Tour de France stage 10: Tuesday, St-Gildas-des-Bois - Saint Malo

[jaylew]

Watch Veelers' bike compared to the white line

http://i.imgur.com/0Gd0KZS.gif

Which means absoultely nothing.

I'm amazed at some of the comments on here from armchair watchers who have probably never been involved in a real sprint either on the road or on a velodrome. Sprinting is a tough business, actions are taken in split seconds, and riders sometimes make the wrong decisions. In this case, the replays clearly show a number of things:

1. Veelers peeled off the lead out and did not make enough of an attempt to get out of the way of the following sprinters. Sure, you don't have to go off to the side, but you shouldn't slow down right in front of the others and you should make predictable movements.

2. Cavendish probably had the wrong wheel (Veelers'), realized it, then tried to get around him. At the same time, Veelers slowed and swerved to the right by about a foot (impossibly to know if this was deliberate blocking, but he did take a look at Cavendish before he did it which would lead me to believe it was an impeding move).

3. Cavendish used his exceptional track-derived handling skills to avoid going down by using his body weight and his shoulder (not his elbows, not his head) at 40 mph. This is not easy.

I'd say Veelers made the dangerous move (slowing and swerving at least a foot) - probably not malicious, but not safe. Cavendish was protecting himself from going down.

I agree with the part in red but not most of the rest of your post. Both made mistakes but Cav was the reason they collided. He was behind Veelers when he started drifting. He went around drifting more to the right. You don't come back in until you have space (if you want to avoid a collision).

The fact that Cav starting apologizing "if he caused the crash" immediately after the finish speaks volumes.

 

[oncehadhair]

Cav offers apology on Twitter

So he obviously thinks it was his fault. So why are posters still arguing it was Veeler's fault?

 

[Zam_Olyas]

How about those of us that don't complain about Ferrari, Cav, Greipel nor Bouhanni.

Do you remember the reaction to Ferrari's crash last year, it was well, amazing.

 

[woodie]

Congrats to Kittel, was a great sprint. I never really considered him to be on par with Cav and Griepel but looks like there's another super fast guy which is great. Hope Tom Veelers is ok though, I know what it's like to hit the deck at that speed, not fun.

 

[ElChingon]

Watch Veelers' bike compared to the white line

http://i.imgur.com/0Gd0KZS.gif

Reminds me of the hip check that Russian rider did on Contador a couple years back, agh, cycling at its best

 

[The Hitch]

18 minutes without a comment inside the final 20 km of a GT stage? This is stunning.

Last stage of Tour of California had a grand total of 3 comments by the time the stage finished

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=20686

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Cav blatantly rode into Veelers. That is not only a DQ. He should be banned for at least 3 months.
Even at 65 kph, he can´t take the viewers for fools; that he didn´t "bodycheck" Veelers like it´s a hockey game. Sure Veelers did his share of mistakes (slowing down going straight, not watching; may he even tried to "ruin" Cav´s sprint w/that action), but that is never an apologize to be deliberate rammed out of the way.
Cav is beaten in (almost) every sprint in this tour. He can´t accept that, so he now tries to win by brute force.
For what is a race jury there?

 

[PCutter]

Cyclingtips has a bit of a summary with a few tweets from the sprinters

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/07/chasing-le-tour-kittel-takes-two/

For mine, I think Cav hooks the elbow and should have been relegated. He makes a lot of noise about how the road was turning left so he was going left.....well in that case you should have come of the wheel to the left, not the right and you wouldn't have been out of position. But what do I know

 

[Pricey_sky]

And I thought tha Brittish were all for sportsmanship and fairplay. Meh, you 2 are a prime example. Pointing the finger on Johnny Foreigner. Meh.

I was pointing out fair play, read my post again please. If people wanted Cav to be banned why was nothing mentioned about Greipel or Hesjedal in other incidents? Hesjedal forced another rider down the bank for goodness sake. I hope that clears it up for you

 

[Jean-Luc Picard]

Have the internet forums being going crazy about Cav's incident?

 

[Normandy]

Cavendish relegated and out of the green jersey competition - bad for the tour. Tom Veelers on the ground - who cares? Who the **** is Tom Veelers? Make it Veelers fault.

Swap the two riders in the incident - the whole world would crucify Veelers.

Remember Tour de Suisse a few years ago were Cavendish took out Haeussler?
Deja vue.

Cavendish is a very bad looser. The moment he went around Veelers on the right both Greipel and Kittle took of on the left. He needed to get on their wheel
or loose the race. Veelers was in the way. Bad luck. But no reason to knock him
over at 65 km/h.

