one.
These teams exist to sell bikes and components. If they hurt their sponsors’ ability to sell bikes and components, they are not only no use to the team, but, are the opposite of useful to the team.
How do you think 3T feels about providing you a bike while you shamelessly plug Speclialized™ products?
[going for humor here]
I know you’re joking, BUT, The Allez Sprint is a fantastic bike and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a bike that costs less than the least expensive Strada ($4,000).
Frankly, I LOVE my Sprint and can’t bring myself to sell it. It’s an amazing crit bike. However, the Strada is on a completely different level. As in, there is no in between. You either want an inexpensive race bike or you want a REALLY expensive race bike.
The team is not sponsored by 3T and we don’t get paid by 3T and they don’t give us free bikes, Not everyone on the team rides a Strada, although many of us choose to because it is just that amazing (and so is the SRAM Red AXS 1X) 
I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, it’s not as if he posts on Twitter bashing the company. It was a heat of the moment thing, should he have done it, probably not, but he was hypoxic at the time.
If the Quick Step fella said “F*ck Specialized” when his steerer broke I’m sure we’d all find that quite understandable.
As a consumer, I’ve heard every product I use the cycling realm bashed and beaten, it doesn’t sway my purchasing, I do what’s best for me and my wallet. I still ride S-Works after watching them fail fantastically in the amateur and pro ranks. Seen a few Trek’s fail too, still love 'em.
This will be non-newsworthy / discussion worthy in the next 24 hours.
I really find this unbelievable that you seem to be expecting riders to be perfect PR professionals when their sponsored equipment breaks apart, but completely letting manufacturers off the hook for providing an imperfect product.
This isn’t providing shoes or asking them to wear a cap with your logo on it. It’s equipment that can make or break a race.
Also, my understanding is that Nike are personal sponsors of Lebron James and Tiger Woods and are putting money directly into their pockets. SRAM are equipment providers and partners to Trek-Segafredo. It’s a working relationship with responsibilities on both sides, and when a rider curses an equipment failure, the original sin is with the manufacturer, not the rider.
I mean honestly, where does it end? When Shimano’s trispoke wheels fell apart in the middle of a time trial for Team Sky, do they turn the other cheek and, once they’ve bandaged up the road rash, insist the wheels are fine and you should definitely buy one?
I am quite sure the teams have frank discussions with their sponsors in case their gear fails on them repeatedly. And probably the sponsors will be interested to find out what is going on in that situation just because of the bad publicity. But you do all of this behind closed doors, not out in the open.
Professional riders are professionals, and not badmouthing your sponsor in public is part of being a professional. And I don’t think it matters that there is an intermediary, the team, that is not really unique to cycling either.
I remember many years ago Bayern Munich was sponsored by Opel (aka Vauxhall, a subsidiary of GM), and some players got into trouble because they didn’t come to work with the cars supplied by their sponsor Opel.
that’s to some degree the point of my last sentence. Say Nike decided to throw new tech like boa dials on Lebron’s shoes and he wasn’t quite getting the proper operation of them which was causing failure at inopportune times which resulted in some loud blaming. One would assume Nike would take the initiative to inform their star how to operate them in order to make both the athlete and the brand look good. It’s hard to say if SRAM has attempted this with trek since we haven’t heard anything about it.
We all know not all techs are created equal, be they bike, car or musical instrument repair techs. And some find themselves in high level positions regardless of ability level. Clearly Boels has a good dutch technician that can make it so both van der breggen and katie hall can kick the crap out of mt. baldy at the same time and not drop their chain. Where as richie port tries the same thing and has some issue where he’s spinning out for some reason (the commentator thought he stripped his hub the way he was pedaling). Aqua blue sport from what i gleaned from videos/interviews had trouble with chain tension across all the permutations of 1x front and back combinations they were using. If SRAM wanted their 1x groups to be seen in a good light at the pro level they probably should have stepped in to make sure if the team was having problems it wasn’t the groupset that was to blame for any losses. The same goes for trek and we know chain tension can be a cause of dropped chains as well as bad limit screw adjustment. After 3 high profile failures it might be time for SRAM to step in and make sure the trek mechanics know how it’s done or tell the management it’s time for a new mechanic. At the very least SRAM will learn what’s happening in the trenches and if changes are necessary because something is hard to adjust or something is causing chain tension issues, it needs to be dealt with to make all parties involved look good.
