2016 Paris - Nice, March 6th - 13th, WT

[HelloDolly]

Riders seem to be backing Matthews win...Bouhanni not liked

 

[BigMac]

Try to explain Bouhanni cutting off Matthews using his body, leaning excessively to the left on his bike. That's utterly wrong. Matthews had a clear path had Nacer not blocked it with a sucker move, so I cannot understand where the people saying Matthews was also to blame are coming from. Guy is used dirty tactics against and should just call it quits? Props for staying in contention.

 

[yaco]

The more important thing is the non-showing in two stages of the gun sprinters in Greipel, Kittel and Kristoff.

Matthews is riding well which augurs well for the rest of the season, though it's a surprise to see him sprint so well, but he will lose time in Stage 6.

Looking forward to Tirreno with the upcoming sprinters in Ewan and Gaviria against Cavendish, as well as the Italian sprinters who sprint well on home ground.

 

[Alexandre B.]

What happens when Bouhanni feel threatened by Matthews?

Vuelta 2014 -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlkGnnZkqA

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Try to explain Bouhanni cutting off Matthews using his body, leaning excessively to the left on his bike. That's utterly wrong. Matthews had a clear path had Nacer not blocked it with a sucker move, so I cannot understand where the people saying Matthews was also to blame are coming from. Guy is used dirty tactics against and should just call it quits? Props for staying in contention.

If Matthews wants to risk a crash to have his opponent disqualified, fair enough.

 

[Samamba]

Contador & Porte lost a couple of seconds.

 

[classicomano]

That typical North-African spirit that we all came to know and love.

Please just ban him from the sport before people start dying.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Try to explain Bouhanni cutting off Matthews using his body, leaning excessively to the left on his bike. That's utterly wrong. Matthews had a clear path had Nacer not blocked it with a sucker move, so I cannot understand where the people saying Matthews was also to blame are coming from. Guy is used dirty tactics against and should just call it quits? Props for staying in contention.

If Matthews wants to risk a crash to have his opponent disqualified, fair enough.

Not to have his opponent DQ'd, but to do his job which is to race for the win.

Again, there was enough space had Nacer not used his body to block that part of the road. Using the breaks at that point would be even worse.

 

[HelloDolly]

Some GC guys lose time cos of splits in the peloton ??
Reports saying Porte and Contador on wrong side of split ?

GC guys may rue that they let Matthews gain so much time
I think Matthews (who I don't really like ) has the makings on one of the best all round riders ever ...maybe better than Sagan

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

Try to explain Bouhanni cutting off Matthews using his body, leaning excessively to the left on his bike. That's utterly wrong. Matthews had a clear path had Nacer not blocked it with a sucker move, so I cannot understand where the people saying Matthews was also to blame are coming from. Guy is used dirty tactics against and should just call it quits? Props for staying in contention.

If Matthews wants to risk a crash to have his opponent disqualified, fair enough.

So Matthews deliberately set out while risking a crash to have Bouhanni DSQed ?
You can't make this type of inane sh*t up..or maybe you can

 

[Tonton]

Jalabert, who knows a thing or two about sprints (among other things ) was commenting live, giving the blame to Nacer, but also noting that Matthews kept going for a hole that was no longer there, thus being at fault to a smaller extend.

Had Matthews backed off he would not have got his rightful win, encouraging more of these types of tactics.

Very good point.

I don't disagree. However, let's not bury our heads in the sand here. These tactics exist, and as a matter of fact are widespread. Even for a placing, i.e. Aru blocking Pinot atop Malhao. Just sayin'...

 

[DBotero]

Funny that Majka was in Thomas wheel at the end,but not Contador.Zakarin managed to lose 12 sec

 

[scrooll07]

Never liked that french s**t,not only for today but at all sprints he made he is riding dirty.He seems like a typical "wannabe" always want to be the "bad guy" but in reality is one a*****e.

 

[yaco]

Kudos to Sean Kelly. He picked Bouhanni and Matthews with around 10kms to go.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Try to explain Bouhanni cutting off Matthews using his body, leaning excessively to the left on his bike. That's utterly wrong. Matthews had a clear path had Nacer not blocked it with a sucker move, so I cannot understand where the people saying Matthews was also to blame are coming from. Guy is used dirty tactics against and should just call it quits? Props for staying in contention.

If Matthews wants to risk a crash to have his opponent disqualified, fair enough.

So Matthews should back off when his rival pushes him closer and closer to the barriers. Matthews was allready next to him when started to close the gap more and more. Not to mention the crazy move from the middle of the road to the barriers.