Cav is only such a charmer because he wins. If he looses you see the
real psycho coming out. Man, so many used to love good old Psycho Armstrong.

Watch Cav's face in the replay after the crash: Guilt, guilt, guilt.

Can't believe people blame Veelers for this. ****ing joke.

+1 again

Cavendish seems to have a charmed life

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Me just thinks it is OPQS, but hey.

Too much people with emotional ties invested to look at it with an open mind. Next time when Ferrari does a Ferrari pleaso do not complain.

It was quite a miracle no one else took a fall.

If you think the two incidents involving Cav are similar it is best you do not bother posting either.

 

[TheBean]

No he didn't at all. First he was going left of the white line and after that he was going to the right. If Veelers had just hold his line, Cavendish could have easily passed him. That looking behind in full sprint preparation like Veelers did was highly dangerous too. Anyway, it is just a 'normal' sprint accident. Those things happen at times.

Veelers decided to fall back - looking down and coasting with his elbows locked - through the middle of the sprint after finishing his lead-out work.

I feel awkward pointing a finger at a guy who crashed, but that is a pretty big faux pas by Veelers. I truly hope he isn't injured too badly at all and continues to set up his man for the sprints to come.

Cav seemed to be fixated on Griepel's surge and appeared to be crossing the road to try to catch Griepel's wheel. It seems he didn't even realize Veelers was there and definately initiated the contact, though doubtful it was an intentional act.

Both riders are partially to blame, but Cav much more so IMO.

Cav's "I was trying to avoid the barriers" statement is a bit off the mark. Even Ligget cast the "Tsk Tsk" comment Cav's way.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Veelers came off his line big time but Cav had no need to put the shoulder in and also deviated.

 

[hughmoore]

Veelers came off his line big time but Cav had no need to put the shoulder in and also deviated.

Veelers moved about 6 inches, wouldnt say that was big time compared to what usually happens with lead out guys and sprinters veering all over the place. Plenty of room for Cav to go past as well, given Veelers wasnt boxing him in.

Would seem to me Cav should have gone on the left, not right.

What is the standard going to be, lead out guys should not move left or right more than three inches?

Hugh

 

[auscyclefan94]

Veelers moved about 6 inches, wouldnt say that was big time compared to what usually happens with lead out guys and sprinters veering all over the place. Plenty of room for Cav to go past as well, given Veelers wasnt boxing him in.

Would seem to me Cav should have gone on the left, not right.

What is the standard going to be, lead out guys should not move left or right more than three inches?

Hugh

Veelers swerved a fair bit at the last moment. I am not defending what cav did, but I think Veelers has to share some blame. He didn't keep his line well enough. Sadly, **** like that is gonna happen in sprints.

 

[Kwibus]

Great sprint by Kittel. Where are the guys that called him the worst rider of the peloton now?

Last sunday he wasn't in the last gruppeto. He allready finished when they came in. So much for him not being able to survive the smallest of climbs or surviving the big mountains.

For a team that arrived at the TdF only build around a sprinters they were pretty much obliged to win more than once though. Well they did that now so well done. Shallow team, but well they are good at this.

 

[Kwibus]

Imo it was 100%Cav's to blame. The swerving of Veelers really was minimal.
It was Cavendish that decided he wanted to go left as he knew he had the wrong line and simply bashed Veelers down.

Definately not intentional though and no need to DQ him, but after watching the footage from the top and front a couple of times it's fairly obvious that Cav just storms to the left too early. If it was Veelers that bumped into Cav, than Veelers wouldn't have crashed.....

 

[oncehadhair]

Imo it was 100%Cav's to blame. The swerving of Veelers really was minimal.
It was Cavendish that decided he wanted to go left as he knew he had the wrong line and simply bashed Veelers down.

Definately not intentional though and no need to DQ him, but after watching the footage from the top and front a couple of times it's fairly obvious that Cav just storms to the left too early. If it was Veelers that bumped into Cav, than Veelers wouldn't have crashed.....

Watched it a hundred times. Although Veelers moved around a little, Cavendish just charged for the line he wanted and Veelers was in his way.

His claim that he had to head left because that is the way the road turned is a poor attempt to justify his actions - he would have done better apologising.

He mightn't have hit Veelers on purpose but at the least it was clumsy riding by Cavendish and he should have been relegated. If it was someone less high profile like Robbie McEwan or Cavendish's old lead-out man Mark Renshaw they would have been fined and relegated.

