The Landbouwkrediet team has worked with its component sponsor Shimano to try to get to the bottom of what happened to Sven Nys’ pedal in the Superprestige cyclocross race at Gieten last Saturday. The Belgian champion entered the finishing straight with the leading group but as he launched his sprint his left pedal came off and he almost went crashing to the ground; only Nys’ legendary bike handling skills came between him and a potentially serious accient.
“Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) lost his left Shimano XTR (PD-M970) pedal in the sprint for the victory of the Super Prestige race at Gieten,” reads an official statement from the team. “Shimano has studied the cause of the accident in conjunction with team Landbouwkrediet.
“The conclusion of the two parties is that the pedal was not fitted correctly and became detatched, and not that the pedal was broken as has been mentioned in various media.
“With this statement we consider having clarified the nature of the incident,” the statement concludes. “Sven Nys finished the race in fourth place and remins the SuperPrestige leader.”
Gérard Bulens, the team’s general manager deplored the incident both on behalf of Shimano and for the rider himself, but was quick to absolve his team staff of any blame.
“I would like however to point out that Sven works with his own private technical staff,” he commented, “and that there is no responsibility for the incident on the team Landbouwkrediet mechanics.”
Using personal mechanics is very much the norm at the top leel of cyclocross where each rider, although on paper the member of team is very much an individual. Although Nys is a member of a Professional Continental team, he is the only Landbouwkrediet rider who rides cyclocross at this level, and is therefore more or less autonomous.
Like virtually all of his rivals Nys has his own camper, and his own staff.