Should the grupetto have been DQ'd on Stage 15?

[Bogotano]

Re: Re:

If they are not going to enforce the time limit, how about banning any riders who finished outside from winning the stage the following day? Those riders, who have essentially broken the rules of the race, now have a massive advantage in the stage tomorrow; they should at least be deprived of that opportunity.

And how is that going to work?

You can cross the line first, but won't be on the podium? Good luck explaining that to the average follower.

And yes, they should be DQed. Ridiculous to lose that much time in a not particularly difficult 3 hour stage regardless of what happened yesterday.

Pretty much, yes.

Or perhaps a better option: The amount of time they finish outside the time limit today, they have to start behind the rest of the field tomorrow.

this would be amazing to see

 

[ice&fire]

Riders (and their teams) should be given the option to pay a large fine (say one month of their salary) and continue in the race or go home.

 

[Miburo]

They shouldn't be allowed to race tomorrow, they gain an unfair advantage.

If you've the ability to take it easy but in the timelimit then good on you. But riders taking it easy as a group (out of time) knowing they won't be banned from the race is completely against the competitive spirit of the sport and just unfair to the riders who gave it their all to be within the time.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Riders (and their teams) should be given the option to pay a large fine (say one month of their salary) and continue in the race or go home.

Don't like that idea. The big money teams already have enough of an advantage. Sky, Astana etc.. would pay that without hesitation, and you'd just be putting a very unwelcome strain on the pro-conti and smaller teams. You'd basically be forcing the smaller teams to drive the Gruppetto to make the limit, while the bigger teams wouldn't care.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Re:

Isn't there the rule that if a group of more than 25% of the peloton are outside the TL they all stay?

I've checked the Vuelta and the UCI rules and there is no such rule. The only thing it says is that the comissaires can extend the time limit if there are extraordinary circumstances.

Does being not bothered with rules count as extraordinary circumstance? Can't think of any other reason why they finished over 50 min back.

 

[carolina]

Re: Re:

Does being not being bothered with rules count as extraordinary circumstance?

I really hope not!

 

[DFA123]

Brambilla finished in just under three hours I think, so the big group were about 3:45 for the stage. That's an average speed of about 34km/h. For a stage with only a shade over 2,000m of climbing, that's absolutely disgraceful.

There has to be some kind of punishment.

 

[SKSemtex]

Re: Should Chris Froome still have teammates on Stage 16?

I am pretty sure some Olege will be very pissed off if they allowe them to ride.

Easy choice for organizers. They can make this GT unforgettable for ages.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Brambilla finished in just under three hours I think, so the big group were about 3:45 for the stage. That's an average speed of about 34km/h. For a stage with only a shade over 2,000m of climbing, that's absolutely disgraceful.

There has to be some kind of punishment.

Pretty sure some guys here could have kept up with the pace in that group.

Not me btw, but the more fit and avid riders.

Edit: I had KB in my mind as I said that, and voila

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Brambilla finished in just under three hours I think, so the big group were about 3:45 for the stage. That's an average speed of about 34km/h. For a stage with only a shade over 2,000m of climbing, that's absolutely disgraceful.

There has to be some kind of punishment.

That's a speed I could do, disgraceful is right.

 

[TromleTromle]

But again a 60-70 rider vuelta for 6 days is bad PR. Reminds everyony about the 'happy' 90's

That being said. Disgrace. They deserve to end their Vuelta at Formigal

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re:

Riders (and their teams) should be given the option to pay a large fine (say one month of their salary) and continue in the race or go home.

Don't like that option at all.

Instead the rule needs to be enforced as is. Simple and it should be workable.

With all the "suits in a room" decisions going on in cycling these days, the sport continues to take credibility hits.

 

[jsem94]

Re: Should Chris Froome still have teammates on Stage 16?

I am pretty sure some Olege will be very pissed off if they allowe them to ride.

Easy choice for organizers. They can make this GT unforgettable for ages.

This. If they are brave enough to send them home this will go down in the history books.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Should Chris Froome still have teammates on Stage 16?

I am pretty sure some Olege will be very pissed off if they allowe them to ride.

Easy choice for organizers. They can make this GT unforgettable for ages.

This. If they are brave enough to send them home this will go down in the history books.

It will probably create a situation that everyone will be trying to be inside the time limit in the future when they realise that numbers won't save them.

 

[BigMac]

It's not ''an easy choice''. Stop pretending it is.

As if there would be no repercussions to the race and the organisation...

And yes, I think they should be thrown out.

 

[Asero831]

Who will carry the water bottles for Froome?

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Who will carry the water bottles for Froome?

They could throw Astana a few euros.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re:

Who will carry the water bottles for Froome?

Lulu......

 

[Asero831]

Is this the end of Adam Hansen's streak?

 

[jsem94]

Of course it's not easy. But it should be done. It will be brave and send a message. OK, a team wants to pull out? Let them. There are teams out there that would be on their hands and knees for a wildcard into this race so if they don't want to show up next year, they are the greater losers. It just has to happen once in a GT for the culture to change and riders won't take a day off just to be saved by the sheer amount of riders.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

Who will carry the water bottles for Froome?

They could throw Astana a few euros.

Please don't turn into Johan "team classification is really important, but lol at those guys defending 9th" Bruyneel.

 

[capuldemetal]

enforce the rules! simply as that.

 

[Ramon Koran]

Yes it should be inforced HOWEVER today was an exceptional circumstance case, why you ask? Simply because the red jersey attacked from far out distancing the second place rider causing the race to explode, THESE circumstances are as exceptional as snow, ice 40. Heat… what's more a vuelta with less than half its riders immediately loses credibility in most people's eyes I think. I see these comments and everyone is taking it in the heat of the moment and letting basically there sky hatred out for many. I'm sure once people take a step back and analyse they will realize that the right decision is not to exclude one hundred riders from the second biggest race in cycling

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

If they are not going to enforce the time limit, how about banning any riders who finished outside from winning the stage the following day? Those riders, who have essentially broken the rules of the race, now have a massive advantage in the stage tomorrow; they should at least be deprived of that opportunity.

Yea, but those riders could still influence the outcome of the race because of the energy saved today by not having to care about making the time cut, which is the issue. And even if they fine the riders, the issue is that the smaller teams get penalized more, relatively speaking, than the bigger ones who can afford those fines better; it would be ludicrously unfair to penalise some riders more than others for the same offence; fining them points, or time, is irrelevant because only the elite sprinters will care about the points and if they're finishing outside the time cut they don't have any reason to care about a time penalty either, so a fine is the only way they can punish them and have it mean anything, realistically.

They will allow them to continue and that's fine, there's enough precedent set, but the UCI and race organizers need to review the protocol because right now the riders simply know they are in no danger as long as there's enough of them, so you get a farcical situation where as long as you're in a sizable enough group you can't be HD, so you needn't care and domestiques can basically ride as cyclotourists if they so please. It happens too often that a group pays no mind to the time cut because they know it won't be enforced, and sometimes they make it and it's no problem, other times they don't and they get away with it. On today's stage they took it to the extreme, amplified because of the short distance, to the point where it outright makes a mockery of the time cut protocol.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Devil's advocate here. Always figured this was the whole point of riding in a huge grupetto. Avoiding the timecut DSQ. Feels like a "cut off your nose to spite your face" sort of affair if they're DQ'd in the kind of large numbers this thread suggests (haven't seen the full results table, still not on the Vuelta website). Let them ride and don't turn the Vuelta into a huge farce with half the riders. Let's not equate this with having 4/5 guys hanging 1 hour off the back.