Tour De France Controversy (Spoiler Alert)

[dilligaf]

4 hours ago, Shake me up Judy said:

Cycling can be a magnificent sport but it's also a dirty one and it can be a real roughhouse in the sprints. Mark's always been an aggressive rider and has dished it out plenty of times in the bearpit of the sprint. This is what happens and it could easily have been the other way round. Fairness doesn't much enter into it.

It looked to me like "Cav" leaned on the guy and was nudged off. Could be wrong

[Mr. Sausages]

Froome yesterday reminded me of Declan's post in another thread.

"Ahh! But one of the reasons that the Tour de France is one of the great sporting events is because the champions look invincible, super humans. Until one day they're not and it's always unexpected. Remember the day Indurain cracked?"

 

 

[Neil Down]

Can't understand how Uran and Bennett were given 20-second time penalties for taking bottles in the final 10km yet Bardet let off

[the stinking enigma]

I thought she was dead. Fair play to her for even competing if not

[TheTeapot]

The penalties have been removed, mostly because the organisers shit themselves when they realised that they'd have to bust Bardet too. That rule is absolutely insane though, can't collect a water bottle within the the last 20k of the stage on a roasting hot summers day going steep uphill. Mad.

[Neil Down]

It's a rule I never understood. Glad they saw sense on it though

[TheDruid-3X3]

In this YouTube of the Crash, they mention that Cavendish is of the IoM:

 

So Cavendish is a Manx Man.  Too bad about his Crash.  I hope he gets better soon.

 

3X3

 

 

[TheDruid-3X3]

After looking at the Video a couple of times, I think Cavendish was going Straight On and not leaning into Sagan at all.  It looked to me that all of a sudden, this Sagan guy swerved into Cavendish elbowed our Cavendish.

 

3X3

 

[woolley]

3 hours ago, the stinking enigma said:

I thought she was dead. Fair play to her for even competing if not

And even more so if she is.

[Chinahand]

It is from this view point (33-35 seconds) that it looks most damning:

 

[TheTeapot]

The stage the other day (9?) with the three big climbs and the crashes was absolutely tremendous. The guys from AG2R were just great, they had a couple in the breakaway and some in the main group and once they got to the top of a climb they just let go completely, absolutely belted on the descent in a great display of attacking riding and completely tore the race apart. It was beginning to look like a Froome procession but not anymore. Today's stage sounds like it was tough too.

[dilligaf]

6 hours ago, Neil Down said:

Can't understand how Uran and Bennett were given 20-second time penalties for taking bottles in the final 10km yet Bardot let off

Even the queen does. But I would have let Bardot do whatever she wanted to do.

[dilligaf]

4 hours ago, TheDruid-3X3 said:

After looking at the Video a couple of times, I think Cavendish was going Straight On and not leaning into Sagan at all.  It looked to me that all of a sudden, this Sagan guy swerved into Cavendish elbowed our Cavendish.

 

3X3

 

No, Cavendish leaned to his left.

[flaps]

Sagan fans have clogged up the internet with cleverly edited bits of footage, to make it look like Cavs fault. Cav is on the left of the screen, and holds his line alongside the barrier. He doesn't deviate from this line. Sagan moves across and into Cav, who naturally leans a tad left when there is contact. It's at this point where Sagan fans start their you tube clips - omitting Sagan moving across. Fortunately, the commissaires looked at the full footage. 

There is debate to be had about whether the punishment was too harsh. But Sagan moved over into Cavendish. That is plain to see.