Greig Leach

As the broadcast came back from commercial, this is what greeted my eyes. Naturally I assumed Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) had crashed. Nope. He had a planned by change at the base of the climb. Since this time trial was predominately uphill, riders were using all sorts of different variations of time trial versus road bike configurations. The Katusha leader decided that rather than a hybrid of both bike technologies, he would simple switch from his time trial bike after covering the first flat four kilometers. He then road the climb on the lighter road bike. He did opt to take it all of the way to the line, which may have helped him get safely through the final corners at speed. His mechanic managed to make the bike trade very quickly, aiding Rodriguez to finish in eighth place on the day. I wonder if the skull and cross bones painted on the road was the reference point for where to make the change.