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news
Shimano Neutral Service 2Shimano responds to pro rider who lashed out at its neutral service, claiming she was denied assistance at World Championships road race
A pro cyclist who was forced to abandon the women’s elite road race at the UCI World Championships in Glasgow on Sunday 13th August has lashed out at Shimano after claiming that she was denied neutral service assistance after puncturing. Through a PR company, Shimano has now responded claiming that the staff in charge of its neutral service car in question "strictly adhered to the race convoy rules."
Christine Majerus, who was representing Luxembourg in the race, hit out at the company in a post to Instagram, in which she urged her followers, “Don’t buy Shimano.”
The 36 year old, who has won 14 national road titles and 17 in the time trial, said in her post on the social network: “If I knew I would have stayed home. Terrible carbon footprint for only 10kms of racing. 2023 just keeps on being a terrible season with injuries, sickness and bad luck. Yesterday was just one of those days (again).”
She wrote that while in normal circumstances, getting a puncture at the start of a race wouldn’t be a major problem, the nature of yesterday’s race meant that for her, the “race was done before it even started.”
Majerus said that one problem was a “(too) huge peloton” – 203 riders lined up at the start in Loch Lomond – with another being the complications in terms of support vehicles due to it being an event contested by national teams rather than trade teams.
More than 70 countries were represented, with three riders from Luxembourg taking part, and its support vehicle was shared with a trio of riders from Ukraine – one of whom had crashed shortly beforehand, meaning the car was not available to provide help to Majerus when she needed it.
Her main ire, however, was reserved for the Shimano neutral service car, and she claimed that its staff had ignored her request for a wheel change.
The Japan-based components company has provided neutral service in the sport since 2001 at a number of major races including, since 2021, the Tour de France after taking over duties at that race from Mavic, and its blue cars are a distinctive sight in the peloton.
> What the hell is neutral service at the Tour de France?
Besides wheel and bike changes when team cars are not available for whatever reason, its mechanics also provide food and drink to riders when needed.
But in much the same way that you only see insurance covered in the press when a policyholder goes to the media to complain that a claim has been refused, neutral service only seems to attract the headlines when something goes wrong.
One high profile example involving Shimano include Cadel Evans, who was leading the 2009 Vuelta when a painfully slow neutral service wheel change saw him lose time to the eventual winner, Alejandro Valverde.
More recently, in last month’s Tour de France, the Bora-Hansgrohe rider Nils Politt was caught on camera showing his frustration when, after his chain snapped while he was in the break, he tried out three separate bikes offered to him by the neutral service mechanic none of which was suitable due to a combination of the frame sizes being too small for him and the pedal system being incompatible with his shoes. Eventually, he had to wait for his team car to arrive – by which time the main peloton, never mind the break, was way up the road ahead of him.
In her Instagram post regarding her travails yesterday, Majerus wrote: “I usually don’t complain openly when things don’t go the way they could and anyway who knows how things could have turned out and that’s absolutely not my point.
“Mostly I just give my best and I get what I deserve for that. I can live with failing as long as I was able to try. Yesterday just felt extremely unfair because I couldn’t even try.
“I am aware that not everyone can have car number 1 and that no other nation was willing to give me service (thanks Switzerland at least they considered it but then … no) but I always thought that that’s what the ugly blue cars are there for.
“But apparently they are just there for advertising and adding another 5+ cars to the already too long convoy. Why are you there if you don’t help?
“Once I got a bike change I knew it was over,” Majerus continued. “The helicopters were miles away, I was out of the convoy and only coming back to dropped riders. I rode until the jury took us out and that’s it.”
She added a string of apologies including to her team mates and staff members, her coach, and even her niece – “president of my little fan club who now needs to refund its members (only 2 so not too bad)” – before concluding her post with the words, “Don’t buy Shimano.”
Yesterday’s race was won by Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, who when not representing her country rides for the same SD Worx team as Majerus, who was a member of its line-up at last month’s Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift last month, won by their team-mate Demi Vollering, second yesterday – and which is supplied by SRAM, which at least means that her heartfelt post won’t lead to any awkward conversations with equipment sponsors.
> Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky caps phenomenal season by winning World Championship road race
road.cc contacted Shimano Europe for comment, and while not responding directly, a PR company sent a statement to us on the behalf of a Shimano spokesperson in response to Majerus' criticisms.
The spokesperson said: “Shimano prides itself on quality and professional services during all levels of competition. As such, Shimano wishes to clarify that the neutral service car in question strictly adhered to the race convoy rules.
