Vittoria states that the hookless wheels did not cause De Gent's accident

The televised crash of Thomas De Gendt during the Tour of the United Arab Emirates has sparked controversy in the peloton about the new hookless tyres that are already trending in the market. His detractors directly blamed this mechanism for the accident and warned that more could come, but now the tyre manufacturer Vittoria has stated in a press release that they had nothing to do with it.

Vittoria issues a statement explaining that the hookless tyres were not the cause of Thomas De Gendt's accident

The controversy has escalated in a few days from comments between detractors and those in favor of this system to statements from some cycling associations and the UCI on the issue. But now, tyre manufacturer Vittoria has just clarified that aside from the controversy, in the mentioned accident the main cause was a strong impact of the tyre against a rock.

After analyzing the incident, Vittoria states the following:

"It is crucial to clarify that the tyre failure was caused by an impact with an object, in this case, a rock, and is not related to the design of the hookless tyre.

The intensity of the impact caused the tyre to break in a way that prevented the tyre from staying firmly in place. The force was so great that it cut the tyre insert."

Furthermore, they add:

"It is important to emphasize that the accident was not caused by any compatibility issues between the components used by the team. The Vittoria Corsa PRO 28mm TLR tyre underwent extensive testing with various hookless commercial wheels, including Zipp models (such as the 353NSW). And compatibility was thoroughly validated through laboratory testing, outdoor field testing, and competition, with official communication provided through the SRAM website."

In this way, Vittoria debunks that the design of this type of wheels, with which manufacturers have managed to reduce weight and make them compatible with wider tyres, is at least behind this accident.