Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Disc brake blamed for severe cut sustained by junior world champion Shirin van Anrooij at cyclocross World Cup

Team manager, Sven Nys, said he'd “Never seen such a wound”...

A disc brake is being blamed for a severe cut sustained by junior cyclo-cross world champion Shirin van Anrooij while racing in the Czech Republic at the weekend – with her team manager, Sven Nys, saying he’d “Never seen such a wound.”

The 18-year-old Dutch rider was injured in a crash involving a number of riders just seconds after the start of the World Cup race in Tabor on Sunday, reports Sporza.

“She got a piece of disc brake in her forearm,” van Anrooij’s Telenet Baloise Lions team said. Confirming that van Anrooij would undergo an operation on Sunday evening, it added: “At the moment it seems that no muscles or tendons have been affected.”

Former world champion Nys, who was reported to have been very upset by the incident, said: “She is conscious, but I have never seen such a wound.

“The worst part is that Shirin herself also saw the wound on her arm.

“It's an open wound, Shirin has no feeling in her hand. She lost a lot of blood and her hip didn't look good either.

“This is something you don't want to experience as a manager of a team,” he continued. “This is really bad. The race is now just an afterthought.”

Another rider involved in the crash, IKO-Crelan’s Loes Selds, said: “I heard Shirin shout and had to look away because it didn't look good.”

It’s not the first time that disc brake rotors have been singled out as the cause of injuries following a crash.

One high-profile example came at Paris-Roubaix in 2016 when Movistar rider Fran Ventoso claimed that a deep cut in his leg had been caused by a disc brake rotor slicing into him during a crash, with the incident leading the UCI to suspend the trial of disc brakes in road races that was taking place at the time.

> Fran Ventoso: Disc brakes should never have been allowed in peloton

The following year, with the UCI resuming the trial, Team Sky rider Owain Doull claimed that a disc brake on the bike of former Quick Step Floors sprinter Marcel Kittel’s bike had cut through his shoe “like a knife” after the pair were involved in a crash at the Abu Dhabi Tour.

> Video: Team Sky's Owain Doull says disc rotor "cut through" his shoe "like a knife" in Abu Dhabi Tour crash, but video casts doubt on claim

“They’re pretty lethal to be honest,” he added, saying, “I’ve come off lucky.”

Video of the crash however suggests that there was no contact between Kittel – the only rider involved who was using disc brakes – and Doull.

Disc brakes have been common in cyclocross for a number of years now – it was the first discipline in which the UCI allowed them – and in 2018, the American rider Katie Compton sustained a deep laceration to her knee during a race in Lille, again attributed to a disc brake rotor during a crash.

> Disc brake debate reignited as top CX racer Katie Compton cut to the bone

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

12 comments

Avatar
Blackthorne | 3 years ago
0 likes

Disc brakes 'sliced like a knife through butter'. It's like if someone were forced to use a chainring and started screaming about violent maiming like a great white shark attack, saddles as medieval clubs smashing balls and spokes shearing off digits like meat grinders. Might as well ride around in medieval armour and wooden dandy horses. 

Avatar
EM69 | 3 years ago
6 likes

Came off and bust a rib due to the handlebars a few years ago, so now I ride with just a stem.

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to EM69 | 3 years ago
1 like

I scratched up all my shins when my foot slipped off my pedals. So I have removed them and just have a fancy running balance bike now. 

Avatar
Eynsham replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
1 like

balance bike CX sounds quite good.  You could make a passable sport out of that.

Avatar
CXR94Di2 | 3 years ago
1 like

No muscle or tendon damage found, so just a surface cut then. Blood like spilled water, always looks far worse than it really is.

Just hitting the deck awkwardly can do far worst damage.

Im awaiting when a rider puts their fingers into spokes of the wheel and breaks several fingers. Will they complain spokes to be banned

Avatar
bobrayner replied to CXR94Di2 | 3 years ago
0 likes

There were lots of scare stories about the early Spinergy carbon-fibre spoked wheels. It seemed like everybody had a friend of a friend who'd lost a finger. Perhaps some small % of those stories were true...

Avatar
Jimthebikeguy.com | 3 years ago
2 likes

No mention of the myriad other injuries incurred daily by cyclists everywhere, caused by all the other parts of a bike. Also no mention of the number of incidents prevented by having disc brakes, i.e brakes which actually are fit for purpose.

Avatar
MattieKempy | 3 years ago
4 likes

Why do people persist with this shit? Disc-brakes are no more likely to cause cuts than chainrings, chains or cassettes.

I've never yet read a report (no blame to road.cc as they're just reporting Sven Nys's comments) that says 'road blamed for severe broken pelvis' or 'gravel blamed for severe rash' or 'wind blamed for severe ditch' so why people continue to perpetuate the Animal Farm-ist 'rim brakes good, disc brakes bad' crap bemuses me.

Avatar
cdamian replied to MattieKempy | 3 years ago
5 likes

Personally I blame gravity as the root of all these injuries.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
10 likes

Aw for crying out loud - this again?  Really?  Especially from CX which is just MTB XC with thin tyres and no suspension (sorry).

How many more years do we have to put up with this?  Or shall we start listing spoke lacerations, nose of seat ruptures, frame limb breakages, and foot crushes.

A bicycle contains as many ways of causing an injury as it has parts - probably more but you dont get every other injury attributed  to a part - so why discs.  Perhaps we should stop CX'ers racing and running up muddy hillsides on the grounds its too slippery?

Drop it already.  The cause is not notworthy or newsworthy, unless it was malicious or maliciously stupid.

I cant speak for CX racers but the aero bladed spokes on my wheels are sharper than my discs - but nobody complains about them.

/endrant

Avatar
Mungecrundle replied to Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
9 likes

It may be nonsense but it takes me back to a happier time before Covid.

Avatar
cdamian replied to Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
1 like

Hear hear!

Also, haven't CX been using disc brakes since forever?

Latest Comments