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2019 UCI Road World Championships Men's Road Race : 284.5km

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Because of the horrible weather. Better weather and I suspect a lot who dropped out not only would have finished but would have been in the mix at the end. I suspect there were a lot who would have preferred to not even bother starting in the first place due to the weather.
Yes but why does that matter? Some days there's bad weather, some days it's scorching hot. Each rider does well in different circumstances. The weather made the race tougher but I don't see how that made the race worse. We got to see who are the real tough guys in the peloton. Küng and Pedersen wouldn't have been on the podium on a nice and sunny day. They live for these conditions and made the most of it. Others who prefer different weather conditions had a bad day. Tough luck, no race can suit every single rider.
 
Invalid no technical descents and no bad conditions to lead to any of that. Also it was well known that last year's course had maybe 3-5 riders who could actually win. This year's course was open to where at least 20 or MORE riders SHOULD have had a chance, but the vast majority were flat out never given the opportunity due to the weather. Totally different type of race. We will NEVER know how good the race could have been.
So we should judge the race based on how well the favorites did? This race still had 10+ guys that could have won: Trentin, Pedersen, Küng, Moscon, Sagan, Valgren, Van der Poel, Van Avermaet, Kristoff, Fuglsang, Colbrelli, Stybar, Betancur, and so on. Maybe some of them weren't favorites ahead of the race and others that were favorites had a tough day. So what? That's just what happens in sports.
 
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It was a horrible race with horrible weather and should not have been allowed to go on. They are just very LUCKY there weren't any serious injuries due to the horrendous weather. Ranks with Quatar as how bad it was.



Actually I'd say it didn't suite ANYONE at all. It SHOULD have been good for Gilbert, but he's one that abandoned. Should have been good for MvdP, but obviously was NOT. Thus proving your premise is wrong and it was horrible for everyone. I also expect that we have riders having to end their seasons due to illness from these conditions. The ones walking away earlier have a better chance of not ending up sick.
It was perfectly suited for Pedersen, Trentin and Küng! I'm sorry, I don't understand your point. Just because the pre-race favorites didn't all do well the race was horrible? That's silly.
 
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So we should judge the race based on how well the favorites did? This race still had 10+ guys that could have won: Trentin, Pedersen, Küng, Moscon, Sagan, Valgren, Van der Poel, Van Avermaet, Kristoff, Fuglsang, Colbrelli, Stybar, Betancur, and so on. Maybe some of them weren't favorites ahead of the race and others that were favorites had a tough day. So what? That's just what happens in sports.


Sagan had exactly zero chance to win as soon as the group with the eventual winner got away. So sorry, but most of those riders didn't have a chance to win. The moment that group got away the race was over. There was no one left with teammates that could chase. Dry weather it's highly likely more riders and more riders with teammates are there to chase.


Yes but why does that matter? Some days there's bad weather, some days it's scorching hot. Each rider does well in different circumstances. The weather made the race tougher but I don't see how that made the race worse. We got to see who are the real tough guys in the peloton. Küng and Pedersen wouldn't have been on the podium on a nice and sunny day. They live for these conditions and made the most of it. Others who prefer different weather conditions had a bad day. Tough luck, no race can suit every single rider.


This kind of weather causes injury and illness. The weather ensured a LOT of riders walked away from the race to preserve their health. So it didn't make the race harder, it ensured a lot of riders wanted no part of it and basically just had to decide when their health started to mean more than the race.
 
Where does the UCI go from here...even a first time bike racing watcher could see that after punctures ,mechanicals ,crashes,bike changes, car support and urine breaks there was far far far more motorpacing or dodge drafting than in the infamous U23 travesty..
not to mention way more video footage of the " infractions ".
The most dangerous things to observed were the following distances..on wet roads no less and UCI marked car stopping or slowing in strange stupid places..

I watched most of the race today and I didn't see any illegal pacing. There is a world of a difference between riding right behind your own team car for 2-3 minutes and trying to get back to the peloton while passing one team car after the other.
 
