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Chris Froome still can’t shut up about disc brakes (or win a race)

Bad luck revives rotor rage

Chris Froome riding in the Tour du Rwanda

After some rough luck cost Chris Froome a stage win at the Tour of Rwanda, the Tour de France winner took to social media to cast aspersions on a familiar target. His brakes. Specifically, Froome used his mechanical struggles as an opportunity to revive his Quixotic battle against the peloton’s acceptance of disc brakes in road racing.

In contrast to his five-minute rant on YouTube a couple of years ago, Froome is more succinct in his criticism this go-round. The five-time Grand Tour winner simply posted “Rim brakes > disc brakes.” There was also a not-so-subtle swipe at the cycling industry’s relentless drive toward discs. The lyrics for the song sound tracking Froome’s mechanical misfortune are “Let me be your pusher, I have the good stuff that you want.”

Froome has good reason to be seeing red over his rotors. The Israel-Premier Tech suffered two flats while on a solo flier at the Tour of Rwanda. During the second agonizingly slow wheel change, cameras watch as the peloton catches and then rolls past Froome as he stands on the side of the road. Not how you want to end any day at the races. Especially painful when it could have ended a five-year drought since his last win.

Froome also has good reason for not winning a race for a few years, of course. It really is impressive he’s back nearly winning races after his horrific crash in 2019.

RELATED: The Rim Brake Conservation Society has one mission – to save the rim brake

The long-time disc brake holdout does has some valid points about rim brakes, t0o. Even after years of intense R&D devoted to bringing disc brakes to the road, rim brakes are still lighter and less expensive. Rotor rub is also still very much a thing with road disc brake systems.

So should Chris Froome stop whining about disc brakes? Nah. We also don’t hate discs and they’re definitely not going anywhere. But there is also still a place in our hearts (and on some of our staff bikes) for good old rim brakes.