Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 3: Lorient - Pontivy, 183.9 km

[Carols]

Geraint Thomas managed it.

Yeah but Roglic didn't he had help.
Moments later, Roglic himself came up with a response . “I got a body check from Colbrelli. It wasn't necessary, but it was very stressful with all those narrow streets.'

 

[CTQ]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409542182407712768

View: https://twitter.com/cyclingfever/status/1409542182407712768?s=20

 

[cen]

Should UCI mandate collar bone protectors?

 

[saganftw]

With Roglic, Kruijswijk and Kuss all with big time losses and significant injuries, I wonder what their plan is for the rest of the Tour.

There is no way they can bank on Vingegaard on GC, it's his first ever GT, and he would probably crack completely week 3.

Stage hunting?

roglic didnt lose that much time, last year pogacar lost time early as well, there is still time to make up...but yeah Kelderman will win this tour

 

[Broccolidwarf]

As for the whole "Colbrelli body checked Roglic" thing, I think people should hold off judgement.

There is no doubt it is Colbrelli hitting him, but if you watch the video out (the one from the front), another rider inside Colbrelli does the same movement, so Colbrelli may himself have been pushed?

 

[Breh]

With Roglic, Kruijswijk and Kuss all with big time losses and significant injuries, I wonder what their plan is for the rest of the Tour.

There is no way they can bank on Vingegaard on GC, it's his first ever GT, and he would probably crack completely week 3.

Stage hunting?

For someone that obsessed with Danes you should know Vingegaard rode La Vuelta last year.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

roglic didnt lose that much time, last year pogacar lost time early as well, there is still time to make up...but yeah Kelderman will win this tour

I know, I was referring to injuries too, for that very reason

 

[Skalman]

How could Prologue`s stop what's going on in stage 3? confused or even on stage 2 for that matter?
Tdf has been fine before with a normal stage to start with before, i don't get what a prologue would change really, i mean the route is still going to be the same the coming days.
Short, narrow roads, a lot of people who want to get into place isn't stopped by a Prologue. seams like people are reaching for anything, "uh remember -86 then we have a prologue and no crashes." it wont stop people with signs and it wont stop nervous riders and freak accidents. A lot of bad luck that is all.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

For someone that obsessed with Danes you should know Vingegaard rode La Vuelta last year.

Haha, should have said "First Tour" - mental mistake - my bad

 

[BlueRoads]

It should be a race.

Not a lame season of Survivor.

I don't want gladiator games, I just hope there are other, better solutions than prolongued neutralizations.

 

[Volderke]

Apologies to those I replied saying that Colbrelli didn't bump.
He did bump into Roglic.
Then again, this happens a lot in races, and it resulted in a crash this time, probably because of overlapping wheels.
I still find it a stretch to call it a bodycheck or whatever. Just unfortunate, and totally in line with how racing for positioning is done by almost everybody in this Tour.

 

[rehy90]

I think the problem is the tour itself, it has got so much attention and anyone who gets yellow or win a stage is a hero in his country. Also, in history there were always road captains/bosses in the peloton, who calmed things down when it got wild, but now, there is less respect from young riders (not always a bad thing). So many riders taking unnecessary risk to win a stage/get yellow. It would definitely help to include prologue every year, so the yellow jersey would be out of reach for most after stage 1.

 

[solo80k]

Kwiatkowski wanted a prologue. Maybe he was correct.

Well, anything is better than massive crashes in all 3 stages. I think Kwiatkowski knows very well that they are similar to classics and you usually don't have 100+ racers in the peleton with 10 kms to the finish.

What's really interesting is that Sky/Ineos leader probably never crashed out with Kwiatkowski as road navigator until this year with 4 co-leaders...

 

[Andy262]

Would not like to see earlier neutralisation than 3km. Take some of the randomness out of this and might as well just turn the race into into half a dozen mtf's and a couple of itt's. Call it the Dauphine or something.

The only part of that stage that was particularly ropy was that narrow section in the last 5kms. That wasn't sensible on an early sprint stage. The curve where Bahrain went down was inviting problems. ASO deserve brickbats for that.

The rest was just early GT stage jitteriness in my view.

 

[titan31]

I don't want gladiator games, I just hope there are other, better solutions than prolongued neutralizations.

It's honestly the only thing I can think of (although better/safer routes in sprint stages is something imo). You have to cater for potential echolon stages so something like any stage finishing on a flat where the group is over a certain percentage of the startlist has a longer GC cut off point than the 3km.

The prologue thing doesn't matter imo. The Giro had one and we still had this issue tbh.

 

[Rackham]

The sprint stages aren't at fault per se, but the insane tight routes going into the sprints are.

Where are my wide road sprint finishes in major cities I grew up with when watching the Tour 20+ years ago?