"The explicit request of the President of UCI’s Commisaires’ Panel that it should remain in position behind the Jury President’s car at all times was followed, should it be required for the race finale.”
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.
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46 comments
I bet she was already using sealant. Once in a blue moon, it doesn't work and Pittstop won't help in that scenario. Tire plugs would though
Was she waiting on the wrong side of the road, and the Shimano car didn't see her?
I guess it's hard when so many of your (trade) team-mates are on the podium.
Just makes herself look really unprofessional. The comments are clearly motivated by a dislike of Shimano for whatever reason. The field was too big, the service wasn't good enough, Shimano ignored me etc etc. It's also slightly ironic going on about the carbon footprint of a 10k race, as this wouldn't have changed if she had finished, so a carbon footprint is OK as log as you get what you want.
It's not actually clear how they ignored her so it's kinda hard to judge...
I was wondering the same, on the initial read I thought she was saying they'd ignored her completely but it seems they specifically 'ignored' her request for a wheel change. She then says once she had the bike change it was all over so I'm wondering rather than 'ignore' her if the Shimano neutral car didn't have a compatible rear wheel for her bike given she rides Sram which uses the XDR cassette so instead they forced her to change bike which she didn't want to do? I know you can mix some parts but I don't know if you could switch in a wheel with a Shimano cassette and different range without adjusting the derailleur.
Shimano may well respond with more information given it doesn't look good the way she's badmouthing them although it still comes across as unprofessional as mentioned above. Pro support from my groupset manufacturer doesn't rank high on my list of priorities so certainly won't be changing from Shimano
I always thought shimano and Sram cassettes were spaced the same and totally intercompatible. They definitely were up to 11 speed anyway.
I suspect what happened is that she punctured in the bunch, and with the convoy directly behind, the neutral cars are told not to stop as the team car will deal with it.
She was unfortunate that her team car was busy elsewhere. Still not sure why the team car didn't then bring her back to the bunch once it had finally swapped her wheel.
My understanding is that while the spacing (pitch and width) are the same, but, especially with the current 12 speed stuff, both Shimano and SRAM have made modifications to the chain/cassette profiles such that they are not really cross-compatible.
The spacing of the 12 speed does match, and it has been proven to at least function, however the chain/cassette profiles do make shifting much less precise and less smooth. This linked with the sprocket size difference at both ends of the cassettes, and therefore derailleur positions, adding on the extra friction the system crossing causes (say about 3 to 5 watts), mixing systems is a marginal disadvantage no matter which way round it's done. For the average person it will make little difference unless the wear rate of components is increased (I haven't found any long term studies on the 12sp systems to say whether lifespan is affected or not) but to the pros every gain counts, regardless of sponsors.
That was my understanding too and the reason Switzerland considered assistance, but didn't because its against the rules, is Chabbey and Reuser would have been riding the same SRAM setups. Plus note Van Vleueten waited for the team car for her puncture.
But no ones asking where was Christine's SD Work Luxembourg teammate Marie Schreiber in this ? How did she lose contact so quickly, they could have swapped wheels. Her other Luxembourg teammate would have been on Shimano dura ace.
They work great going back and forth. Been doing it for over 15k miles
I think the spacing is still the same with 12 speed and the parts can be mixed but I don't know if it can be done without any adjustment on the derailleur since the Sram cassette would have a 10 tooth cog vs the 11 tooth on the Shimano. Going by people swapping bikes onto direct drive trainers the general recommendation is to keep the cassette as close as possible otherwise they may need to adjust the derailleur when swapping the bike to the trainer.
The spacing between sprockets are still the same on 12 speed but the manufacturers have diverged in design philosophy enough for there to be compatibility issues. The design of the shifting ramps are different and the chain profiles are also further apart. Whilst you could get a mixed system to function it will be very inferior to running one or the other, especially with the divergence in smallest sprocket size.
The main issue is that with so many riders having different trade teams in each nation, and the variety of equipment also being extremely wide, there is no way a Neutral Service vehicle could carry enough variations for everyone. Especially when you consider tyre sponsors as well, the car may have only had one or two SRAM casette wheels, but none were fitted with an S-Works Turbo tyre, instead they only had Pirelli, Michelin or Continental. Would that be considered breach of contract leaving her subject to fines?
They're spaced the same with 12sp but the SRAM rollers are larger. They still interchange extremely well though
"I was going to buy Shimano, but I'm worried their pro support car won't help me if I don't" No one, ever
It's more likely she's talking about her own carbon footprint for 10km of racing given that it was over before it even began.
That's how I read it.
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