2014 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4: Giovinazzo - Bari (112 Km)

[Geraint Too Fast]

Moral knights have arrived. Cmon, when the riders were not riding it was dry and there was nothing going on. Don't use a sudden rain drop in the final round to prove their supposed 'being right'

Do you realise how stupid this sounds?

 

[SafeBet]

Every rider I'm hearing at the Processo agrees it was the right decision. They had some rain at the beginning of the stage and they literally couldn't stay on their bike, so they talked to Vegni and asked for the neutralisation.

Petacchi, Viviani, Scarponi, there's no exception thus far.

 

[Afrank]

How the hell do you know?

Bigmac said early in thread Lampre and Trek wanted to race. I heard from other places there were riders against the neutralization.

 

[Lupi33]

I think some people just dont want to be wrong

was clearly correct decision to me. you cant know what the road condition is like unless you've ridden on it. roads arent all the same.

 

[Jspear]

Hey, even if the stage was a dud at least the last 5 k were entertaining. Giant missed a chance at another stage win. Bouhanni wasn't even there at first, they had 4 guys and could have been racing harder (yes I know the roads were wet.) Congrats to Bouhanni.....That was a pretty good sprint from far back. I can't wait for this 1st week to be over. Although tomorrow should be better than today....depends on how they race.

 

[BigMac]

Yep, certain teams clearly shown their unconformity with the 'race' situtation. You could see once in a while riders arguing with the Orica block near the front. I have seen at least two riders from Lampre and read somewhere Trek was unpleasent with it as well.

 

[SafeBet]

Bigmac said early in thread Lampre and Trek wanted to race. I heard from other places there were riders against the neutralization.

Ferrari from Lampre said it was the right thing to do. Not safe enough to race.
I reckon you're underestimating how bad roads are over there, they're slippery even when dry.

 

[Lupi33]

it would ruin the race if someone dragged out a 5 minute gap just because they were the luckiest speed skater on a dumb stage

 

[Lupi33]

Yep, certain teams clearly shown their unconformity with the 'race' situtation. You could see once in a while riders arguing with the Orica block near the front. I have seen at least two riders from Lampre and read somewhere Trek was unpleasent with it as well.

i saw BMC arguing with Orica quite profusely

 

[shalgo]

Well, if the roads are really so bad that they are unsafe even when dry then this place has no business hosting a stage in the first place.

 

[Netserk]

I think it's fair that the last lap was neutralized, but I don't get why nobody raced before that. It was a crap route and organizers are to blame, but the way the whole stage was more or less neutralized was wrong imo.

 

[SafeBet]

Petacchi is explaining what happened when all those riders talked to each other (Paolini, Matthews, etc).

Italian riders were talking to each other trying to decide what to do. Orica's riders couldn't understand and they were inclined to stop the race before even getting to the final lap. So Petacchi and others talked to them and together they decided to neutralize the final lap.

 

[Jspear]

Well, if the roads are really so bad that they are unsafe even when dry then this place has no business hosting a stage in the first place.

2nd that.

(10 char)

 

[Afrank]

Ferrari from Lampre said it was the right thing to do. Not safe enough to race.
I reckon you're underestimating how bad roads are over there, they're slippery even when dry.

Truth be told, there's so much being said on who was against it and who was for it, it's difficult to know for sure at this point. I think I'll wait until the story is straight on this one.

If the roads were really bad and slippery even when dry then the race organizers shouldn't have even put a circuit there to begin with.

I've got to get to a class though, so have to leave it at that for now (I'm not suddenly going silent because I think I'm wrong or anything like that).

 

[Carstenbf]

Lol @ the whine.

Fgs, only eight'ish people made it to the sprint. Yet both Bouhanni and Nizzolo almost wiped out in the last corner, even though they were quite careful. Imagine if the GC contenders had had to get in the mix. Would've been complete carnage.

Whine to your hearts content, I'm just happy we didn't loose any of the contenders today. (or well, I assume we didn't)

 

[SafeBet]

i saw BMC arguing with Orica quite profusely

Read my last post, they were trying to take a decision. Some were inclined to stop racing, some others wanted to get to the final lap and then neutralizing it.

That's what riders are saying at the Process at least.

 

[hfer07]

Today's stage according to Purito:

 

[Lupi33]

I think it's fair that the last lap was neutralized, but I don't get why nobody raced before that. It was a crap route and organizers are to blame, but the way the whole stage was more or less neutralized was wrong imo.

because it was a circuit and they're turning all the time
at greater speed you'd have more crashes...not just at sprint speed

 

[Lupi33]

Read my last post, they were trying to take a decision. Some were inclined to stop racing, some others wanted to get to the final lap and then neutralizing it.

That's what riders are saying at the Process at least.

yes, but who was wanting what?
i'd have thought BMC would have more to lose by racing as they have a GC contender

 

[jens_attacks]

Rider Intuition 1 - 0 Armchair Experts

Once again lol

+ 10000.

200 riders at 60 kmph on slippery roads=total carnage,most of the overall contenders out. and the forum would have been happy.
wise decision again by the racers. they know better this stuff. because they live it that's why.

 

[Carstenbf]

+1, IMO it was stupid to neutralize the race in the first place. The fact that they would have finished on dry roads had it not been neutralized shows this.

I'm not sure how to respond to this without emoticons.

 

[Flamin]

Well, we saw the riders talking heatedly at the front of the field at one point. Maybe they were arguing about wanting to race, or maybe they were just talking about Game of Thrones.

Yes, and moments later they started to race, right? What about when the neutralization started? Any proof of those 'many teams wanted to race..'?

 

[SafeBet]

yes, but who was wanting what?
i'd have thought BMC would have more to lose by racing as they have a GC contender

This seems to be a case of language misunderstanding, not a disagreement. Italian riders talked to Vegni asking for the neutralization of the final lap. Orica's riders couldn't understand what was going on and they thought the stage was going to be stopped when it started to rain. Hence Quinziato (BMC) and Paolini (Katusha) explained everything to Matthews.

I've yet to hear a rider or DS saying he wanted to race this stage.

 

[Jagartrott]

200 riders at 60 kmph on slippery roads=total carnage,most of the overall contenders out. and the forum would have been happy.
wise decision again by the racers. they know better this stuff. because they live it that's why.

Looking forward to the cobbled stage in the TdF being neutralised by 'wise' racers, preventing probably not-so-wise racers to actually ride how they want to.

 

[Lupi33]

This seems to be a case of language misunderstanding, not a disagreement. Italian riders talked to Vegni asking for the neutralization of the final lap. Orica's riders couldn't understand what was going on and they thought the stage was going to be stopped when it started to rain. Hence Quinziato (BMC) and Paolini (Katusha) explained everything to Matthews.

I've yet to hear a rider or DS saying he wanted to race this stage.

I saw a lot of them shaking their heads.

i'm going to put it out there that maybe Orica actually wanted to race as aussie mentality isnt conservative (sometimes a bit stupid )

Michael Matthews seemed sheepish in the post interview when he delivered his statements on behalf of the peloton