Olympic cyclist in bizarre crash as handlebars snap off at 65kmh after ‘incredibly rare’ equipment fail at Tokyo 2020
AUSTRALIAN cyclist Alex Porter was left utterly confused after he crashed in the Olympic men's team pursuit when his handlebars snapped off.
The 25-year-old went down at around 65km/h [40mph] and his three teammates swiftly put their hands up to indicate they would like a restart, something which was permitted due to the nature of the crash.
But it was not enough as Australia qualified in fifth place at Tokyo 2020, narrowly missing out on the fourth and final qualifying spot which was taken up by Great Britain.
Immediately after the crash, six-time Olympic champion track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy said: "That is incredibly rare and that will shake up the confidence of all the riders because they'll be thinking 'could this happen to our bikes too?'
"I'm thinking back over the years. It happened to [Aleksandr] Kirichenko, a kilo rider. His bars snapped with about half a lap to go in the kilo. He threw his bars away, grabbed hold of his stem and kept going. I think he got the silver medal or the bronze medal.
"But it's very, very rare to happen like this."
Speculating about what caused the bars to drop off, Hoy then added: "It will be that something has catastrophically failed.
"Carbon fibre is one of the toughest materials known to man but if it goes, it goes in very dramatic fashion.
"Hopefully it will be a freak problem with that one component. But that will have given him a real shake.
"If he can get back up and ride then that alone is quite an achievement.
"But the worst possible place for it to happen. At the Olympic Games in you're first ride, it's a real shame."
Denmark set a new Olympic record as they qualified fastest, beating second place Italy who had also broken the Olympic record earlier on in the session.
New Zealand finished third, with defending champions Team GB fourth.
The British quartet will now have to beat Denmark if they are to advance through to the gold medal final on Wednesday.