Watching Le Tour this year, I get the impression that there are a lot more crashes than usual.
I'm seeing a lot of riders' wheels going on the bends descending the mountains.
Does that usualy happen so much as it seems to in this Tour?
Chris Boardman said that it had something to do with carbon wheels. i thought about that and wondered if it was that wheels tend to have the spokes closer together in the hub because of all of those sprockets, which might make them more flexy laterally. Also, wheels seem to have fewer spokes these days too, allthough that's been going on for years, but may contribute too. Plus if they are carbon, that could make them more flexible laterally too? So whe they lean heavily into sharp bends at speed, they flex and the tyres loose their footing on the road as they shimmy, a bit like trying to corner fast on rumble strips.
Could it be carbon wheels, 11 speed cassettes or a combination of both with having fewer spokes not helping much either?
Or was Boardman wrong and the roas are more slippery, or are the number of crashes the same as any other year?