Cavendish get more slack than he deserves from the commissaires.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

If you think the two incidents involving Cav are similar it is best you do not bother posting either.

Sorry to attack your hero Pedro, wont do that again.

The jury was right, Veelers should even be taken out of the Tour de France. How dare he to move a full 20 cm of his line when the perfectly placed Cavendish - after the perfect work of the OPQS train - wants the perfect line when he sees the two German Panzer Sprint Tanks have left off on the left side of the road.

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/vide...30709_VLV_Analyse_Planckaert?playlist=7.39483

That Eddie Planckaert knows absolutely nothing about sprinting, what a clown. Why do people even ask about his opionion, third tier sprinter at third tier teams. The hippie.
http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/Tour/130709_planckaert_over_spurt

 

[Jan the Man]

Sorry to attack your hero Pedro, wont do that again.

The jury was right, Veelers should even be taken out of the Tour de France. How dare he to move a full 20 cm of his line when the perfectly placed Cavendish - after the perfect work of the OPQS train - wants the perfect line when he sees the two German Panzer Sprint Tanks have left off on the left side of the road.

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/vide...30709_VLV_Analyse_Planckaert?playlist=7.39483

That Eddie Planckaert knows absolutely nothing about sprinting, what a clown. Why do people even ask about his opionion, third tier sprinter at third tier teams. The hippie.
http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/Tour/130709_planckaert_over_spurt

The point is? For every Planckaert you have a McEwen who has a different perspective. I don't think it's clear cut.

 

[personal]

I'm amazed at some of the comments on here from armchair watchers who have probably never been involved in a real sprint either on the road or on a velodrome. Sprinting is a tough business, actions are taken in split seconds, and riders sometimes make the wrong decisions. In this case, the replays clearly show a number of things:

1. Veelers peeled off the lead out and did not make enough of an attempt to get out of the way of the following sprinters. Sure, you don't have to go off to the side, but you shouldn't slow down right in front of the others and you should make predictable movements.

2. Cavendish probably had the wrong wheel (Veelers'), realized it, then tried to get around him. At the same time, Veelers slowed and swerved to the right by about a foot (impossibly to know if this was deliberate blocking, but he did take a look at Cavendish before he did it which would lead me to believe it was an impeding move).

3. Cavendish used his exceptional track-derived handling skills to avoid going down by using his body weight and his shoulder (not his elbows, not his head) at 40 mph. This is not easy.

I'd say Veelers made the dangerous move (slowing and swerving at least a foot) - probably not malicious, but not safe. Cavendish was protecting himself from going down.

This seems reasonable conclusion to me even though I think Cav can be mean when losing.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Twitter

**** the hypocrisy ‏@Digger_forum1h

One thing I'll say about cavendish yesterday. If it was the other way around, and he'd been brought down, what would you say...

 

[Pulpstar]

Chapeuax to Kittel for the win.

Watched the collision a couple of times last night when I got home. Veelers definitely swung over... as did Cav. From the front I think Cav's actions look worse than they are.

In football terms years back it would probably be a yellow, in today's too soft by half game a red.

I am JUST ABOUT giving Cav the benefit of the doubt on it but I think he has his card marked now with the commisaires.

 

[oncehadhair]

I'm amazed at some of the comments on here from armchair watchers who have probably never been involved in a real sprint either on the road or on a velodrome. Sprinting is a tough business, actions are taken in split seconds, and riders sometimes make the wrong decisions. In this case, the replays clearly show a number of things:

1. Veelers peeled off the lead out and did not make enough of an attempt to get out of the way of the following sprinters. Sure, you don't have to go off to the side, but you shouldn't slow down right in front of the others and you should make predictable movements.

2. Cavendish probably had the wrong wheel (Veelers'), realized it, then tried to get around him. At the same time, Veelers slowed and swerved to the right by about a foot (impossibly to know if this was deliberate blocking, but he did take a look at Cavendish before he did it which would lead me to believe it was an impeding move).

3. Cavendish used his exceptional track-derived handling skills to avoid going down by using his body weight and his shoulder (not his elbows, not his head) at 40 mph. This is not easy.

I'd say Veelers made the dangerous move (slowing and swerving at least a foot) - probably not malicious, but not safe. Cavendish was protecting himself from going down.

LOLx100.
Well I've competed in plenty of sprint finishes (at similar speeds) so that qualifies me to say that what you wrote is the most warped analysis i have read so far. That will surely take some beating.

Which race finish were youwatching from your armchair?