Porter was luckily at the back of the quartet during the opening laps when the fall occurred, meaning that he did not take down any of his teammates but the fall was very much down to an equipment failure rather than athlete error. That allowed Australia to start a second time but they could only finish fifth with a time of 3:48.448 and so have little hope of fighting for a bronze medal.
The culprit for the Australian crash was the one-piece integrated base bar and stem, and the snap came at the junction where the stem area transitions into the outward-facing base bar.
At first, it appeared as though the cockpit in question was the stock-standard carbon base bar sold by Argon 18 with the Electron Pro track bike. However, on further inspection, it appears the cockpit is in fact the Bastion Base Bar, 3D printed out of titanium to closely mimic the same design.
The Base Bar has been removed from the Bastion website in an action that, according to reports by Cycling Weekly, was done after Porter's crash at the Izu Velodrome.
Bastion is a frame builder and manufacturer of 3D printed titanium parts, commonly using the technology for the lugs on its frames. However, in late 2019, the company announced a partnership with Cycling Australia, tasked with providing custom-moulded handlebars and aero extensions for the team's track bikes.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Image 1 of 3
Highlighted here on the Bastion Base Bar, the junction protrudes outward and downward, with a concave section(Image credit: Bastion Advanced)
From this image, it appears the snapped bar features that same concave design shown on the Bastion Base Bar(Image credit: Eurosport)
In contrast, the carbon fibre base bar from Argon 18 is less pronounced and convex in shape(Image credit: Argon 18)
Comparing the image of the remnants of the broken cockpit with that of the Bastion Base Bar, there is an ever so slight difference that confirms that we're not looking at the carbon fibre base bar supplied by Argon 18.
As the side of the stem area protrudes outward to form the base bar, there is a slight concave nature to the upper edge. This same concave detailing can be found on the 3D printed Bastion Base Bar. Meanwhile, the Argon 18 base bar is convex as it rounds upwards and outwards to the handlebar area of the cockpit.
Looking at the Bastion Base Bar more closely, it becomes clear that there are four mounting points hidden beneath the cover that sits on top, and that the snapped handlebar could easily have been as a result of over-tightening the frontal most bolt.
The break occurred at the line which intersects the front mounting bolt hole. (Image credit: Bastion Advanced)
As shown in the image above, the point of failure occurred very close to, if not directly through the frontal bolt hole, and could suggest that over-tightening of that bolt was the cause of the failure.
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
As the Tech Editor here at Cyclingnews, Josh leads on content relating to all-things tech, including bikes, kit and components in order to cover product launches and curate our world-class buying guides, reviews and deals. Alongside this, his love for WorldTour racing and eagle eyes mean he's often breaking tech stories from the pro peloton too.
On the bike, 32-year-old Josh has been riding and racing since his early teens. He started out racing cross country when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s and has never looked back. He's always training for the next big event and is keen to get his hands on the newest tech to help. He enjoys a good long ride on road or gravel, but he's most alive when he's elbow-to-elbow in a local criterium.
