Once again, I humbly suggest a kermesse or crit style stage. On a 5 km lap, easy to eliminate random bits of traffic furniture and even mostly barrier-line the course. GC riders can surely manage to stay safely in the back of the pack. Teams could even designate 3-4 riders as "sprinters" for the final (absent a break)
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Yes, those dividers were an accident waiting to happen. Particularly with a full peloton at that point.
The Tour will probably always have a mix of more mountainous stages, flatter stages and TTs, with riders with different characteristics and team support specialising in winning those stages. But there's no need to have the light climbers fighting for position in the chaos at the end of a flat stage. Instead of a rule allowing some reprieve after crashing/mechanicals, why not just take the GC times ten kms from the end of certain flat stages, allowing the GC guys to pedal in at their own pace and the sprinters to fight it out with more space on the road. Still time for them to finish chasing down the breakaway, fight for position, etc. And hopefully avoiding going through street furniture in the finishing town with a full peloton.
The Tour will probably always have a mix of more mountainous stages, flatter stages and TTs, with riders with different characteristics and team support specialising in winning those stages. But there's no need to have the light climbers fighting for position in the chaos at the end of a flat stage. Instead of a rule allowing some reprieve after crashing/mechanicals, why not just take the GC times ten kms from the end of certain flat stages, allowing the GC guys to pedal in at their own pace and the sprinters to fight it out with more space on the road. Still time for them to finish chasing down the breakaway, fight for position, etc. And hopefully avoiding going through street furniture in the finishing town with a full peloton.
I agree entirely.
I always agreed with the rule they have on the Champs Élysées in the event of rain where they freeze GC times entirely as soon as they enter the circuit - irrespective of crashes or not. The idea there is it would be terrible if the maillot jaune lost the Tour after a freak incident right at the end of stage 21.
Well, why not expand that to every sprint stage? This isn't the same sport as 20 years ago (it's much faster) & the road furniture is much worse now as well.
This will keep on happening again & again long after Rog has retired & the press & the ex-pros no longer have an obvious scapegoat to blame for his own misfortune.
I agree, I don't see the added benefit of having GC guys fighting for position during sprint preparation. Seems like a pretty easy fix to change it to 10 km.
If people want to actually take the GC times at 10 k to go in sprint stages, then they should also have a guy hold his finger up in the air to check if the wind is strong enough for echelons and only then decide. And there should be the option to take the time of the sprinters before the final mountain on mountain stages in case they OTL. And hey, if you don‘t have to ride the full course for GC anyway, why not allow substitute riders, so UAE can sub in Pogačar for the final week of the Vuelta to tow Ayuso to victory. Furthermore, we could ban support vehicles because they‘re dangerous to the riders. Make the riders self-sufficient with spare tires and massive reserves of bottles and energy gels! Don‘t stick to tradition, guys! Cycling can become safer and more exciting/whacky!
Let's be honest, if Pog is in the same situation he does a backflip over Lutsenko or something ridiculous like that. There is a kernel of truth in inattentiveness, not riding in team bubble etc.
Roglic is obviously prone to crash whatever the situation yesterday in the middle of the peloton the day before basically alone. Previously involved in the sprint or crashing in to hay. Changing the rules to adept to such a special rider compared to the others non crashers seems weird.
TBH dividers like yesterday's must be marked and padded and extended vertically so everybody sees them from afar. And this should be done throughout the whole stage, especially at the TDF.
I would say, within 30km to go, even minor things should be well marked, it is not so difficult.
Furthermore, a great deal of full peloton crashes happen when somebody tries to recklessly move up or to look behind. These maneuvers must be somehow penalized because the implicit punishment of you crashing by doing such a maneuver is obviously not high enough. You cannot be in the middle of the peloton and be looking behind...
I'll wait for something more official (which should be soon) but the writing was on the wall when we saw he had trouble holding his team's wheels during the chase at the end.
Let's hope he can still ride the Vuelta.
Let's hope he can still ride the Vuelta.
Yesterday's crash is an example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. No rule or safety measure could prevent that. It's just bad luck. There is no connection to Roglic's ability to brake, handle a bike or his positioning in the peloton.
Let's review his crashes:
I don't want him to continue this tour because it will be pain and suffering in the next days with major time shedding.
Let's review his crashes:
- Crash Tour 2021 -> When he was battling for a good position in the front of the peloton (regarded as the safest spot), he was pushed off by Collbreli.
- Crash Tour 2022 -> Again, he was in the front of the peloton and got caught by hale bale
- Crash Vuelta 2022 -> His fault
- Crash Giro 2023 -> he was with Ineos and the main GC guys but that didn't prevent him from being hit by the rider falling in left curve -> Tao Geoghegan Hart suffered a hip fracture and had to abandon the race
- Crash Tour 2024 -> he was hiding the whole time and again got caught by a third rider (Lutsenko) saw-ing everyone on his path...
I don't want him to continue this tour because it will be pain and suffering in the next days with major time shedding.
I really like Rog, have always been a fan, but the fact is he should have been right with Remco, Jonas, and Pog, who had no issues. He seems to be out of position far more often than a rider of his caliber should be; just my .02. Totally agree this is just so unfortunate both for him and the Tour and it really does suck to lose him from the podium fight.
I'm not talking about Roglic specifically, he's always going to find a way to crash. I'm talking about GC guys being in the mix during sprint preparations. Where's the added value in that? There is no point.
Thank you. I have a burning hatred for this high level *** takes and armchair expertise that people tend to spit without thinking about what actually happens.
Yes, Roglic is prone to crashes. He crashes himself a lot. A lot of them are fairly benign stuff. His last 3 TdF DNFs were super hard crashes and all freak accidents.
Vuelta 2022 Roglas fault? That isn't wright.
It’s a good review of the major crashes but if you want a real description of how often he crashes on races you have to have all the minor crashes as well. For example then one descent two days ago, if you crash a lot some of them are bound to be critical and that is just not unlucky but a reflection of skill of ability to handle stress or fatigue.
Imo the crashes missing from here are mostly his own fault but almost all of them are unpleasant but not race ending.
The big ones were all situations where he got literally taken out except for Vuelta 2022, which was his fault although I still don't get what exactly happened.
I mean, he’ll be 35 in November. I think he’s got one more shot next season, but who knows. Honestly, it was hard seeing him winning the tour this season. His serious chances likely ended a couple years ago.
Well, I never was a direct fan but sad, considering this was his last (long shot) at the Tour. It won't get "better" for him than Giro-Pogi, ICU-Vingo, and Rookie-Remco...
Also doubtful if Red Bull goes once more all in on Roglic or rather tries to sign a younger leader, they can work with for many years. Ayuso, for example (although personally I doubt he has, what it takes to win a Tour).
Have they gone all in on Roglic? Because if this is all in, no potential superstar should sign with them.
Ofc this is all in. They made Vlasov and Hindley, both on their own on a leader contract for sure, his domestiques. They brought no sprinter. They don't go in breaks.
Also listening to Denk on the ARD podcast weeks ago, they made the Tour squad train and ride together basically all season. All camps, for weeks. I would say thats as committed as it can get.
If they did a good job, considering the form Hindley showed up and the depth of the roster (Denz, Haller, van Poppel, Jungels, Sobrero are all decent riders but ofc not super domestiques like WvA - which would be an obvious signing) is another topic.
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