2013 Tour de France, Stage 4: Nice / Nice 25km (TTT)

[jens_attacks]

Now Armstrong just helped King make the bags and go

haha so true

 

[theyoungest]

Niki Terpstra: 'We rode like a train, Greenedge rode like a bus.'

Long live the Orica bus jokes.

 

[ChewbaccaD]

todays result:

most hyped:
Garmin
the fact that in their interview that this is the core of what the team build upon. And they were confident they can deliver the result. Well, they aren't even in the top 3

most expected
QuickStep
even with the injured of martin, they still delivered the best time, only got beaten by 1 second;

most improve
Saxo Tinkoff
with their lackluster season, and the team wasn't look that strong, looks like the team are coming to their form. 8 seconds from the top TTT team and 6 seconds from sky aren't a bad place to be

most walk the walk talk the talk
Sky
they realized they got an injured riders, and they aimed to not loose too much time. They did perform in flying color. just 3 sec off the winner

most surprising
orica green edge
the talk has been about QuickStep and BMC, and they manage to sneak in to claim victory. The presence of matt white might have the impact of their success yesterday and today.

lotto belisol
who da't thought they would be in 5th place just 17 seconds adrift from the winner. Even beat Garmin and BMC.

most disappointing
BMC
with the fire power of what looks like the best in the world TTT squad, only to manage 26 seconds from a lot lesser team.

Stupid, stupid comment considering that is absolutely NOT what Vaughters said about this team...and they were 17 seconds (a shorter time than it took you to write that stupidity) behind.

 

[Karl Max]

Niki Terpstra: 'We rode like a train, Greenedge rode like a bus.'

Long live the Orica bus jokes.

Nice one

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Gerrans will fight to the end, no doubt:

 

[thegrimpeur]

Notice Lampre being up there, finishing with the diesel engines Cimolai, Cunego, Serpa, Niemec in addition to Malori. Think the latter had a good day?

 

[ElChingon]

Vaughters needs to considerably dial down his arrogance.

LOL-ed at their placing after watching JV's interview the day before on how they had the best and fastest equipment bar none compared to all the other teams. Epic fail for JV, why won't any reporter ask about that interview now? Imagine if they spent $N more than the next team and the team who spent even less beat them bar none

 

[ElChingon]

It's an absolutely ridiculous decision, they also fined Tony Martin for having stripes on his bike!

Well it is an unfair advantage as everyone knows strips on your bike make you go faster

 

[fantomas]

I feel for Ted King, but rules are rules, and if he indeed did finish too late, then it's goodbye. Even if it may seem harsh. If you startfiddling with the rules once, you will have to do it again at some point. So keep it black and white. No exceptions.

 

[Pippo_San]

Stage 4 TTT results
16 Astana + 55

Astana really dropped the ball this time, didn't they? Poor Birdsong

 

[Afrank]

I feel for Ted King, but rules are rules, and if he indeed did finish too late, then it's goodbye. Even if it may seem harsh. If you startfiddling with the rules once, you will have to do it again at some point. So keep it black and white. No exceptions.

The problem is though, that according to the time of his computer, he should have been within the time limit.

 

[fantomas]

The problem is though, that according to the time of his computer, he should have been within the time limit.

Yep, that is weird. We'll see. But if he did finish too late, even if it is only a matter of 6 seconds, then rules are rules.

 

[Marva32]

From the Tour de France rule book:

Elimination coefficients
Finishing times may be adapted under exceptional situations and unforeseen acts of God (weather conditions, blocked roads, serious accident or incident, etc.) according to the assessment of the Stewards’ Committee, with the agreement of the race management. If the percentage of eliminated riders rises above 20% of starters in the stage, permitted finishing times may be increased upon the decision of the Stewards’ Committee, with the agreement of the race management. It is understood that the riders who finish within the new permitted times will qualify for following stages, without a precedent being set for the rest of the race.

Possible exceptions
The Stewards’ Committee may exceptionally allow one or several particularly unlucky riders to qualify, after informing the race management.

In this case the following factors will be taken into consideration:
• the average speed of the stage;
• the point at which the incident or accident occurred;
• the effort made by the rider or riders delayed by such incidents or accidents;
• the possible degree of impassability of the roads.

As these finishing times are calculated in relation to the winner of the stage, disqualifications resulting from the decisions once taken by the Stewards’ Committee and made available thereafter cannot in any case give rise to an entitlement to any exception for any rider.

