Froome stays in yellow, the right decision?

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

We might as well neutralize every mechanical and flat tire as well now.

Fan/moto caused crash vs. flat tyre. Yeah they're the same thing

The organisers are supposed to sweep the road clear of debris before each stage. If they miss a bit and it causes a flat, isn't that kind of their fault? The problem with making up rules for certain things is it becomes very difficult to know where to draw the line.

 

[Electress]

No. Totally inconsistent decision. From the riders' point of view, it was something beyond their control. But so what? Plenty of incidents happen which are beyond the riders' control without the jury intervening to make it 'fair'. The only thing you can do is be consistent with the rules, and trust that over the course of a race or career, that bad luck will even out for the riders. By taking these decisions, GC riders / favourites are always going to come off better because they will be preferenitally protected from incidents, when the less well known guys will be overlooked because it isn't so high profile.

Really, what a mess.

 

[mr. tibbs]

I'm no fan of Froome, but I think the decision was correct. Not impressed by how he was unable to ride a neutral bike though, that was weird.

Seemed to me to be incompatible pedals that's why he couldn't ride it. Not able to properly clip in.

Also just looked the wrong size. Not quite me riding my daughters bike wrong, but clearly not a good fit.

The neutral bike has Mavic pedals which is really pointless as no one really uses them. Froome had Shimano cleats which also work on Look.

The bike was size L, he needed XL.

Shimano cleats aren't compatitable with look pedals, they are to large to clip but I guess he could of gotten the head on the cleat into a look pedal but he wouldn't of been able to put any serious power through it without it slipping out.

I'll add to this that Mavic's pedals are really just re-branded Time Xpresso pedals. I know some teams have ridden them in the past (I specifically remember Lampre riding the Xpresso 6 at Roubaix), but I'm not sure who or if anyone is on them now.

 

[Alexandre B.]

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

 

[deValtos]

Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

Meh, I feel bad for Froome.

Wasn't really his fault but the chain of events have turned public opinion back against him.

 

[gazr99]

Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

What are the French most annoyed at, their riders not doing well, lack of French attacks/performances today, Pinot going backwards looking awful or that the moto only ran over Froome's bike and not Froome himself? :lol:

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

What are the French most annoyed at, their riders not doing well, lack of French attacks/performances today, Pinot going backwards looking awful or that the moto only ran over Froome's bike and not Froome himself? :lol:

I doubt the French would of wanted to see anyone run over by a Moto

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

Meh, I feel bad for Froome.

Wasn't really his fault but the chain of events have turned public opinion back against him.

I'm really sorry for them. They didn't deserve that.

 

[red_flanders]

Definitely the hardest I've laughed during a bike race in a long, long while. Watching that goofy clown run up the hill in his cleats was worth any decision that came down afterward. My 11-year-old was laughing so hard she almost couldn't breathe. Gold.

It's better to be right than consistent, and yes, the most fair decision was reached, as much as I loathe Froome. What sits badly is the many times in the past when riders have lost out on races due to bad luck and not gotten the help of the race officials. The officials do and should have leeway to make judgement calls out on the road, this was the right call.

None of it matters, Froome is simply watching his power meter and covering attacks in an attempt to reduce the absurdity levels, as he has in the past. There's no competition left, the race is over and in the bag...

...barring any future hilarity outside the 3k line.

 

[Cookster15]

Good decision. If its good enough to have a 3k rule for sprinters it should be good enough for GC guys too when crowds intervene as in today. There should always be discretion available for such unpredictable circumstances.

 

[RattaKuningas]

I don't think that times should've been changed because of the precedent it creates and because of the history of similar incidents as well. I have nothing against Froome and this stance can't be somehow anti-Froome because I would take the same stance no matter who crashed. But the only thing that I am not okay with is the peeing incident.

 

[Jonas78]

Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

The French people should be ashamed, instead they think the decision was wrong. But I guess it is as expected. They were booing when Ronaldo got injured, they are terrible spectators at French Open, and now this.

 

[spalco]

Re: Re:

It's pretty simple isn't it? Just keep the results as they stand on the line in any circumstances. Bad luck already decides a lot of races and GTs - these situations don't happen enough to warrant specific rules.

If the peloton decides to slow down when someone crashes or whatever, then that's up to them - but there certainly shouldn't be any rule saying they have to. If Movistar or whoever else wants to attack in that situation, then they will just get a bad rep in the peloton and will probably be worse off in the long run.

Agreed. Racing is racing, everything else is something the riders have to arrange among themselves as the race develops.

The only exception should be when it benefits the riders' safety, like the 3K rule.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Re:

One thing is clear : french people are pissed off.

Good luck, Team Sky. Well done, UCI Commissaires. This will be painful until the end.

The French people should be ashamed, instead they think the decision was wrong. But I guess it is as expected. They were booing when Ronaldo got injured, they are terrible spectators at French Open, and now this.

I don't understand booing as well. Froome hasn't done anything bad to French people.

