Stage 16: Ponte Di Legno-Val Martello/Martelltal (139 km)

[christopherrowe]

AIGCP's Statement on yesterday's race situation

All teams, it says. So even Movistar agrees that a correction should be made?

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Now if ALL teams agreed to remove 2 mins, and UCI is against.... Well, it just shows that it´s the same old club of narrow-minded men. Almost speechless about their incompetence.

 

[King Boonen]

Can anyone recap for me?

Seems that it's now confirmed it was neutralised and Quintana and Rolland (among others?) ignored it. Is that right?

 

[kingjr]

Can anyone recap for me?

Seems that it's now confirmed it was neutralised and Quintana and Rolland (among others?) ignored it. Is that right?

No it's not. If Quintana and Rolland didn't know about the "neutralisation" (I don't care what the DS knew or didn't, it's about what the riders knew) then that's not correct.

 

[hfer07]

the endless dilemma

for the 100th time: The red flags were there to indicated the riders to conserve their position on the first 1500 metres of the descend - I reckon the entire length of that descend was 28 km where conditions improved right after the first 5k. If the Organizers felt Quintana, Rolland & CO. were violating any road instructions - there was plenty of time & road to stop them - they never did so they simply carried on- as simple and plain as that

 

[cineteq]

Now if ALL teams agreed to remove 2 mins, and UCI is against.... Well, it just shows that it´s the same old club of narrow-minded men. Almost speechless about their incompetence.

According to Sporza all teams agreed to this!!!

 

[Netserk]

Can anyone recap for me?

Seems that it's now confirmed it was neutralised and Quintana and Rolland (among others?) ignored it. Is that right?

No. It was never neutralized, though some obviously thought so.

 

[King Boonen]

No. It was never neutralized, though some obviously thought so.

So we can just forget about it and move on then?

 

[damian13ster]

By some you mean DS from all teams but 2, guys on a motorbikes, race radio broadcasters, just not race director?

 

[Netserk]

So we can just forget about it and move on then?

Given the teams' press release it doesn't seem to be over, so no I don't think we just can forget about it.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

According to Sporza all teams agreed to this!!!

Looks very clear to me.

No neutralization on the descent and therefore the race was on, all the way.

Sounds like we have lots of whiners and crybabies.

 

[damian13ster]

Looks very clear to me.

No neutralization on the descent and therefore the race was on, all the way.

Sounds like we have lots of whiners and crybabies.

Looks very clear to me as well. Although race director didnt think it was neutralized, he communicated with race radio so poorly that broadcasters, DS, motorbike drivers thought thats what was meant, so everybody who actually participates in the race thought it was neutralized. Some just chose to ignore it.

 

[hfer07]

According to Sporza all teams agreed to this!!!

FINALLY!!!!

It took 200 pages of nonsense to get to this!! AMEN !!!

can we finally move on????

 

[William H]

If Movistar really agree to a neutralisation, then they can simply stop Quintana on the road somewhere - either at the start of the TT, or at the end of a road stage. No need to pick a fight with the UCI

 

[cineteq]

Looks very clear to me.

No neutralization on the descent and therefore the race was on, all the way.

Sounds like we have lots of whiners and crybabies.

Yes it was clear to RCS and some teams. Not to the rest of the teams, as you could see how they waited to wear on jackets, etc and took it easy for some time of the descend. Understand that RCS is at fault here for not making the information clear well in advance.

 

[christopherrowe]

Looks very clear to me.

No neutralization on the descent and therefore the race was on, all the way.

Sounds like we have lots of whiners and crybabies.

I'll be honest, I don't understand the attitude (expressed by many posters here) reflected in this post.

If one thing is clear in this mess it's that the organizer's cocked up things royally and that communications broke down.

But, if what was communicated was that the descent was neutralized, and the team directors instructed their riders according to that understanding, how is it "whining" or being a "crybaby" to express frustration that a very small minority of the teams and riders did not respect the (supposed) neutralization?

