Cervélo scramble for last minute fix

Cervélo Test Team mechanics were seen scrambling about their pit area making some uncharacteristically last-minute modifications to each rider's Cervélo P4 – just barely two hours before their riders' scheduled start time.

The problem appeared to center around the team's modified carbon fiber bottle cages, which apparently wouldn't hold on to the matching aero bottles tightly enough over stage 4's occasional bumps. The P4's stock proprietary bottle and cage system would have been fine in this respect but the team had heard that the UCI might take issue with its flush-fit design and instead went with an Elite aero system that the team tweaked to work.

Those modifications wouldn't quite let the matching bottle fully snap into its receptacle as usual though and given the timing, removing and re-machining the short aluminum plates used to secure the cage to the frame wasn't an option. The solution? Short strips of adhesive-backed Velcro added in between the bottle and cage for tad extra grip – and of course, the team mechanics had some in the truck.

In the end, the team appears to have come across the finish line with all bottles on hand but the situation was obviously far from ideal. Rest assured though that the mechanics will have something more proper figured out before the final individual time trial around Lac d'Annecy on July 23.

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