Pinarello responds after Filippo Ganna’s handlebar snaps mid-race en route to victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen

Pinarello has today issued a statement in response to the snapped handlebar issue experienced by Filippo Ganna at Wednesday’s Dwars Door Vlaanderen, before claiming the victory.

In the closing stages of the race, with 38km to go and prior to blasting past Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the last possible moment for the win, the Ineos Grenadiers rider was forced to swap bikes after the ride-hand drop portion of his Pinarello Dogma F cockpit hung loose.

If ever there was a reason to buy a torque wrench, this is it. In layperson’s terms, it means the mechanics who built the bike didn’t do it properly. The shifter & brake lever hood from his Shimano Dura-Ace groupset needs to be clamped around the carbon fibre handlebar using a metal band built into the design of the shifter. It then needs to be tightened to a specified torque using the in-built allen key.

Leave it too loose and the band won’t hold it in place sufficiently, and the whole shifter hood can move around while riding. Too tight, and the carbon fibre of the handlebar can be damaged, and when combined with riding over cobbles that damage can quickly be exacerbated and lead to complete failure, as is the case here.

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Cyclingnews has contacted Ineos Grenadiers for more details.

Notably, this was the second bike change in quick succession for the Italian, after he was forced to stop just 9km prior with a broken front wheel. The wheel’s fault remains unknown at this stage.

Despite the setbacks, Ganna managed to ride back to the front of the race on both occasions – albeit with the help of a ‘sticky bottle‘ on the first. He then caught race leader Wout Van Aert just metres before the finish line to take an extraordinary win; his first in a one-day Classic.

What to read next

While punctures are a regular occurrence and broken wheels aren’t uncommon, it’s rare to see handlebars break in WorldTour racing, but this event isn’t without precedent.

Mathieu Van der Poel’s handlebar snapped mid-race in 2021, and still managed to lead out Tim Merlier to a sprint victory (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Perhaps the best-known incident in recent history was when Mathieu Van der Poel’s handlebar snapped in the finale of Le Samyn in 2021. That led to a mass recall by Canyon and a redesign of its squared-off handlebar and proprietary clamp system.

Hugo Hofstetter, the French rider currently at NSN Cycling Team, suffered two broken handlebars in quick succession – one on either side for good measure – while riding the Bianchi bike of his previous team, Arkea-Samsic at GP Denain in 2023.

Both of those were caused by crashes, and he later abandoned the race.

Hugo Hofstetter’s handlebar snapped in a crash at GP Denain, but couldn’t get a spare bike immediately so rode on like this. Moments later, it happened again. (Image credit: Eurosport/GCN)

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