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And then what? Should we never hold any races when it rains? The weather was bad but it wasn't apocalyptic. It wasn't windy like Gent-Wevelgem when Paolini won, there wasn't a snow storm like when Ciolek won Milano-Sanremo. It was a tough day out there but nothing these riders have never faced before.

Not when roads are flooding. The fact that so many walked away saying it was the weather says something.
 
Sagan had exactly zero chance to win as soon as the group with the eventual winner got away. So sorry, but most of those riders didn't have a chance to win. The moment that group got away the race was over. There was no one left with teammates that could chase. Dry weather it's highly likely more riders and more riders with teammates are there to chase.
But that's cycling!

This kind of weather causes injury and illness. The weather ensured a LOT of riders walked away from the race to preserve their health. So it didn't make the race harder, it ensured a lot of riders wanted no part of it and basically just had to decide when their health started to mean more than the race.
So in the future we'll only race with temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius because what if riders get hypothermia or heat stroke or dehydrated, no wind gusts above 25 kph because that might cause crashes, no rain as that might cause crashes, no UV index above 4 as that might cause skin cancer in the future. Sounds like a great idea!
 
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Should have postponed it.

yeah because thats pratical isn't it? When would they race it? Do you have any comprehension into amount of planning and time it takes to get roads closed and have marshalls on the route and emrgency vehicles on standby, also all the logistics for TV coverage. The entire town of harrogate had been brought to a standstill for a week. They couldn't postpone it until the first sunny day came along.

Not practial at all.
 
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Oh, come on. You call these conditions insane? I've seen stages in the snow in Giro and TdF. L-B-L in 1980 in the snow won by Hinault was insane. The heat in the Vuelta can be insane. The wind gusts in Gent-Wevelgem in 2015 blew riders of their bikes. That was crazy.

This was just rain, but because it lasted all day, it wore the riders down. This kind of survival is the definition of heroism. I'm sure everyone recovered within a couple of hours.

I have a feeling that Koronin hates races which his favourite riders don't win. ;)
 
So then why not have a race in the middle of a hurricane. Obviously rider safety isn't important so racing in the middle a hurricane would definitely make it hard and selective.

Rider safety was not at risk today. The parts of the course that were under water WERE NOT RACED. We have seen many scenarios over the years where the riders have refused to race or where race/stagehas been neutralised because of concerns over rider safety. That did not happen today. If the riders were unhappy they would have made it clear to the commissaires.

And no one is suggesting the peloton should ride in a a hurricane, You are just being ridiculous now.
 
I had only seen relatively normal opinions from this Koronin person before the last few hours (feel free to correct me, I obviously don't read everything here). where did all this come from? whatever credibility(?) they had on this forum beforehand has completely disappeared.

I assumed they were trolling, with every post, I realise they are serious! :oops: the fact that literally no-one even partly agrees with anything you have said is a sign that perhaps you are wrong. very wrong.

as everyone has pointed out, the dangerous bits were removed and there was one large puddle at a point in the race where no-one was going full pelt. wet roads is hardly a reason to stop a race.
 
Rider safety was not at risk today. The parts of the course that were under water WERE NOT RACED. We have seen many scenarios over the years where the riders have refused to race or where race/stagehas been neutralised because of concerns over rider safety. That did not happen today. If the riders were unhappy they would have made it clear to the commissaires.

And no one is suggesting the peloton should ride in a a hurricane, You are just being ridiculous now.

I believe many of those walking away from today's race was a form of protest. Just by having to chance the course it PROVES that it wasn't safe to race. Yes rider's health was at risk. With the conditions today, it's HIGHLY likely many of the riders will end up sick because of it. Many pulled out of that concern. With what Alaphilippe said at the end of the race, I'll be surprised if he doesn't end up sick and possibly ensure he can't race the fall classics for that reason. Yes the weather conditions did put the health of these riders at risk and the risk of illness is putting the end of the season for many of these riders at risk.
 
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