Renshaw out

[blaxland]

I think at the end of the day, whether you think Renshaw was bad, worse than Dean, better than Dean or anything else suggested in this thread. The punishment was way over the top, had no precedant and was inconsistent.

This is the major injustice from the whole thing...It's like someone going to gaol for speeding in a car (and only being fined for it once)...Speeding can cause accidents, can cause man slaughter etc etc. But the punishment wouldn't fit the crime

Agree with abbaskip on this one....punishment to tough for the crime.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I agree that commisares need to become more consistent or make a statement that they are not going to overlook the stuff riders are doing in sprints and that they are going to come down harder on riders.

 

[Benotti69]

it seems the only people who agree with a bunch of old guys known as commissars, are the Cav hate brigade...

most neutrals find it was harsh in comparison to other sprint situations and inconsistent with current sprinting in cycling. it is 13 years since someone was kicked out of the TdF for anything similar. Crazy.

 

[ScottyMuser]

it seems the only people who agree with a bunch of old guys known as commissars, are the Cav hate brigade...

most neutrals find it was harsh in comparison to other sprint situations and inconsistent with current sprinting in cycling. it is 13 years since someone was kicked out of the TdF for anything similar. Crazy.

13 yhears ago Steele was kicked off the tour for something FAR FAR less dangerous than Renshaw swerving towards farrar after checking where he was. *THAT* was the dangerous incident, cost Farrar AT LEAST 1 second of momentum as he had to slow, swerve just far enough to miss Renshaw and not it the barriers (considering farrar was 3rd shows that even with this type of cheating he isn't bad by any stretch of the imaginatio, especially with a broken wrist), and in fact was more than extremely lucky not to have farrar into the barriers, cuasing a MASSIVE crash
Anyone who thinks different I'm afraid clearly hasn't seen the line Renshaw takes, or believe it is ok for a lead out man, after he does his job, to on purpose try and make others crash out.

The headbutting, whenever it has happened that blataintly before, has resulted in the rider concerned (who usually is the *sprinter*) been DQFed from the stage. If that penalty had been applied to Renshaw, than the race organisers had no other choice but to DQF Renshaw for the race for the *SECOND* incident - as they would have already taken the first punishment. Anything less would have been giving carte blanche for the lead out men to do *whatever* they like in order to force others off the road, and thats simpky not cycling.

Look at it this way - in football, if a player makes a dirty tackle he will often receive a yellow - if the then later in the same match gets another yellow (in this case for a worse tackle), he receives the red card and is off.

 

[abbaskip]

13 yhears ago Steele was kicked off the tour for something FAR FAR less dangerous than Renshaw swerving towards farrar after checking where he was. *THAT* was the dangerous inciden...

i) I still believe Renshaw was chasing Cav's wheel. When Cav took off, he assumed Farrar was on it. When he saw Farrar wasn't, he went to chase the wheel. He looked behind to see how much space he had. He just wasn't coming quite fast enough at that stage. As soon as Farrar pulled up beside him (and broke the biggest rule in sprinting-taking ur hand off the bars mid sprint) and touched him, he pulled out of the sprint, realising his mistake. He isn't a dangerous sprinter, or vindictive. And his history shows this. Remember, he didn't do a full lead out, so still would have had good legs, and following Cav's wheel would have taken Green points of Thor's competitors.

ii) The officials didn't mention this incident until later on. He was originally, officially kicked out for "Headbutting", which Dean himself said was "just sprinting" (before he changed to Garmin's "version of events").

iii) Petacchi changed direction just as much, but jumped fully in front of Farrar, and slowed him even more. Petacchi also changed direction, completely from one side of the road to the other (in a stage where there WERE crashes) in Stage 1, which he won. This wasn't even mentioned!?

iv) Tom Steels throwing a bottle isn't even a 'racing incident', it is completely unrelated bad sportsmanship. And deserved it's punishment 100%

The irony is, Dean's over lapping handle bars/elbow is much much more dangerous than Mark's headbutts. And this would never have been punished, unless it caused an accident, but it did cause a reaction from Renshaw.

 

[Benotti69]

13 yhears ago Steele was kicked off the tour for something FAR FAR less dangerous than Renshaw swerving towards farrar after checking where he was. *THAT* was the dangerous incident, cost Farrar AT LEAST 1 second of momentum as he had to slow, swerve just far enough to miss Renshaw and not it the barriers (considering farrar was 3rd shows that even with this type of cheating he isn't bad by any stretch of the imaginatio, especially with a broken wrist), and in fact was more than extremely lucky not to have farrar into the barriers, cuasing a MASSIVE crash
Anyone who thinks different I'm afraid clearly hasn't seen the line Renshaw takes, or believe it is ok for a lead out man, after he does his job, to on purpose try and make others crash out.

The headbutting, whenever it has happened that blataintly before, has resulted in the rider concerned (who usually is the *sprinter*) been DQFed from the stage. If that penalty had been applied to Renshaw, than the race organisers had no other choice but to DQF Renshaw for the race for the *SECOND* incident - as they would have already taken the first punishment. Anything less would have been giving carte blanche for the lead out men to do *whatever* they like in order to force others off the road, and thats simpky not cycling.

Look at it this way - in football, if a player makes a dirty tackle he will often receive a yellow - if the then later in the same match gets another yellow (in this case for a worse tackle), he receives the red card and is off.

i think the sprinters actually are pretty good at policing themselves. there was 1 crash in a sprint finish this year and very far back from the line on a day when there were 3 crashes in the last 2/3 kms. No one was out of the race due to the crashes IIRC and no one was penalised either

Again i want to say that Sean Kelly who i consider one of the best sprinters of his time and a 4 time green jersey winner at the TdF, did not see much wrong with the sprint and he definitely did not agree to the decision to kick Renshaw out of the race. It is forbidden to take your hands of the bars in the sprint, yet Fararr did this and no penalty, ok he was possibly saving himself from the barrier, but he could've braked or used his head, which was until now and accepted form of protecting yourself from another sprinter leaning to close to you.

 

[Captain Serious]