Suisse railroad incident/Costa

[Christian]

Hello

I have not found the time to be on the forum much lately so I am not sure if this is already discussed elsewhere or not. In any case I have looked in the stage report and the stage thread and not found anything about it.

I am talking about Stage 3 in the Tour de Suisse. I read in the paper today that the peloton had to stop twice due to a railroad passing by. Despite being asked to wait by the organizers, 14 riders slipped under the barriers and continued, among them race leader Costa. Only after some discussions were they willing to sit up and wait for the peloton. According to the rule book, they should have been disqualified.
Source: Tageblatt print version.

Has anyone else heard about this? What do people think?? Is Costa really that desperate? Or is he the ultimate hard a$$, willing to risk his life for the win? Unfortunately the paper didn't mention who else was in the group of 14, maybe Costa felt like he had to follow on the off chance that this group was allowed to stay away by the organizers?

Should he have been disqualified??

 

[El Pistolero]

Ask Leif Hoste.

 

[Polish]

That is a DQ offense.

And if the riders were told from their team cars to do it - the DS's should be DQ'd too. That part is my opinion - not the rule. Rule says the rider.

Dumb illegal move to go around the gates. Were there special circumstances?

 

[Parrulo]

i wonder why a newspaper from Luxembourg thought costa shoud have been DQ'd for this seems like the only ones desperate for a win are them (as in the people from luzembourg)

talk about making a big fuss out of nothing

 

[ElChingon]

They waited so no need for a DQ.

End of Thread...

 

[Froome19]

Apparently the group included the whole Movistar team.

 

[Christian]

i wonder why a newspaper from Luxembourg thought costa shoud have been DQ'd for this seems like the only ones desperate for a win are them (as in the people from luzembourg)

talk about making a big fuss out of nothing

Take it easy portuguesy, they only said what should have happened according to the rule book ...

I just thought it was interesting that this wasn't mentioned anywhere and thought people might like to know, that's why I started the thread ...

Also wanted to see if there was additional information, such as Froome19's interesting contribution for example ...

If you ask me I think we have seen DQ's for much less than this ...

 

[Parrulo]

i am taking it easy. . . they sat up when asked by the organization so why should they be DQ'd? it had no influence on the race that's why it wasn't discussed after movistar sat up.

just sounds like there is some desperation to have some results from the schlecks around luxembourg

 

[Christian]

i am taking it easy. . . they sat up when asked by the organization so why should they be DQ'd? it had no influence on the race that's why it wasn't discussed after movistar sat up.

just sounds like there is some desperation to have some results from the schlecks around luxembourg

They sat up but only after discussions ...

Also they had been told by the organizers to wait so they disregarded their instructions in the first place (reason for DQ) ...

If Froome19's information proves correct that at the very least puts the Movistar team and their DS in quite an odd position ...

You call it desperation I call it quality investigative journalism ...

 

[El Pistolero]

i am taking it easy. . . they sat up when asked by the organization so why should they be DQ'd? it had no influence on the race that's why it wasn't discussed after movistar sat up.

just sounds like there is some desperation to have some results from the schlecks around luxembourg

If he did indeed cross a rail road illegally he should be disqualified. The same happened to Leif Hoste in Paris-Roubaix in 2006. It's dangerous and shouldn't be encouraged.

 

[Lanark]

If he did indeed cross a rail road illegally he should be disqualified. The same happened to Leif Hoste in Paris-Roubaix in 2006. It's dangerous and shouldn't be encouraged.

Exactly, if what is said in the OP is true, there can be no doubt they should have been disqualified.

 

[stefrees]

According to twitter (that well known source) yeah Movistar pushed knowing what had happened. Not the first time this year (that descent in Paris nice) so it really does show Movistar in their full colours

 

[El Pistolero]

Not surprised, Movistar have no ethics what so ever.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I find it surprising that there's nothing in the stage reports or the live discussion of it if it happened; I would certainly not be surprised to find that this was true, but you would have thought something more would have been made of it at the time, especially given the incident in Paris-Roubaix a few years ago, so as that it would have been mentioned somewhere else before coming to the attention of a Luxembourgian newspaper.

Weird either way - if it didn't happen, how this rumour came to be, as it's hardly a common occurrence in the sport, and if it did (which certainly would seem more likely given that if inaccurate, accusations like this are pretty random compared to many) why more wasn't reported on it/discussed of it at the time...