Maybe I'm just angry, have forgotten past races from decades ago & I've been drinking too much this evening (hey, something I've been hyped for since late last year has been ruined now) but check out this one from 1997:

i.e. Cipollini for the win on a straight road, bossing the sprint like he usually did. Compare that to the crash bait narrow twisty GC grinder hell Prudhomme & co serve up these days.

 

[Billie]

The sprint stages aren't at fault per se, but the insane tight routes going into the sprints are.

Where are my wide road sprint finishes in major cities I grew up with when watching the Tour 20+ years ago?

Maybe I'm just angry, have forgotten past races from decades ago & I've been drinking too much this evening (hey, something I've been hyped for since late last year has been ruined now) but check out this one from 1997:

i.e. Cipollini for the win on a straight road, bossing the sprint like he usually did. Compare that to the crash bait narrow twisty GC grinder hell Prudhomme & co serve up these days.

One of the ideas is that there are nowadays corners in the final 'to string out the peloton (as to make it safer)'

 

[Oldermanish]

I know, I was referring to injuries too, for that very reason

That'll be the test for Primoz and how he recovers. He and Tadej will know after the TT what sort of hills they need to climb. This week was destined to be perilous from the start and the TdF needs to address the inherent risk to cramming that many riders on these roads.

 

[Carols]

Apologies to those I replied saying that Colbrelli didn't bump.
He did bump into Roglic.
Then again, this happens a lot in races, and it resulted in a crash this time, probably because of overlapping wheels.
I still find it a stretch to call it a bodycheck or whatever. Just unfortunate, and totally in line with how racing for positioning is done by almost everybody in this Tour.

Sounds like a dreadfully qualified apology full of excuses for taking a Top Contender basically out of the race .

 

[Andy262]

What happened to Cav anyway? Losing over 5 mins? Was there a bike problem or did he come down in one of the crashes?

 

[simoni]

The video shows a rider with a leftward velocity going into the ditch from a straight line position.

Ok, that's fair. But nothing at all to explain why he veered to the left and less still to indicate who, if anyone, was at fault.

 

[bambino]

Most of people here are right in their own way. The fact is you can't ask riders to slow down and not try that much when the route is hairy. They are pro sportsmen, they are paid to try as hard as they can. Neutralization on +5km just makes the whole thing.... not a race anymore, because half of the bunch doesn't need to try until the end. To me against whole meaning of sport.

Anyway, I do not want to see what I saw today anymore. It looked awful, especially the "Haig gone" turn was simply horrifying, when I saw Mohoric in front making the gesture to avoid hitting the wall of the house, I was sure someone is going to die soon. Luckily I was wrong, but lot of damage still happened.

I'm leaning towards having some "eye" on how the Tour is designed in the first 5 odd stages. At the end that is probably best solution. Avoid design that invites mass crashes as far as it is possible. Design those hairy stuff later, and knowing the speed and aggressiveness of todays Tour... Don't design anything too hairy. It still should be challenging, but in the remit that racing today is very physical and most riders feels invincible with their bike handling skills (which they are not).

 

[Carols]

roglic didnt lose that much time, last year pogacar lost time early as well, there is still time to make up...but yeah Kelderman will win this tour

Pogacar wasn't badly injured twice!

 

[Volderke]

Sounds like a dreadfully qualified apology fullof excuses for taking a Top Contender basically out of the race .

It's an apology because I firmly believed (and saw from footage) that Colbrelli didn't make any moves towards Roglic.
Then I saw a video that began a bit earlier. You see Colbrelli going left. No bodycheck, but he's going left. Next you see is Colbrelli moving back a bit to the right (probably after contact, and that was what confused me in previous vids), and Roglic crashing with his bike clearly lagging behind (so he touched wheels with someone).
Was Colbrelli's move intentional? Was Colbrelli himself pushed (like in a chain reaction)? Did Roglic go to the right at the same time when Colbrelli moved to the left? Was Roglic taking an avoidable risk riding closely on the wheels and overlapping?

I was (and still am) rooting for Roglic, I feel he still has it to win the Tour. So I wasn't happy to see him crash. But the way he crashed, it seems more than one factor is at play. Not just a 'bad' guy giving a push.

 

[Carols]

It's an apology because I firmly believed (and saw from footage) that Colbrelli didn't make any moves towards Roglic.
Then I saw a video that began a bit earlier. You see Colbrelli going left. No bodycheck, but he's going left. Next you see is Colbrelli moving back a bit to the right (probably after contact, and that was what confused me in previous vids), and Roglic crashing with his bike clearly lagging behind (so he touched wheels with someone).
Was Colbrelli's move intentional? Was Colbrelli himself pushed (like in a chain reaction)? Did Roglic go to the right at the same time when Colbrelli moved to the left? Was Roglic taking an avoidable risk riding closely on the wheels and overlapping?

I was (and still am) rooting for Roglic, I feel he still has it to win the Tour. So I wasn't happy to see him crash. But the way he crashed, it seems more than one factor is at play. Not just a 'bad' guy giving a push.

Would you kindly share a link to this video?