Gadget on rear chain stay of TdF bikes

[Globalti]

Some info here

http://www.purdy.org...ransponders.htm

Interesting article. I had to buy a passive one when I rode the Cape Argus in February; there were five places along the route where you rode over wide mats on the road and what the writer says about reliability may be true because for some weeks after the Argus my race results kept changing each time I checked as the organisers struggled to sort out the 29,000 results. It's a little orange plastic thing that you attach to the front wheel dropout; I now have mine for life.

 

[zacklaws]

I noticed on Saturdays stage, the transponders had changed from the usual oblong shape to rectangular shaped ones and still the odd bike without one, could this lack of one be because the rider has changed his bike on route from a service vehicle? I even noticed one rider with the transponder virtually on the rear drop out bent backwards, might have been damaged or moved in a fall or a collision?

Think I'll start watching the race from now onwards