AFAIK there are usually clauses in contracts that give the sponsor the option to impose punitive measures or even cancel the contract altogether. (I could ask my dad if you are really interested, a few decades ago, he managed a pro women’s hockey team.) Soccer players in Europe sometimes have to pay fines to their clubs, because they e. g. misbehaved on a night out or said something regrettable in public. These clauses are meant to protect the club or the the sponsor against damages in reputation.
Usually, if you are a superstar, such as LeBron James, you have more leeway, but if you are just an “average” NBA player, you may not get so lucky.
My understanding of Aqua Blue was that they had a deal with TTT to ride the Strada, and Sram to use their 1X12 setup, and Sram had issues and couldn’t deliver the 1X12. So Aqua Blue ended up on 1X11 and basically had to choose which bit of their gear range they wanted to be without. As a racer, who has a limited number of chances to get a career defining result (especially in a 2nd tier team which doesn’t always get invited to big races), to have your kit let you down in a way that you have pointed out repeatedly before, you can understand why there were issues.
There are other cases in the past of riders asking for equipment to be basically told no. David Millar tells a story in his book of taking the Cofidis team managers around to a different team to show them exactly how much better his competitor’s bike was. Didn’t get any joy from it though. In the olden days people would get custom steel bikes handmade for them from their favoured framebuilder and then get it painted in the team kit. You can’t really get away with that any more (though given the number of black stickers on stems and saddles, and missing tyre labels in the spring classics it definitely happens with components).
These things get forgotten quite quickly - does anyone care about the whole tubeless fuss over Alexander Kristoff at Paris Roubaix, just 2 months ago?
Surely swearing at your bike/gear manufacturer is better than picking up the failing item and throwing it in a hedge? Checkout all the youtube bike throws.
I would just clarify one thing. SRAM pays the team and the team pays the rider. Yes, the rider indirectly benefits from the sponsorship money, but Mollema doesn’t exactly get a choice in the SRAM/Shimano decision. He basically has to ride/use what he’s given.
I read this whole thread thinking it was a comment he made in a press conference or even a just off the bike interview. Went and watched the video and it’s a comment on the bike in the actual moment his drive train is failing him.
Hard to fault a guy for saying that in the very moment he is getting dropped due to a mechanical issue. Similar to Lopez’s reaction a few days ago, or Sagan after he got clipped by a motorbike a few years back - you must give them a bit of slack in the moment.
If he’d said it afterward, given even a few moments to collect himself, I’d feel like it was absolutely the wrong thing to say - but given the circumstances it’s hard for me to come down harshly on the rider
100%.
Some people here have zero sense of what it is to be human it seems.
When the Strada was first unveiled, you could tell that Vroomen thought the release 1x12 was imminent. When he was asked about the number of gears (also for their cassette), he basically replied “no comment”. Which was odd, because 1x11 in the form of Force 1 was definitely out and not secret
SRAM’s 10-33 12-speed cassette has 6 gears with 1 gap jumps, which means you have more gears with 1-tooth jumps than Shimano’s 11-28 cassette and roughly the same (in fact, slightly better) range than SRAM’s 11-36 cassette. While that might not provide enough range for mountainous stages, this is a definite improvement over 1x11.
I said the same thing in my head
I’m not sponsored by 3T. I recommend Specialized Allez Sprint for an inexpensive race bike, Aventon Mataro fixed gear, Strada for road and Exploro for gravel - “they are so choice.”
That’s the American way. Dude’s chain is off the cogs and we’re blaming him for showing some emotion 2,000 miles into a grand tour.
wasn’t the battery… still diehard shimano, wayyyy better than SRAM IMO. But i’m not getting on a soapbox to defend them; everyone ride what they like!