Snapping Forks!!!

Borg said:

First Hincapie and now VIrenque!
http://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/2006/sport_sto943500.shtml
Anyone had this happen to them...I've always been paranoid about this happening to me...

Hincapie's failure was initiated by a previous crash. He then ignored the rattle coming from his forks, assuming it was only a loose headset. It was his steerer tube, slowly cracking in half. Trek still uses an aluminum steerer tube with greater than 2mm wall thickness. I have an identicl piece, left over from the last Madone I built up. Hard to envision what shock and/or vibration, could cause that to fail. I don't know the paticulars of Virenque's failure. I suggest buying one of the highest rated forks and removing it periodically, to inspect the steerer tube for cracks. I have seen carbon steerer tube failures, due to the compression headset adjuster and/or stem bolts being over tightened. Some riders remove the compression headset adjuster after they tighten the stem, since it serves no purpose after that, because they don't want it exerting an expansion force inside their steerer tube.