Mathieu van der Poel Breaks His Handlebar Mid-Race—and Canyon Issues a ‘Stop Ride’ on the Aeroad
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On Tuesday, March 2, Alpecin-Fenix rider Mathieu van der Poel’s handlebar broke in the final kilometers of Le Samyn. He managed to finish the race only 16 seconds back from the winner.
Canyon, the maker of van der Poel’s bike, issued a ‘stop ride’ for Aeroad bikes, while they investigate the cause of the breakdown.
Just two weeks ago, Alpecin-Fenix had to withdraw from the UAE Tour after a team staff member tested positive for COVID-19, after van der Poel won the first stage.
Imagine this: You’re rocketing down a cobblestone stretch in the final kilometers of Le Samyn, confidently covering moves, chasing attacks, and moving into position to help your teammate contend for the win. Suddenly, you feel a jolt in your right hand and your arm slips. Your handlebar has cracked, and the right drop is gone. What do you do?
If you’re 26-year-old Alpecin-Fenix rider Mathieu van der Poel, you simply shift your hand as close to the stem as you can get, jettison the chunk of bar that’s dangling, and attempt to salvage your race.
Even without half of the handlebar on his Canyon Aeroad, van der Poel helped teammate Tim Merlier win Le Samyn by playing defensive block in the final kilometer, despite the broken shifter. He finished 37th—only 16 seconds off of the winning time.
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Post-race, Belgian journalist Seba Close tweeted this image of Van der Poel’s handlebars, with the right shifter dangling.
So, what exactly caused van der Poel’s adjustable-width handlebar to snap so abruptly? We don’t know yet, but Canyon released a statement urging anyone using CP0018 and CP0015 cockpits on the current Aeroad models CF SLX and CFR to stop riding those bikes for the time being. Alpecin-Fenix—and all professional teams riding Canyons—will switch to alternatives, effective immediately.
“Mathieu fortunately did not fall. We want to ensure with absolute certainty that no one comes to harm before we have fully understood the root cause,” Roman Arnold, founder of Canyon Bicycles, said in the company’s press release.
Though many have been speculating about the cause for the last two days. His father, cycling legend Adri van der Poel, said in an interview with Extra Time Koers that the bars may have been compromised in a previous race, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, when his son hit a car. Well-known cycling journalist James Huang posited that an over-tightened shifter clamp may have caused the damage, noting that the break is clearly not near where the handlebar width can be adjusted.
We rarely see this kind of a mechanical issue, and van der Poel may be the first rider to truly break a handlebar mid-race. Though in 2017, time-trial extenders detached from the handlebar base of Maxime Roger's bike while racing at around 37 mph, causing a brutal crash. Similarly, Niki Terpstra’s handlebars slipped during Paris-Roubaix in 2017, causing him to crash and abandon the race; the same thing happened to George Hincapie in 2006.
Van der Poel now joins a small but mighty group of racers who’ve finished races with major mechanicals. In 2011, Norwegian Kurt Asle Arvesen rode 20 kilometers of Paris-Roubaix sans saddle. In 2010, Jens Voigt legit borrowed a kid’s bike from someone in the crowd to pedal 15 kilometers of a Tour de France stage in order to avoid abandoning the race after a crash. And at least he wasn’t forced to run in road shoes uphill to the finish, like Chris Froome had to do after a crash on Mont Ventoux left his bike unrideable in 2016.
This is the latest in a number of unlucky incidents for van der Poel; on February 21, an Alpecin-Fenix team staff member tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the team to withdraw from the UAE Tour after van der Poel won the first stage.
Of course, 2021 hasn't been all bad for the Dutch rider. He successfully defended his UCI cyclo-cross world championship title for the third year in a row in the sandy, chilly race in Ostend, Belgium, in January.
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