Giro 2017, stage 9: Montenero di Bisaccia - Blockhaus 149 km

CrowdedHouse

Inquitus wrote: »

Race over and to a large degree ruined by that police motorcycle idiocy

Dunno really - more like lads glued to their clocks and not watching where they're going

Kaisr Sose

Inquitus wrote: »

The GPS on screen was wrong.

Noticed it was off re the Jungels catch. Awesome ride by Thomas is he was up off the deck , quite shook and equaled or bettered the pace of Quintana for the climb.

Kaisr Sose

wexandproud wrote: »

it was a stupid place for a bike to stop but a lot of blame on the riders as well for not ''calling '' it and there was plenty of room to avoid it

I think you are on the money there. The AGR (?) rider did not slow and tried to squeeze in where there was no gap

robyntmorton

We don't know how long the moto was there before impact, and thus should it have been treated as an obstacle to be called and moved around.

Granted, it looked like a bad place to stop, and will be analysed over and over, but was it as clear cut as we first thought?

robyntmorton

Oops. Movistar team car almost fell off the mountain!

perrier

Brilliant live interview with the Movistar team almost losing their car down the mountain.

Miklos

I don't think the motorbike situation should take away from Quintana's ride, it was a classy display.

robyntmorton

Thomas interview - Dislocated shoulder popped back in before continuing?! Wow/Ouch!

velo.2010

Should never have happened, that's all that can be said. The race is now down to 5 guys, realistically. If anyone is to challenge Quintana then I would bet on Dumoulin given his TT ability.

Other observations today...
At one stage Quintana was producing over 7.5 watts per kilo on the climb if the power graphic was correct.
Amador did a huge job whittling down that lead group.
Nibali seemed to be attempting a pedalling style not that dissimilar to Froome.
I think we can all agree that TGV is the most overrated GC guy for some years.

pelevin

Obviously, echoing a few other voices, the motorbike shouldn't have stopped there but unless he had ground to a halt just in front of them, it's not something they should ride into. It's not remotely like other incidents where he actually drove into riders or anything. It was a stationary bike at the very edge of a fairly wide road.

On the racing front, excellent climb very much as expected by Quintana. The rider with most to feel good about for me on the day though would be Dumoulin.

OT slightly the Tour of California kicking off today too , think Eurosport are covering from 10pm , hopefully finishing at a reasonable hour.

Inquitus

pelevin wrote: »

On the racing front, excellent climb very much as expected by Quintana. The rider with most to feel good about for me on the day though would be Dumoulin.

Agreed, with the TT's that are in the race and his excellent climb today, he seems the most realistic challenger to Quintana. Not sure about Ten Dam and Kelderman's form these days but it looks a much stronger team compared to the one he had at the Vuelta a couple of years back.

wexandproud

after watching the rest of the stage there was a few shots of motorcycle marshals stopped in similar positions on side of road , 'could be' in case of gobshytes in stupid costumes deciding to run along causing problems for cyclists , edging more towards completely cyclists fault [
quintana was brilliant

pelevin

Inquitus wrote: »

Agreed, with the TT's that are in the race and his excellent climb today, he seems the most realistic challenger to Quintana. Not sure about Ten Dam and Kelderman's form these days but it looks a much stronger team compared to the one he had at the Vuelta a couple of years back.

I haven't been looking at the rest of the race's layout but on the face of it 70kms or so tt's sound like it could be a very interesting race & not just about as it tends to be, who dominates the mountains. As long as half those tt kms aren't going up steep mountains!

irishrover99

wexandproud wrote: »

it was a stupid place for a bike to stop but a lot of blame on the riders as well for not ''calling '' it and there was plenty of room to avoid it

If only they'd had a few lads from the Wicklow 200 who to some people's annoyance call out every little obstacle on the road.

But what is it with sky and motorcycles

rtmie

Inquitus wrote: »

pelevin wrote: »

On the racing front, excellent climb very much as expected by Quintana. The rider with most to feel good about for me on the day though would be Dumoulin.

Agreed, with the TT's that are in the race and his excellent climb today, he seems the most realistic challenger to Quintana. Not sure about Ten Dam and Kelderman's form these days but it looks a much stronger team compared to the one he had at the Vuelta a couple of years back.

Kelderman is out of the race, at least that was impression from Dumolin post race interview.

rtmie

rtmie wrote: »

Kelderman is out of the race, at least that was impression from Dumolin post race interview.

Some Dutch sites reporting that to be the case.

robyntmorton

Am I the only one now seeing the irony of the thin blue line of cycling being taken out by the thin blue line?

conor_mc

wexandproud wrote: »

it was a stupid place for a bike to stop but a lot of blame on the riders as well for not ''calling '' it and there was plenty of room to avoid it

Was it a stupid place though? Right out to the side of a wide straight road.

There's been plenty of dangerous moto behaviour over the past few years, but I think this is rider error, pure and simple.

Also, there's a diff between the tv/mavic bikers, etc, and police bikers. Police bikers are there for overall public safety (incl the riders) and I would say that the peloton needs to give them right of way (by law), whereas the other bikers should rightly give way to the racing.