In the event that competitors who have finished after the cut-off time are reinstated by the race officials’ committee, the equivalent number of the points assigned to the winner of the stage concerned will be removed from the reinstated competitors’ scores in the general individual points classification, even if their number of points in this classification becomes negative as a result.

Based on this, arguably the committee should have allowed him to proceed. The 'incident' which caused his delay was the fault of the race organizers and the officiating crew.

I don't have the avg speed of OGE, but I thought I heard that the speed was close to a record for the discipline.

As for the groupetto in the mountains, if it is large enough (20% of the field), it is discretionary whether the group is allowed to continue.

 

[northstar]

todays result:

most hyped:
Garmin
the fact that in their interview that this is the core of what the team build upon. And they were confident they can deliver the result. Well, they aren't even in the top 3

I think the team's result was not far off from the team's expectations. Vaughters predicted a close TT with Garmin being in the top 3 along with Greenedge (good call) and BMC (bad call). They missed the top 3 by 14 seconds so it was close. I agree they were over-hyped but that was more the result of the media playing up their chances and not because of what the team said.

 

[karrotten]

Niki Terpstra: 'We rode like a train, Greenedge rode like a bus.'

Long live the Orica bus jokes.

Who would have thought that Orica Greenedge would have such a big impact on the Tour this year

 

[darwin553]

Well done to Orica Greenedge. Go you good thing!

 

[nick101]

When i saw the results for today I was afraid to look because Sky could have won. But Greenedge won awesome! When i found out I was both grinning and laughing due to their earlier bus exploits.
All that talk of Sky destroying the competition amounted to nothing and made those who said it look stupid. I wouldn't be surprised to see the yellow jersey still with Gerrans after Ax-3. He can actually climb

I was really surprised with BMC, they put out a dire performance and got beaten by Lotto, same with Garmin. They also put out a disapointing performance. Not having Cancellara hurt Leopard, another dire performance.
Sad for Ted King

 

[Tigerion]

The thing I don't like about Team Time Trials is that they count for the GC and therefore put certain people in the hole and out of the hole, when it isn't simply due to them. This isn't being a fanboy either, but it's true. JRod is already 28 seconds down, Pinot is 40 seconds down and Rolland/Vockeler are 1:13 down. While it's not impossible for these guys to win it now, they are already in the hole and they are going to have to do something big to get back in. It eliminates people unnecessarily early. These TT's are almost always going to benefit the richer teams as well.

The thing a short TTT does is stop a team bringing all mountain doms with the idea of going balistic on the climbs. They can try but if they do they will suffer in the TTT. If you bring a strong TTT team then you miss out on some support in the mountains. It then comes down to which tactic you think will suit your team better

 

[Boeing]

BMC colossal fail. That's 26 seconds of your life you will never get back

 

[greenedge better then some]

i find it odd our cam meyer can finish mins behind the team yet get a stage win

can't say i'm stunned by bmc,won't be stunned if they have a meaningless tour with no wins or top 10 gc

 

[Boeing]

i find it odd our cam meyer can finish mins behind the team yet get a stage win

can't say i'm stunned by bmc,won't be stunned if they have a meaningless tour with no wins or top 10 gc

a lack of continuity

 

[Microchip]

From the Tour de France rule book:

Elimination coefficients
Finishing times may be adapted under exceptional situations ...

Possible exceptions
The Stewards’ Committee may exceptionally allow one or several particularly unlucky riders to qualify, after informing the race management.

In this case the following factors will be taken into consideration:
• the average speed of the stage;
• the point at which the incident or accident occurred;
• the effort made by the rider or riders delayed by such incidents or accidents;
• the possible degree of impassability of the roads.

...

Based on this, arguably the committee should have allowed him to proceed. The 'incident' which caused his delay was the fault of the race organizers and the officiating crew...

Agreed. They are responsible for the manner in which he had to ride today - solely because of his injuries. The VeloNews editorial makes a good suggestion that the riders refuse to ride if he’s not there.

 

[wwabbit]

All that talk of Sky destroying the competition amounted to nothing and made those who said it look stupid.

What talk is this? I've read through the whole thread and nobody mentioned anything about Sky destroying the competition. Are you just making stuff up?

 

[movingtarget]

BMC colossal fail. That's 26 seconds of your life you will never get back

Will it make a huge difference to their Tour ? No.

 

[Ferminal]

Probably not, may be the difference between 5th and 6th against say a Van den Broeck; or Pinot who they would have expected to take more time out of. Hopefully it encourages them to be more adventurous as even after the TT I wouldn't expect either to be in the top 3. They are going to be quite invisible otherwise.