 

[Cookster15]

Re: Re:

What are the French most annoyed at, their riders not doing well, lack of French attacks/performances today, Pinot going backwards looking awful or that the moto only ran over Froome's bike and not Froome himself? :lol:

My guess? Having to listen to regurgitated Armstrong-style insults from another un-informed, nationalistic fan base after having to watch the regurgitation that is UK Postal.

Wait. Maybe that's just me.

There was an Australian and Dutchman with Froome too. I am no fan of Froome / Sky but the un-informed, nationalistic fan base accusation can just as easily be directed at the French. Its not just Pinot that looks ordinary, Bardet was also being left behind by those 3.

 

[Ramon Koran]

Wrong decision in every way, defending this is awful and sets a bad precedent for big teams using of their power to influence results. Remeber BMC at tirreno this year, this is as bad.

 

[Armchaircyclist]

Re: Re:

I'm no fan of Froome, but I think the decision was correct. Not impressed by how he was unable to ride a neutral bike though, that was weird.

Seemed to me to be incompatible pedals that's why he couldn't ride it. Not able to properly clip in.

I read somewhere that the Mavic neutral service bikes are fitted with proprietary Mavic pedals, which nobody in the WT peloton uses, making the bikes literally useless.

-----------
That sounds like a really good idea, why even have neutral bikes then ?

 

[shalgo]

Just cancel the whole Tour de Farce. Regardless of what they do now, there is no proper winner, just a name with an asterisk next to it.

 

[perico]

Re:

Every race has different commissaries, Hitch being bitter about Contador crashing in 2011 doesn't mean one wrong has to mean another wrong. At the end I don't think is is a precedent at all, there are no rules and probably won't be about such weird situations, it has to be taken case by case.

Fans hating Froome will be bitter cause in past commissionaires did nothing, Froome fans will be delighted and say this is justice. Hard to say, for me it was right thing to do as ASO **** it up there, the crash was caused by overcrowding and people coming down from cancelled part of Ventoux, this mean ASO should have taken barriers or police or did something before. They did not.

I'm a huge Contador fan but think it was the right decision. Froome has earned my respect this Toir and I am actually rooting for him. I never actually disliked him. His wife actually was the reason I couldn't stand him before anyway.

 

[Toledo Ice Cream]

Re: Re:

Every race has different commissaries, Hitch being bitter about Contador crashing in 2011 doesn't mean one wrong has to mean another wrong. At the end I don't think is is a precedent at all, there are no rules and probably won't be about such weird situations, it has to be taken case by case.

Fans hating Froome will be bitter cause in past commissionaires did nothing, Froome fans will be delighted and say this is justice. Hard to say, for me it was right thing to do as ASO **** it up there, the crash was caused by overcrowding and people coming down from cancelled part of Ventoux, this mean ASO should have taken barriers or police or did something before. They did not.

I'm a huge Contador fan but think it was the right decision. Froome has earned my respect this Toir and I am actually rooting for him. I never actually disliked him. His wife actually was the reason I couldn't stand him before anyway.

Are you an Espanyol fan? Your username suggests so.

 

[deValtos]

Re:

Just cancel the whole Tour de Farce. Regardless of what they do now, there is no proper winner, just a name with an asterisk next to it.

Well depends what happens next and who wins. For example if Froome destroys the TT and the remaining mountain stages I doubt anyone is going to think ... well If he hadn't crashed today he wouldn't have won.

 

[Jakub]

Although it would be nice to eliminate the consequencies of the unfortunate crash, this decision is crazy and laughable. The Tour is a farce.

Anyone remember Sean Yates calling Dawg back to Wigo '12? Yes, situations like this can be solved with a help of teammate....or with a little help from the jury

 

[IndianCyclist]

Traditionally the yellow jersey has always got preference over other riders in terms of crash/support etc. from other riders/race organizations. Today was no different. Had Froome not been in yellow, it may have been a different situation. The yellow is the main symbol of the TDF and so decisions would be extremely fair or perhaps partial w.r.t it. That said this decision is the correct one.

 

[Poursuivant]

I think they could have taken the gaps at the crash point, 23" back to the Yates group, but it is still a good decision, just like it was a good decision to give Yates his time for the Flamme Rouge crash. Mollema needs to bear in mind Yates got leeway for his crash and he was "on his own."

 

[Jonas78]

Re: Re:

What are the French most annoyed at, their riders not doing well, lack of French attacks/performances today, Pinot going backwards looking awful or that the moto only ran over Froome's bike and not Froome himself? :lol:

My guess? Having to listen to regurgitated Armstrong-style insults from another un-informed, nationalistic fan base after having to watch the regurgitation that is UK Postal.

Wait. Maybe that's just me.

Its not just cycling, they are terrible spectators on at least tennis (Roland Garros) and football (booing when Ronaldo got injured) too. I couldnt believe my own eyes and ears when they booing on Froome in yellow today. They are worse than children. Pathetic