If Matthews backed off I'm afraid Bouhanni was given the win. We can't have the bully win because he bullied a rider away.

 

[rainman]

Re:

Thats harsh and innappropriate. He's a feisty sprinter who needs to tamp it down a bit. It doesn't make him a bad person. Abdujaporov back in the day, he did have a bad streak.
response to scrool

 

[Brullnux]

He deserved to be demoted to third. Cycling is a dangerous sport and there's no need to increase the chances of crashing at 60km/h by pushing the other rider into the barriers, just so you can win a sprint. Even if people think what Bouhanni did was that bad, it's also the principle. By not demoting him you, ASO, then are saying that it's OK to risk others people health and put them at risk of a serious injury in a sprint. Hopefully now Bouhanni will realise that it's actually worse to do this, because you don't win and you are demoted. He's lucky it's only third. Furthermore, it's Stage 2 of Paris-Nice. I don't want to disrespect Paris-Nice, it's a fantastic race with great prestige and history, but a rider like Bouhanni IMO shouldn't be even thinking about doing illegal manoeuvres to win the stage. If it had been Champs-d'elysees then OK, I understand; if it had been a rider who has never won a race and races in small team and go whom it would mean the world to win this stage, then I understand. Bouhanni, not so much.

 

[TMP402]

Funny that Majka was in Thomas wheel at the end,but not Contador.Zakarin managed to lose 12 sec

Kind of like Suisse last year and Thomas incrementally gaining time on Pinot.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

A picture is worth thousand words.

Nacer on the wrong here. Don't think he did it intentionally, but his carelesness should not go unpunished, especially when it spoiled Matthews' sprint the way it did.

Matthews had a good 25 cm between him and the barriers: why did he swerve so close to Bouhanni?

Maybe that would be too dangerous? You talk about being 25cm away from the barriers as if it was meters. But even so, look at Nacer's body leaned towards Matthews whilst Matthews is keeping a straight line. Some things are just clear and don't deserve debate.

I watched the whole sprint and I don't think that Nacer should be DQed, it was nothing special, Matthews also took a risky line and a normal contact happened. Nacer was just sprinting like he always does, it looks much worse on the static picture.
Jalabert perfectly explained the situation, both riders are to blame.

 

[portugal11]

Tomorrow's stage is perfect for contador!! He will put a minute in matthews very easy, thomas is a diesel rider and the only threat is porte, dumoulin lost more than 20 seconds in fleche wallonne and mont brouilly is way more difficult. How can flo say that mont brouilly is perfect for matthews? Is just insane

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Tomorrow's stage is perfect for contador!! He will put a minute in matthews very easy, thomas is a diesel rider and the only threat is porte, dumoulin lost more than 20 seconds in fleche wallonne and mont brouilly is way more difficult. How can flo say that mont brouilly is perfect for matthews? Is just insane

Mont Bruilly is definitely not perfect for Matthews, but it's not that bad. He will do quite fine here is my guess.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Tomorrow's stage is perfect for contador!! He will put a minute in matthews very easy, thomas is a diesel rider and the only threat is porte, dumoulin lost more than 20 seconds in fleche wallonne and mont brouilly is way more difficult. How can flo say that mont brouilly is perfect for matthews? Is just insane

Mont Bruilly is definitely not perfect for Matthews, but it's not that bad. He will do quite fine here is my guess.

Yeah, it's obviously not an ideal finish for Matthews (understatement ) but as far as MTFs go, this is pretty damn good for him.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Tomorrow's stage is perfect for contador!! He will put a minute in matthews very easy, thomas is a diesel rider and the only threat is porte, dumoulin lost more than 20 seconds in fleche wallonne and mont brouilly is way more difficult. How can flo say that mont brouilly is perfect for matthews? Is just insane

Mont Bruilly is definitely not perfect for Matthews, but it's not that bad. He will do quite fine here is my guess.

Yeah, it's obviously not an ideal finish for Matthews (understatement ) but as far as MTFs go, this is pretty damn good for him.

Yeah, I agree with that. I kinda like this PN parcours actually. Great when a good climbing sprinter is mixing it up with the climbers for the GC.

 

[Isaak-Gabriel]

Re:

That typical North-African spirit that we all came to know and love.

Please just ban him from the sport before people start dying.

WTF, this post doesn't smell good, at all

 

[winkybiker]

Re:

What happens when Bouhanni feel threatened by Matthews?

Vuelta 2014 -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlkGnnZkqA

Grubby sprinting from Bouhanni.