Do you support the riders' protest (stage 15 giro)?

[spalco]

I'm not sure what exactly they are protesting against, but apparently either the toughness of yesterday's stage or today's.

I'm tending towards "yes" since I usually support solidarity action in general, and more importantly, it's their lives that are on the line, but I'm still bummed about it.

Anyway, pretty clear poll.

 

[all_in]

No,the road is very safe.

 

[Eshnar]

I'm not sure what exactly they are protesting against, but apparently either the toughness of yesterday's stage or today's.

I'm tending towards "yes" since I usually support solidarity action in general, and more importantly, it's their lives that are on the line, but I'm still bummed about it.

Anyway, pretty clear poll.

lol
If it's not clear enough, no I don't support it.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Don't know why they did it, so i choose the third option

 

[spalco]

lol
If it's not clear enough, no I don't support it.

I meant not specifically that they are in danger today, but that generally it's their life, so I suppose they know how much their bodies can take. Extreme exhaustion can end careers too.

 

[Netserk]

Please take a look on the descent right now. Perfectly fine. It made *no* sense to crawl up Mont Cenis.

 

[Roderick]

It's no protest

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Of course not. What are they protesting against? Unsafe conditions? Doesn't look too bad, not much different to the Gavia in 2010, which was higher altitude as well. The stage yesterday? The organisers took Sestrières out as a concession due to the terrible weather conditions, what were they meant to do, just give them another flat stage to prevent them getting upset?

Weather is always a risk with any outdoor pursuit. No, conditions are not good out there, but the riders - including several taking part in this protest - have raced through worse. It's awful for the riders, but it's also bad for the fans and bad for the sport, when after a week of great racing, we've been served up a couple of flat stages followed by a stage where we can't see anything, and a stage nobody wants to see. This on a weekend too, with the maximal potential audience.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I meant not specifically that they are in danger today, but that generally it's their life, so I suppose they know how much their bodies can take. Extreme exhaustion can end careers too.

More of a risk for the guys suffering from the heat in California, you'd think.

This was going to be a sub-150km stage before the various shortening plans. Don't see how exhaustion would be a factor in a protest here when we didn't get similar actions in 2010 or 11 on the Zomegnan crazy routes.

 

[Eshnar]

I meant not specifically that they are in danger today, but that generally it's their life, so I suppose they know how much their bodies can take. Extreme exhaustion can end careers too.

Either they don't know anything or they're just pretending. Everyone (riders, medias, etc.) praised this Giro as more human than the past ones, showing that they didn't even properly look at it.
The weather is not controllable so against who they're protesting?
Today's conditions aren't even that bad as predicted. This stage is <150 km long and yesterday it had only one climb... wtf they're complaining for?

EDIT: Libertine beat me.

 

[SafeBet]

It's no protest

I tend to agree.
They just wanted to take it easy after many days in bad weather conditions.

Not a big deal. Done plenty of times in the past too. Enjoy the race now.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

The riders are as soft as Justin Bieber.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If they're protesting against having to ride a climb they're bored to death by in the French races, let alone having to do it in the Italian races too, however, I fully support their actions and insist that they continue the ceasefire until the end of the stage.

I assume they're only doing this on Mont-Cenis so that everybody is still together to protest against Galibier.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

The riders are as soft as Justin Bieber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyRhb0_BdZU

He is a badass

 

[Christian]

It sucks for everyone, riders, organizers, sponsors, fans... but most of all for the riders of course. This is the second year in a row that we have such horrible conditions that races are cancelled, shortened or turned into a farce. I guess all you can do is hope for next year.

 

[the asian]

No. There have been more adverse weather conditions than today or even yesterday in races.
The thing I fear most is that the RCS will take the riders actions in to account and design much more lamer parcours in the future.

 

[SafeBet]

No. There have been more adverse weather conditions than today or even yesterday in races.
The thing I fear most is that the RCS will take the riders actions in to account and design much more lamer parcours in the future.

I struggle to remember such wet two weeks of racing in a GT.

 

[Eshnar]

I struggle to remember such wet two weeks of racing in a GT.

what about 2010?

