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Crashes, what can be done?

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We lost two riders - a guy who has one GT top 10 in his career (a podium which he acquired because a rival who had been stronger throughout the race had a pajará and then an epic tantrum on the penultimate day of the race) in Haig, and a guy who isn't a GC rider in the slightest in Gogl.

Climbers down at the back of the results sheet are people like Verona, Storer and Zeits. Guys like Froome and Woods should be stagehunters so losing time is no problem to them, and riders like Majka, Kuss and Kruijswijk are going to be domestiques later in the race anyway. Really, the only thing here is that Roglič lost time and, sure, the Tour might be over for him... but if it isn't, then he still lost less than 2 minutes, and if the race is over because one rider lost a minute 50 on stage 5 then we may as well just quit now.
 
We lost two riders - a guy who has one GT top 10 in his career (a podium which he acquired because a rival who had been stronger throughout the race had a pajará and then an epic tantrum on the penultimate day of the race) in Haig, and a guy who isn't a GC rider in the slightest in Gogl.

Climbers down at the back of the results sheet are people like Verona, Storer and Zeits. Guys like Froome and Woods should be stagehunters so losing time is no problem to them, and riders like Majka, Kuss and Kruijswijk are going to be domestiques later in the race anyway. Really, the only thing here is that Roglič lost time and, sure, the Tour might be over for him... but if it isn't, then he still lost less than 2 minutes, and if the race is over because one rider lost a minute 50 on stage 5 then we may as well just quit now.
O'Connor was the other GC contender out of the picture after today.
 
Yeah well, who cares if Ben O Connor loses 3 minutes. That will probably just make the race better aa theres one less rider to hold on for dear life until getting dropped.

Primoz is the big hit, but then again, we might get to see a better race this way as long as hes not injured and feeling fine.

Im just glad Mas didnt crash as he has done in virtually every race he entered this season.
 
Yeah well, who cares if Ben O Connor loses 3 minutes. That will probably just make the race better aa theres one less rider to hold on for dear life until getting dropped.

Primoz is the big hit, but then again, we might get to see a better race this way as long as hes not injured and feeling fine.

Im just glad Mas didnt crash as he has done in virtually every race he entered this season.
O'Connor would have had the same impact on the GC fight as Mas.
 
I'll make my annual post. Race radio creates crashes. The higher the stakes, the more anxious the DSes and the more crashes you get as a bunch of teams are all ordered to compete for the same bit of tarmac and intermittently ride one handed and focus on a conversation while riding close in a bunch. These same selfish DSes then say team radio is essential for rider safety. The only variable that can explain increased crashes at the TdF compared to anywhere else is the increased anxiety of DSes and how that feeds through to riders via the earpiece.

I'd have a single race radio feed only, one directional so both hands are on handlebars. I'd include a dedicated organisers motorbike deployed 100yds infront of the first group on the road of more than 10 riders (smaller groups have better visibility). This bike would be responsible for calling out road furniture, sharp bends and narrowing roads and saying 'caution' as an advisory to riders if there was an elevated risk. There would be no requirement for riders to slow down but at least they'd be forewarned.

This will never happen so we can continue to enjoy sporting heroes getting broken bones and entire 3 week races being ruined as a spectacle due to crashes manufactured by moronic DSes.

If I was a billionaire I'd run parallel races where team radio was banned and try to kill off the existing teams because they ruin so many stages and races with their damn radios, constant time gap updates, wattage instructions and manufactured crashes.
 
I'd have a single race radio feed only, one directional so both hands are on handlebars. I'd include a dedicated organisers motorbike deployed 100yds infront of the first group on the road of more than 10 riders (smaller groups have better visibility). This bike would be responsible for calling out road furniture, sharp bends and narrowing roads and saying 'caution' as an advisory to riders if there was an elevated risk. There would be no requirement for riders to slow down but at least they'd be forewarned.

Speaking of motorbikes, something needs to be done about the sheer number of vehicles in the race (& on the cobbles in particular). Ben O'Connor complained about them & he had a serious point.

The dust, the danger, the impediment they create on the road. Just crazy when time gaps are the essence of the sport.
 
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Bump.

Today is the best/worst example in a long time of the consequences of the lack of any sort of enforcement of any sort of rules with regards to sprint finish designs. A disgrace to the sport and a danger to all of the peloton. Especially bad that one of the two big crashes was in a notorious serial offender of a race in the Tour of Poland.
 
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