Bravo Vegni. Some serious brass balls. Integrity of Giro ahead of the mob. That is on how it should be.
- Apr 30, 2011
- 47,186
- 29,831
- 28,180
What is the real life equivalent to the first 120 km today?
I'm not aware of any labour protections in real life that stop outdoor workdays during winter in the rain. None.
This kind of decision - and I'm not addressing how it was taken, either if it was Vegni or the riders - would have stopped Pantani from going crazy in a descent to gain time in Giro and Tour 1998.
Riders have a different set of physical (w/Kg), psychological (fearlessness) and spiritual (fortitude) virtues and all those matter for winning a race. Canceling and shortening a stage is then about putting some virtues above others and thus selecting some riders over others. No one now can tell if Caruso or Vine or Buitrago would have done with a longer stage.
This is the new era of sponsor and rating bias. It's all for the show.
Riders have a different set of physical (w/Kg), psychological (fearlessness) and spiritual (fortitude) virtues and all those matter for winning a race. Canceling and shortening a stage is then about putting some virtues above others and thus selecting some riders over others. No one now can tell if Caruso or Vine or Buitrago would have done with a longer stage.
This is the new era of sponsor and rating bias. It's all for the show.
- Jun 30, 2022
- 7,444
- 10,835
- 17,180
? Yes, but if the demands are unreasonable and unfounded, you can tell people that. If the Union thing works every time, why not use it every time?
I'm quite open to race shortenings (personally), especially because the way cyclists are they are very prone to quite bad illnesses and diseases, and I'm not sure a lot of them are paid enough to warrant it.
That said, I don't think this stage is being shortened on its own merits. I think the weather of the past two weeks has changed riders' perceptions of what they are willing to ride, and while this is understandable, it's also unfair on the viewer/fans, for whom this is the first big mountain stage. I am not convinced, in this particular case, it is a fair compromise
As others have said, riding 220km on Monday in absolutely wretched conditions put their health more at risk, and could've been shortened to allow for the more big ticket stages to remain. Perhaps organisers and riders should have thought more long/medium term about it all, as this stage has definitely been shortened as a consequence of the first 12 stages, rather than the weather today.
Because it takes on average 3 hours to complete a game even though the ball is in play for just 11 minutes?
- Aug 14, 2012
- 4,126
- 5,102
- 21,180
I have the utmost respect for labour protections for people who work in extreme conditions and earn less than a respectable wage for the work they do.
This guys are 'living the dream', they earn well, some of them millions a year and that's only because of the fans. If there weren't any fans to watch them, the Tour or the Giro would matter 0 and they would earn nothing due to being a factor on those races.
What this riders give to the fans with this kind of decisions is contempt.
Of course if there are threats to riders lives, the stages should be amended or canceled, but any of the evidence regarding today's stage supports that idea? Rain is not a threat for anyone, or the dozens of recreational riders I see riding on rainy sundays around my area are all kamikaze crazies. And they are even more ridicule to cancel a pass, keeping the most dangerous one. If this decision was in name of safety, that wouldn't be the alteration required.
- Jul 25, 2012
- 12,967
- 1,970
- 25,680
Sure, if you think that'll work. I personally think it's a great way to kill participation in the Giro from top racers and ultimately kill it as a race.
'only concerns with merit about the safety of the riders made as soon as they reasonably could be made would be met with open ears.' This feels pretty ambiguous though, you';ll have to come up with some clear guidelines to define it.
- Apr 26, 2023
- 480
- 737
- 4,480
People that work a desk job going on a strike cause they are bored.
No safety risk at all. In fact the only, supposedly, dangerous part of the stage, the CDC descent, is still in the stage
- Apr 26, 2023
- 480
- 737
- 4,480
Stop the ***, the landslide and flood are in a completly different part of Italy.
- Mar 13, 2015
- 7,658
- 3,422
- 23,180
You may right, but it would have been much less incentive to cancel if they were to do a couple of passes of 1600-1700m than Coeur at almost 2200.
- Apr 30, 2011
- 47,186
- 29,831
- 28,180
I doubt it's ambiguous enough to include the unwillingness to ride the first 120 km today.
- Mar 13, 2015
- 7,658
- 3,422
- 23,180
But "labour protections" doesn't really apply for sports, since they are competing directly against each other, and they are not hired by the race organizers.
There has to be a committee to make the decisions in this kind of cases. The riders could be represented by one or two guys in that committee.
In a broader perspective, you could define some more precise criteria about the weather, such as the amount of rain accepted. It wouldn't be my cup of tea necessarily, but the randomness of the current situation annoys me.
Pirazziattacks
BANNED
- May 14, 2017
- 1,281
- 1,049
- 13,680
The serious take is that given the state of labour organisation in cycling it's inevitable that rider demands will often somewhat spontaneous in response to race design or lack of race organiser response to circumstances. In this case it's bad weather combined with illness and a lot of dropouts. People who are complaining about the number of dropouts etc compromising the race and want everything to go ahead as planned are delusional.
Bit of a boomer non sequitur given that the 2010 giro crop also did the 2013 giro, which had pretty extensive route changes and stage cancellations
- Jul 25, 2012
- 12,967
- 1,970
- 25,680
Neither of us could know what's been said, why and what options were rejected, so I'll just say it clearly could be and we can get on to the circular discussion part.
Just changed my entire day schedule for getting ready to the most antecipated stage of this Giro (personal opinion) tunned in to Eurosport and started seeing yesterday’s stage with no context whatsoever !! Then I came here to understand what’s going on and found that for safety reasons about Croix de Coeur descent the Giro shortened the stage by 120k just to start at the bottom of Croix de Coeur, so the dangerous descent will be done anyway! Someone please tell me that I’m wrong!!
Last edited:
- Sep 20, 2017
- 12,431
- 23,496
- 28,180
The 2013 Giro had snow left right and centre even on some passes that are opened in winter, completely incomparable to either the 2010 or the current Giro.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread- Started by DNP-Old
- Replies: 36K
-
Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread- Started by Lequack
- Replies: 41K
-
Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread- Started by RedheadDane
- Replies: 13K
-
Il Lombardia 2025, monument, October 11- Started by Krzysztof_O
- Replies: 792
-
-
-
Teams & Riders Everybody needs a little bit of Roglstomp in their lives- Started by johnymax
- Replies: 23K
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram