2011 Tour de France Stage 1: Passage du Gois - Mont des Alouettes 191.5 km

[Libertine Seguros]

You are right that the 3 km rule can create an anomaly when some riders avoid the crash and still manage to lose time on the biggest remaining group. In this case though, nobody really gives a donkey's ball hair about the GC time of the likes of EBH anyway.

The anomaly in this case is not in the strange GC times of people dropped on the final climb, but that the time lost by those behind is much larger than it would have been had that second crash (which had no time consequences as per the rules) not happened - they were 40 seconds behind, and suddenly lost 50 seconds thanks to that crash.

Now, not that this did happen, and it's pure conspiracy theorist nonsense, it would have been feasible, given that the second major group all came in together and without really forcing the pace, that once the likes of Andy Schleck, Gesink and Leipheimer had crashed, and that the road was blocked, what onus is there on them to get out of the road? They may as well just block it and hold up Contador, since they're going to get given the same time as the bunch ahead anyway.

It's a system that works absolutely fine 95% of the time. Just occasionally it lends itself to certain abuses and creates certain unfairness. Today was one of those occasions.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I agree with your post, but the time non-GC guys didn't lose today could be significant if, in the next few stages, we see EBH or Cavendish in yellow. It's not the end of the world, but it's a problem.

That's true, although I don't think EBH can get into yellow tomorrow even if Sky win the TTT and wanted him to have it over Thomas (and they'd be fools to want that from a commercial perspective) unless Thomas gets dropped during the TTT. Am I correct in thinking that?

 

[bikonator]

I love the mass start. It sucks that the prolog guys always get the yellow jersey. Let the one day racers get some fame in.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

The anomaly in this case is not in the strange GC times of people dropped on the final climb, but that the time lost by those behind is much larger than it would have been had that second crash (which had no time consequences as per the rules) not happened - they were 40 seconds behind, and suddenly lost 50 seconds thanks to that crash

I'm not at all sure that we can simply attribute the second group's growing time loss to the second crash. The first group was riding for the stage win and some of the best riders in the world on this sort of terrain were going all out. The second group sat around letting Euskaltel (Euskaltel!!) run the chase.

If Contador and Saxobank had been working to pull back the split, I do not believe that they would have finished 1min20 behind. They choose not to do the work, so they get to eat their time loss with a side order of no sympathy at all. Sanchez on the other hand does deserve some sympathy, even though the rules worked as they were supposed to work, as his carrot army did do their feeble best.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's too bad the peloton is always so hyper nervous at the start of grand tours. 99% of the crashes are simply caused by everyone wanting to be at the same place.

The first week of a grand tour is becoming more and more of a lottery. Whoever has the luck to stay upright can be happy.

 

[jens_attacks]

just like i felt,there were lots of crashes.i hope no one was seriously injured.alberto and sammy will be fine,pyrenees will be owned by the spanish armada and alberto will attack far out from tourmalet,it will be a carnage.the tenth on that stage will come like at 6-7 minutes.alberto needed this motivation,it will be epic stuff.
nothing is over.


oh and chapeau phil!the strongest rider of the moment.also nice attacks by vino and cance.

tomorrow radioshack will own the race.

 

[zapata]

So, noone was seriously hurt in the crashes? No abandons? I hear de gendt might have broken his collarbone, but it was uncertain.

 

[hrotha]

It's too bad the peloton is always so hyper nervous at the start of grand tours. 99% of the crashes are simply caused by everyone wanting to be at the same place.

The first week of a grand tour is becoming more and more of a lottery. Whoever has the luck to stay upright can be happy.

Correction: the first week of the Tour. Because there's no early mountain stage to sort the contenders out.

 

[jobiwan]

Perrig Quemeneur voted Most Aggressive.

Does he get to wear the Red Bib on Stage 3, or just tomorrow?

 

[roundabout]

Correction: the first week of the Tour. Because there's no early mountain stage to sort the contenders out.

Yes and No. It seems to be worst in the Tour but it can happen in other races.

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=11442

 

[JRanton]

Roundup of how it looks now for the favourites (if I miss some tell me):

6 seconds:
Evans
VDB
Kloden
Taaramae
Horner
Martin
Schleck F
Schleck A
Cunego
Vinokourov
Leipheimer
Brajkovic
Karpets
Basso
Wiggins
Gesink

1 minute 20
Samu Sanchez
Contador
LL Sanchez
Uran

1 min 55
Danielson
Hesjedal
Kreuziger
Porte
Vande Velde

The real losers today are clearly Garmin, Contador and Samu Sanchez

+ Movistar

 

[GroupDK]

Andy Schleck: Contador ´ You have to use your head. !

http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/tour-de-france/article1581090.ece

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Andy filthy hypocrite, he was 5 minutes behind last year when cance neutralized everything

Oh I really hope Andy gets the same somewhere next week and then cries a river again when others ride on

 

[Libertine Seguros]

+ Movistar

Movistar don't have a contender. Losing time like this may even be good for them cos it means they'll get more rope to stagehunt.