I'm not at all convinced that Quintana and the others did anything "wrong," but they may very well have broken the rules, if you see the distinction. Without clearly communicated and enforced rules, then sport cannot exist.

As it stands, all the teams have communicated their desire to have a correction issued in the form of a time penalty to some of the riders. If no rules were broken, and nothing untoward occurred, then why would the teams who benefited agree to such?

But I'm drifting off my main point, which is that it's not whining to express frustration in a situation like this. Not only that, expressing that frustration may be the only responsible--and sporting--thing to do.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Yes it was clear to RCS and some teams. Not to the rest of the teams, as you could see how they waited to wear on jackets, etc and took it easy for some time of the descend. Understand that RCS is at fault here for not making the information clear well in advance.

The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced the race was on and some teams made a mistake. Too bad, but hopefully they can now try and race aggressively. Sort of like Quintana, Rolland and Hesjedal.....

 

[damian13ster]

I'll be honest, I don't understand the attitude (expressed by many posters here) reflected in this post.

If one thing is clear in this mess it's that the organizer's cocked up things royally and that communications broke down.

But, if what was communicated was that the descent was neutralized, and the team directors instructed their riders according to that understanding, how is it "whining" or being a "crybaby" to express frustration that a very small minority of the teams and riders did not respect the (supposed) neutralization?

I'm not at all convinced that Quintana and the others did anything "wrong," but they may very well have broken the rules, if you see the distinction. Without clearly communicated and enforced rules, then sport cannot exist.

As it stands, all the teams have communicated their desire to have a correction issued in the form of a time penalty to some of the riders. If no rules were broken, and nothing untoward occurred, then why would the teams who benefited agree to such?

But I'm drifting off my main point, which is that it's not whining to express frustration in a situation like this. Not only that, expressing that frustration may be the only responsible--and sporting--thing to do.

And we arrived at the real problem here. Many people here dont care about true nature of sport. As long as Colombian wins, even if it was by suckerpunching all of the opponents or throwing them all of the cliff they will be happy and everybody who even considers noting that not everything was in the spirit of sport rivalization is a whiner.

 

[BigMac]

The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced the race was on and some teams made a mistake. Too bad, but hopefully they can now try and race aggressively. Sort of like Quintana, Rolland and Hesjedal.....

You mean the majority.

And we arrived at the real problem here. Many people here dont care about true nature of sport. As long as Colombian wins, even if it was by suckerpunching all of the opponents or throwing them all of the cliff they will be happy and everybody who even considers noting that not everything was in the spirit of sport rivalization is a whiner.

Touché! Finally, someone.

 

[King Boonen]

Given the teams' press release it doesn't seem to be over, so no I don't think we just can forget about it.

Surely it's simple. If they broke the rules, they're disqualified. If they didn't, the stage stands and we get on with it.

From what people have said they went round motorbikes that were displaying a red flag. If they did, bye bye. If they didn't. Get on with it.

 

[Netserk]

Surely it's simple. If they broke the rules, they're disqualified. If they didn't, the stage stands and we get on with it.

From what people have said they went round motorbikes that were displaying a red flag. If they did, bye bye. If they didn't. Get on with it.

Why ?

 

[King Boonen]

Why ?

Do you mean why throw them out? I'm under the belief that a red flag means stop racing and stay behind this bike. If I'm right and they disobeyed that, bye bye.

 

[Beech Mtn]

If Movistar really agree to a neutralisation, then they can simply stop Quintana on the road somewhere - either at the start of the TT, or at the end of a road stage. No need to pick a fight with the UCI

Yes, let's stop only Quintana, and do nothing about the 8-10 other guys who also didn't ride a pretend neutralized descent. That sounds fair.

 

[Netserk]

Do you mean why throw them out? I'm under the belief that a red flag means stop racing and stay behind this bike. If I'm right and they disobeyed that, bye bye.

AFAIK it means dangerous corner. It was only a safety measure.

 

[damian13ster]

Not according to race radio which clearly states not to overtake the moto....