 

[SafeBet]

what about 2010?

I remember some extremely wet days but some sunny days as well. This has been non stop bad weather for ten days or something. And bear in mind this is coming from a whole first part of the season with **** weather too.

I don't have the sharpest of memory so I'll admit I could be wrong about it.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Are we talking about an outspoken protest? Or just a common understanding that yesterday was hell for everybody, and that it would be better for the rest of this giro to keep calm for the first 60km of this stage?

 

[Carols]

First of all I don't know if it was a protest Maybe 200 guys who have faced brutal conditions and ridden hard for 15 days decided to take a little break on themselves for the first part?

Either way there was just as much action in the final 20km as on many stages I've seen over the years. May not have been GC action; but action none the less.

I choose to Enjoy watching Cycling, but hey that's just me

 

[dgodave]

I would like to neutralize the first half of this poll.

 

[Telmisartan new]

The peloton are a bunch of big girl's blouses.

Cancellara kicked all this off,next it was Andy doesn't think tough descents are what the Tour is all about,Wiggo Wiggins scarpers off home from the Giro at the first sign of rain and guess what? yep,more descents,those strange things which some riders believe have just appeared in races for the first time,its all getting out of hand,where are the hard men? I can think of some riders who would be turning in their grave seeing the behaviour of these fairies.Honestly...

 

[Ryongsyong]

Problem with pro-cyclists in particular when they complain about danger is that unlike other sports that can be dangerous, they do something that a lot of the general public do too. We cycle in the rain, the snow, over ice, and have to dodge out the way of lorries and buses. It's certainly true that it's more tiring to be a pro-cyclist, but I have to say that as a cyclist who goes through central London very regularly, it's much more dangerous to do what we do, and unfortunately the death and injury figures show that. I remember in the Tour of Korea last year some cyclist wrote some long article complaining about the motorbikes being too large. Very sorry, but I simply can't feel too sorry for someone getting paid to cycle on closed roads and being annoyed about 'big motorbikes' while I'm in a city centre dodging out the way of potholes and slippery manhole covers while getting passed by articulated lorries just inches away from me and constantly looking out for lunatics pulling out of sidestreets in front of me, and doing that for no money at all. No, I don't feel any sympathy for a professional sportsman who has all the expensive gear and then complains it's too cold or who says that they might fall off if they go too fast. Pick yourself up and get back on, like the rest of us do, if we've been lucky enough not to get squashed by the bus that was driving a foot behind up or the lorry whose driver was on his phone. Count yourselves fortunate to be away from the constant dangers we have to face in the real world, pro-cyclists.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Problem with pro-cyclists in particular when they complain about danger is that unlike other sports that can be dangerous, they do something that a lot of the general public do too. We cycle in the rain, the snow, over ice, and have to dodge out the way of lorries and buses. It's certainly true that it's more tiring to be a pro-cyclist, but I have to say that as a cyclist who goes through central London very regularly, it's much more dangerous to do what we do, and unfortunately the death and injury figures show that. I remember in the Tour of Korea last year some cyclist wrote some long article complaining about the motorbikes being too large. Very sorry, but I simply can't feel too sorry for someone getting paid to cycle on closed roads and being annoyed about 'big motorbikes' while I'm in a city centre dodging out the way of potholes and slippery manhole covers while getting passed by articulated lorries just inches away from me and constantly looking out for lunatics pulling out of sidestreets in front of me, and doing that for no money at all. No, I don't feel any sympathy for a professional sportsman who has all the expensive gear and then complains it's too cold or who says that they might fall off if they go too fast. Pick yourself up and get back on, like the rest of us do, if we've been lucky enough not to get squashed by the bus that was driving a foot behind up or the lorry whose driver was on his phone. Count yourselves fortunate to be away from the constant dangers we have to face in the real world, pro-cyclists.

I agree with this post so much, the city i live in is a nightmare for cyclist.That's why i sometimes call the pro riders coward but according to dominicdecoco and the likes i cannot call them cowards as i am behind a computer or some ****e.