 

[Parrulo]

so let me see if i got this straight:

contador counter attacks schleck after he dropped his chain launching the an attack:

pisti's reaction: he did the right thing, schleck should learn how to shift!!!!!!

leipheirmer falls while the race is launched and movistar keeps pushing the pace

pisti's reaction: herp derp they have no ethics.

double standards any1?

i wish more teams were like movistar maybe racing would be better instead of the ethical pile of crap we keep being served, when OPQS put piti out of contention on the first stage of catalunya you didn't hear a single complain from any one on movistar and they simply said that's how racing is.

regarding this rail road situation i think you guys just need to:

happened early in the race, had no effect on the final result so who cares

 

[Eyeballs Out]

The incident was described / discussed in the race thread for that stage on here - starts at page 4. Didn't see it myself

 

[JA.Tri]

Given it happened...DQ is appropriate. If DS were aware of situation and did not take action then DS should be sanctioned.

Cycling is dangerous enough. Tacit encouragement of such actions by the race organisers leads to the probability of further such events. This in turn increases the probability of injury or death. How would everybody react then???

 

[Polish]

I find it surprising that there's nothing in the stage reports or the live discussion of it if it happened; I would certainly not be surprised to find that this was true, but you would have thought something more would have been made of it at the time, especially given the incident in Paris-Roubaix a few years ago, so as that it would have been mentioned somewhere else before coming to the attention of a Luxembourgian newspaper.

Weird either way - if it didn't happen, how this rumour came to be, as it's hardly a common occurrence in the sport, and if it did (which certainly would seem more likely given that if inaccurate, accusations like this are pretty random compared to many) why more wasn't reported on it/discussed of it at the time...

I agree. After my first post in this thread I thought "oops this has probably been discussed ad nauseum in the race thread". But it appears it was not.

IIRC, Hoste was in the first chase group in that Paris-Roubaix with 2 others. And the moto driver also went around the gate? The train sped by at full speed moments later, a bit scary.

IIRC again, Hoste was knocked off the podium because of that DQ. And while he was ****ed-off, DS Bruyneel shrugged and said "those are the rules" sigh.

 

[Afrank]

I find it surprising that there's nothing in the stage reports or the live discussion of it if it happened; I would certainly not be surprised to find that this was true, but you would have thought something more would have been made of it at the time, especially given the incident in Paris-Roubaix a few years ago, so as that it would have been mentioned somewhere else before coming to the attention of a Luxembourgian newspaper.

Weird either way - if it didn't happen, how this rumour came to be, as it's hardly a common occurrence in the sport, and if it did (which certainly would seem more likely given that if inaccurate, accusations like this are pretty random compared to many) why more wasn't reported on it/discussed of it at the time...

It happened, heres video of it, happens at 1:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ1J1GhKEKw

 

[Parrulo]

It happened, heres video of it, happens at 1:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ1J1GhKEKw

well from the looks of it the policeman only raises his arm when they are already 10 meters away from the rail cross so it's not like they had minutes to carefully think what they should do.

 

[Polish]

well from the looks of it the policeman only raises his arm when they are already 10 meters away from the rail cross so it's not like they had minutes to carefully think what they should do.

Good call. The gates were not down. No one rode around the gates - which would be DQ material. Might have been more dangerous to slam on brakes and skid crash onto the tracks.

 

[karlboss]

Good call. The gates were not down. No one rode around the gates - which would be DQ material. Might have been more dangerous to slam on brakes and skid crash onto the tracks.

I agree.
I think the correct decision was made, noone passed through a closed level crossing which is the rule, the group that passed through before it closed was neutralized. It had no bearing at the end of the day, and if the riders did slam on the brakes it could have caused accidents.

 

[Fetisoff]

It happened, heres video of it, happens at 1:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ1J1GhKEKw

Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Looking at the UCI rules there isn't anything that covers some of the peloton getting through and some not. There is a specific rule for when some of the breakaway get through and some don't (no action is taken - it's a racing incident). So in this instance it's up to the commissaires. Technically they could have let Movistar carry on but I suppose common sense prevailed

 

[Wigwan]

The rule says that the barrier must be down to have a DQ. Since it was not, no movistar should be punished. However, anyone showing good sportsmanship would have stopped right after.