MPFGLB

I cannot believe people on here are blaming the riders for the crash and even calling it an Ag2R issue ...just goes to show people make all kinds of dumb comments without even seeing the footage

First an foremost the riders were going really fast and may have called out ...we dont know...It is obvious from the footage that the first riders on the left (Sunweb) pulled out but their colleaguess behind them had less time to react and one clipped the moto and this caused the crash which rippled down to SKY who were further back..and the road was narowing there and teams were moving up for positioning ..
The moto should not have been parked on the that part of narrow road ...it could have pulled in on the verge ...it was a motos fault

It was no SKYs fault as some are implying

It seems to me that pro riders risk limb and even life to bring entertainment but know it alls on here love to sling mud without any thing to back it up

Most of those riders were up and racing as fast as they could ...some badly injured...lots have lost a chance to win a GT this year (if ever)after months of training and hardship

Yeah but it is their fault for not calling out

Give me patience ...

Sarz91

MPFGLB wrote: »

I cannot believe people on here are blaming the riders for the crash and even calling it an Ag2R issue ...just goes to show people make all kinds of dumb comments without even seeing the footage

First an foremost the riders were going really fast and may have called out ...we dont know...It is obvious from the footage that the first riders on the left (Sunweb) pulled out but their colleaguess behind them had less time to react and one clipped the moto and this caused the crash which rippled down to SKY who were further back..and the road was narowing there and teams were moving up for positioning ..
The moto should not have been parked on the that part of narrow road ...it could have pulled in on the verge ...it was a motos fault

It was no SKYs fault as some are implying

It seems to me that pro riders risk limb and even life to bring entertainment but know it alls on here love to sling mud without any thing to back it up

Most of those riders were up and racing as fast as they could ...some badly injured...lots have lost a chance to win a GT this year (if ever)after months of training and hardship

Yeah but it is their fault for not calling out

Give me patience ....

I don't think anyone is blaming sky. I think someone asked the question "what is it with sky and motorbikes" as in they always seem to have sh@@te luck with them.

fishfoodie

Sarz91 wrote: »

I don't think anyone is blaming sky. I think someone asked the question "what is it with sky and motorbikes" as in they always seem to have sh@@te luck with them.

Well maybe now it is Sky; Cookson will actually do something about the problem instead of the SFA he has done here-to-fore ?

pelevin

Has anyone blamed Sky? The sport is obviously dangerous & often includes avoiding non-race elements from moving vehicles to spectators, marshals, etc. As far as those impediments often go, I thought this today was for them comparatively straightforward to avoid. Doesn't mean the motorbike shouldn't have been there but it wasn't exactly a shocking impediment to arise. It's part of that world though the safer the better obviously. Same as when I cycle in the city I expect dangers & that being in the right won't be much compensation if I end up on the ground in whatever state.

pelevin

Dunno if this is an accurate description of the incident but just to post a comment I've just seen elsewhere:

"There are clear guidelines . Stop on a straight road only . Stop well ahead of the road . Stop beside the edge of the road , beyond the paint line .

The policeman did it all."

Lumen

pelevin wrote: »

Stop beside the edge of the road , beyond the paint line.

The policeman did it all.

Nope.

Kaisr Sose

Re post 81

You are entitled to your view...

I don't know who is blaming SKY but I believe I was the one that mentioned the AG2R rider. Maybe he seen it late, maybe he never had a chance ...but while cycling a bike, all riders have to be fully aware of what is around them, ahead of them, even when going full guns and it just looked from the footage that he was slow to react ..things happen so fast. That's bike racing. It has its inherent risks – any second you could end up on the deck. Pro or Amateur, Club League or key moment in a GT stage.

pelevin

Lumen wrote: »

Nope.

If those are genuine guidelines that presumably the cyclists are also aware of, that he was a foot or so in the wrong, it's hardly like it's something that they are now unable to avoid because of that foot. It's a stationary object & even if he is correctly 9 inches to the left or so, it's surely still pretty much the same routine for the group in avoiding the obstacle.

The motorbike rider did come off too I believe , he attempted to steady himself with is left foot but maybe the ground was slightly lower so came off. I need to watch it again,

I recall a similar thing happening me up near Ticnock , stopped to admire a goat perched up on some rocks didn't look at where I planted my foot and down a bank I went into a nice patch of nettles

Lumen

pelevin wrote: »

If those are genuine guidelines that presumably the cyclists are also aware of, that he was a foot or so in the wrong, it's hardly like it's something that they are now unable to avoid because of that foot. It's a stationary object & even if he is correctly 9 inches to the left or so, it's surely still pretty much the same routine for the group in avoiding the obstacle.

I don't have a particularly strong view on the matter, I'm just refuting the claim (not yours) that the motorbike was parked up outside the line.

It is hard to protect riders for hundreds of kilometres a day.

In this case I think it's a shame that I couldn't watch GT getting his arse kicked by Quintana on the climb.

On a lighter note and w.r.t Tom's weight loss, this from 2015.

Tom Dumoulin: ‘Bradley Wiggins showed me what’s possible’
Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/tom-dumoulin-bradley-wiggins-showed-me-whats-possible-190234#sL1gRrM5aLQqRKqP.99

pelevin

Lumen wrote: »

On a lighter note and w.r.t Tom's weight loss, this from 2015.

Tom Dumoulin: ‘Bradley Wiggins showed me what’s possible’
Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/tom-dumoulin-bradley-wiggins-showed-me-whats-possible-190234#sL1gRrM5aLQqRKqP.99

Though I think Dumoulin hopefully showed real integrity - not that hypocrisy is outside the bounds of possibility - when he came out, almost alone of the big stage racers, in criticising Sky & Wiggins about his TUE coritcosteroid use when it became public as "It stinks."