I think so. I’m pretty sure today’s stage had no such rule, officially.
Still, clearly the right call.
That’s what I thought initially as well, but not anymore. The situation was ridiculous of course, but on the other hand:
1 Half of the time Froome lost was because he was acting like an idiot after the crash (running up the hill, really?).
2 Giving Porte and Froome the same time as Mollema (actually, rewarding them for the work Mollema did after the crash) is one thing, but why in the name of Zeus’ butthole did Quintana get that time as well?
3 We can be 100% sure that nothing of the sort would have happened if it was just Yates or Arru (or any of the other 100 riders that are not in yellow) that had gotten in this situation.
Funily enough all the Dutch and Belgian ex riders I’ve heard (and am listening to now) seem to think it is the wrong decision to give Froome the time back. A dangerous precedent they say, where do you draw the line. Let’s think back about Hoogerland and Flecha that got hit by a car and got nothing but a bunch of red numbers.
PS since when does the peleton stop riding when helpers crash in a descent? The yellow jersey (or a contender) can be understood, but helpers? It seems everyone is scared of Sky.
The flamme rouge fell on Adam Yates’ head a few days ago, and he got an adjustment. So I suggest you’re talking bollox re point #3.
Froome, Porte and Mollema crushed the GC on that climb - no doubts or grey areas whatsoever. It’s not like Froome or Sky are trying to lawyer their way around the rules to make up for under performance on the bike- everyone can see that and it would be unfair on all the GC contenders not to make things right.
Adam Yates has said that this evening btw, that he would never want to wear the maillot jaune in these circumstances.
Froome running was an unbelievable sight alright - one for the archives. Just panicked that he had no bike.
As I understand it, it wasn’t a completely stupid move. He had to cross the line with a bike, but he wouldn’t be penalised for running towards the line. So he might as well cover some ground while waiting for a bike to be brought up. Though whether he thought that through or just panicked who knows.
Fan education isn’t working and it won’t. There are always going to be an uneducated few, plus the way crowds work is that if some idiot moves in then those doing the right thing by standing back can’t see, so they move in, and so on.
Accepting they can’t line the whole route with barriers, I think they are going to have to implement a system of police bikes*, one on each side, ahead of each bunch clearing the way to push people back. I realise it gets hard when on a mountain finish you have riders solo or in little bunches all over the place.
(with frickin’ laser beams on their heads!).
Too many motos. Has been for a while. A rider died earlier this year because of one. As a rider said today, “why were there four motos in front of Froome’s group?” There are simply too many vehicles on the road for most stages especially one like this. Here’s a good example of an unneeded moto: all riders have radios. Why do we still need the moto that does nothing more than hold up the chalk board with the time gap?
Also, Froome made the right move by running. He likely saved himself several seconds by doing so.
He didn’t. Quintana got the same time as the Yates group.
Insane that they didn’t put more effort into moving more fencing down to the shortened finish line.
He saved no time running. All the post-crash results were neutralized by the race referees. If they hadn’t decided to take the time gaps as they stood at the time of the crash, then yes maybe he would have saved a bit of time.
Prudhomme says the lack of barriers was due to the high wind.
Of course. Though obviously he had no idea of knowing that at the moment.
Well okay, fair enough, if they tried and they were blowing over not much you can do. The initial report I saw blamed the lack of barriers on not enough time to move them, which didn’t seem very satisfactory to me.
I don’t think it was a moto problem as such. The moto stopped because the crowd blocked it. So if it hadn’t been there then the riders would have tangled with the crowd instead, I guess. Though that wouldn’t have been as bad.
There’s a horse race every year in Sienna, Italy. It’s called the Palio di Sienna. The horses are bareback and they wear a special decoration on their bridles. The jockeys carry heavy duty whips made from dried bull penises which they can use on their own horse or on the competitor horses and jockeys. The object is to knock the opponents’ decoration off their horses. Teh race doesn’t stop if a rider falls off (and they’re all racing around the town square, which is covered in dirt for the event, so it’s extra slippery.) A riderless horse can still win.
I think the bike riders should be allowed to carry those penis whips.
At the risk of being one of those guys who dismisses the reasoning of a man who has been in his job for many years and knows more about it than I do, Prudhomme’s comments don’t strike me as being correct. There were barriers for the final 1km of the race and the reason that they stopped the race at Chalet Reynard is because it is virtually at the tree line (so off the most exposed and therefore windy section of the mountain). It doesn’t seem to logically stack up that barriers were blowing over lower down the mountain when they had them further up the mountain. It seems like he is covering his arse.
Now it might be that the barriers that were in place needed weighing down with concrete blocks to stop them blowing over and they didn’t have enough of them or other logistical issues were at play, but on its face, Prudhomme’s current reasoning doesn’t stack up for me.
It was the right decision to adjust the times according to the position split times of riders just prior to the crash.
Crowds were out of control and impeding the race. It was only a matter of time that this kind of accident would happen. Perhaps rules will allow taze-ing of spectators that cross the line. I suggest they start with the Borat impersonators and extend it to anyone not wearing pants. Running along with riders, especially if you’re carrying a flag or sign should be punishable by beatings with police batons.
Cavendish by a nose.
Fuck Rio. He should stay until Paris.
I want Spartacus to win today. Chances are he won’t but - to risk sounding like my 14 year old - it would be epic if he did.
He got in the mix which was good to see - prob everyone was cheering for him. That last drag looked brutal at full gas though, he had nothing left at the death. Cav made the final selection as well, which was impressive, but couldn’t contest. Sagan - hail to the king.
Sky are stacked so deep it’s not a contest - plenty of chat on cycling forums about salary caps, reducing team sizes etc, which given the seat-of-the-pants economy of GT cycling teams doesn’t sound that realistic. Is it true that BMC and movistar have a similar budget? Because Sky have assembled a monstrous team - that they can afford to keep a talent like Wout Poels in their back pocket for the last week is intimidating - Wout’s been cycle touring around France the past two weeks, in the company of the peleton. He stretched the legs yesterday and hammered the GC group up those last two climbs - people hanging on in desperation, TJ shelled out the back.
Froome is approaching Indurain and Armstrong territory where his fans just have fun watching him dominate the Tour, and everyone else just waiting for the moment he cracks. It could be tomorrow (figuratively) or it might not be until the next decade. You never know. I was a fan of Indurain, so I would spend hours every day in the summer watching him ride. During the Armstrong years, I was on the opposite side. It was hours of agony!
It’s the standard blueprint to win the TDF. Get one of the worlds best climber and TT rider (Froome) and surround him with the worlds best climbers. As long as your leader doesn’t get sick or crash it’s tough to lose.