 

[Chef_Vodnik]

Andy Schleck: Contador ´ You have to use your head. !

http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/tour-de-france/article1581090.ece

God, what an imbecile.

 

[c&cfan]

God, what an imbecile.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttt??????????????'

is that true????

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Hang on a second. I don't particularly like Mini Schleck, but he's not actually saying something unreasonable. Every ds, team and rider knows that a GC contender shouldn't be mucking about in the back half of the peloton with 10 km to go, and particularly not in early stage when people's nerves lead to silly rider errors.

Contador and Sanchez and the Garmin riders were badly positioned. The crash was a random incident, but that there would be a crash at some point was always quite likely.

As for Cancellara neutralising the stage, that's the fault of the idiots who went along with the demands of a guy riding in the interests of riders who had been left behind. I actually sort of admire his cheek in asking others to go along with it.

 

[jens_attacks]

if that's true,i hope alberto will attack the shiit out of him.on the road.

 

[spalco]

Andy Schleck: Contador ´ You have to use your head. !

http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/tour-de-france/article1581090.ece

Hahahaha, the guy is so full of himself.

 

[VemrJR?]

Obviously it's a tricky situation for contador but he's been in this situation before where he allowed himself to be cut off from the leading pack, not because of a crash, but because he was a liittle careless. That time, two years ago, he lost roughly the same amount.

The difference is that at that time he had the DC tempo boys (which included one armstrong) to eat up some of the lost time in the ttt.

This time his team is a little less experiienced but don't forget they are riis' boys, a very tight unit, and riis has always favoured the ttt very highly, so don't be surprised if they don't lose that much time tomorrow.

The other difference is that the distance is a lot shorter, so I don't foresee contador being left mercilessly behind.

I'm sure contador, at this moment, will remember what happened at the end of that tour two years ago: he won 4 minutes clear of everyone else.

 

[c&cfan]

Hang on a second. I don't particularly like Mini Schleck, but he's not actually saying something unreasonable. Every ds, team and rider knows that a GC contender shouldn't be mucking about in the back half of the peloton with 10 km to go, and particularly not in early stage when people's nerves lead to silly rider errors.

Contador and Sanchez and the Garmin riders were badly positioned. The crash was a random incident, but that there would be a crash at some point was always quite likely.

the problem isn't mainly what was said, but who said it. yes, the one that is always making excuses for not wining a thing, always talking about chaingate (his mistake) and forgetting stage 2 and stage 3. in a fair world, andy would've ended out of the podium.

then you have the winner, that has been through a very tough year but still wining 5 or six stage races and doing amazing things. he is tired.

then a stupid fan has a direct influence in the accident and ANDY says that?

that's unbelievable.

 

[Ramira]

the problem isn't mainly what was said, but who said it. yes, the one that is always making excuses for not wining a thing, always talking about chaingate (his mistake) and forgetting stage 2 and stage 3. in a fair world, andy would've ended out of the podium.

then you have the winner, that has been through a very tough year but still wining 5 or six stage races and doing amazing things. he is tired.

then a stupid fan has a direct influence in the accident and ANDY says that?

that's unbelievable.

This might be a silly thing to say, but there's no actual quote by andy in the article, so how about we wait until we know exactly what he said before we start to burn his effigy?

 

[khardung la]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttt??????????????'

is that true????

As far as I can read (English or Spanish media) Schleck did say that he is always in the front 25 km to go and that that is as important as pedaling strongly.

IMHO the guy is cocky and immature. I do not recall Contador saying something like "I always shift my gears properly and that is as important as pedaling". I still do not get why people dislike Contador so much, he uses to shut up, work hard and take every race seriously. And that hatred of many to Contador was already intense before the doping scandal...

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Contador/Tour/largo/elpepudep/20110702elpepudep_16/Tes

 

[luckyboy]

He lost 41" on stage 3 in 2009 btw.

It will be very tough for AC to win, but I hope he has 2009-esque TT in him again.

 

[spalco]

And that hatred of many to Contador was already intense before the doping scandal...

Well, technically there's never been a Contador without a bit of a doping scandal, but generally athletes who dominate always have as many enemies as they have fans.