Tour de France Stage 2 Brussels - Spa, 192 km Monday, July 5 2010

[Arnout]

Gesink isn't happy: "We should've gone on, they didn't wait when I fell either".

Gesink should've gone. He had the chance when Cervelo was setting the pace, but he didn't have the guts. So he shouldn't complain afterwards.

 

[Moondance]

Benson reports farrar is in tears and vandevelde and he are going to hospital. Vandevelde had a lot of bruising aroung the eyes!

Sigh... Benson goes to Garmin first?

That dude has a fetish for argyle, unbelievable

 

[Beech Mtn]

This is very disappointing. We should be talking about Chavanel and his great breakaway, victory, and only 2 and a half months after fracturing his skull on these very same roads.

Instead we will be talking about the nuetralization and riders protest.

+1. good point. It was an excellent redemption for Chavanel. Glad to see he will get to wear yellow to cross the border tomorrow.

 

[palmerq]

why didnt they sprint at the end ? I dont understand that part..... although i cant see the tdf right now... was the finish dangerous? Fair enough waiting for the other guys to get back into the group but why cant they have a sprint for 2nd or whatever place it was.

 

[auscyclefan94]

as others have said, it could result it the whole peleton hating on you.
Peer pressure at its best.

Has a right to be ****ed off imo.

---

Personally I lost a lot of respect for some of the riders today, FC in particular - seriously who the f*%k does he think he is?

peleton's bike of choice for tomorrow

I want to put in my order

Robbie hunter tweets
say it again no grand tour has any business in these northern countries..& **** any body who says different!!!

See how much you guys like hitting the deck at 60km/h .....

 

[maltiv]

Thor want to sprint. He was pretty ****ed at Canc, you could them gesturing

Of course he did. Why should he be punished because some other teams GC favorites went down. Not sprinting is basically a gift to Cavendish, which he by no means deserves. If Cavendish wins the green jersey this year by just a few points this will be the reason...

 

[Parrot23]

Some teams/riders are more equal than others, esp. if they fall simult.

I think it's as simple as that.

No mercy if you are a second tier team.

 

[Moondance]

peleton's bike of choice for tomorrow

I doubt Pozzato has enough of those for everyone in the peloton.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Gesink should've gone. He had the chance when Cervelo was setting the pace, but he didn't have the guts. So he shouldn't complain afterwards.

And then imagine what would happen if Gesink takes a piss, falls, has a mechanical or a bad moment the next weeks?
Get it? It's not about having guts, it's about having a functional brain.

 

[53x11 in DC]

Don't disagree with you but I wonder how much of it was a collective "Christ, it's only stage two and it's already carnage. Let's just calm down and get though this thing in one piece so we can race for the next two and a half weeks". Not saying I agree with that if it's the case, or it's the hard man way to do things, but I can see why they'd feel that way. I'm sure some of the guys aren't happy about it, but OTOH, it doesn't seem too many were saying "FU Fabian, we're going for points, see ya later".

If that's the way the riders felt, then they have disgraced the fact that these types of stages were SPECIFICALLY meant to shake things up. These guys have been riding for years, up and down hills, in every tyoe of weather. They are paid to have the best skills in the workd when in the saddle. What happened today is utter crap.

Lost a ton of respect for Cance today.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't disagree with you but I wonder how much of it was a collective "Christ, it's only stage two and it's already carnage. Let's just calm down and get though this thing in one piece so we can race for the next two and a half weeks". Not saying I agree with that if it's the case, or it's the hard man way to do things, but I can see why they'd feel that way. I'm sure some of the guys aren't happy about it, but OTOH, it doesn't seem too many were saying "FU Fabian, we're going for points, see ya later".

I understand the reasoning, and I am not even mad at Canc because he has the clout to keep everyone from racing when the leader of his team goes down. You're right, if everyone goes along, nobody is to blame. I am just saying I wish it had been raced as a classic race more than the stage race mentality. I believe the reason the organizers put the stage in to make an interesting race. Instead, we got a neutral finish with the exception of one rider.

 

[Carl0880]

I disagree with what happened today, but playing Devil's Advocate, this may have been the thinking.

They waited for the contenders that crashed because they were still riding at the front of the pelton and were caught out due to the crash. If the contenders crashed because they were towards the back of the peleton this late, then they would have kept on because it would have be the contender's stupidity he crashed being that far in the back of the peleton.

When the crash happened only about 10 riders were with Cancellara, so the entire peleton was held up. Outside of the Schlecks who were behind longer due to being involved, the rest of the peleton splits were caused on how long it took them to get around the crash victims.

THis is the explanation I might could see on what happened.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Sigh... Benson goes to Garmin first?

That dude has a fetish for argyle, unbelievable

Gesink should've gone. He had the chance when Cervelo was setting the pace, but he didn't have the guts. So he shouldn't complain afterwards.

He was riding with them today

Cadel tweets

Whoa, that was sketchy. I think the entire group went down....oil or something on the descent to Stavelot. We're all licking our wounds now.

Oil on the descent????

 

[DamonAlbarn]

Jacob Fuglsang's take:

(from danish TV2):
"It was chaos, cars were hitting each others, at least one motorbike went down and riders were on the ground north south east and west, and hardly any of the teams knew what to to.
I only stayed on my bike because I was able to drive into the wood. I don't what happened there? Soap or oil? I have never experienced something like that.
Of course I stopped at once, but Breschel told me to stay forward."

And Frank Høj added:

"Cancellara used the confusion very cleverly"

 

[Big GMaC]

What about the Garmin guys?

I didn't see them wait for them!

 

[Cerberus]

Of course he did. Why should he be punished because some other teams GC favorites went down. Not sprinting is basically a gift to Cavendish, which he by no means deserves. If Cavendish wins the green jersey this year by just a few points this will be the reason...

Yeah, personally I think it's a good thing that they waited for the GC contenders, but there was no real reason to neutralize the sprint.

 

[Arnout]

He was riding with them today

He didn't set the pace (apart from a few seconds) so its his fault as well. I guess he didn't want an angry peloton, but when you settle to something you should accept the consequences.

But whatever, if Cancellara is going to anything on the pave tomorrow that makes another rider crash and he doesn't wait he'll lose my respect eternally.

 

[Anonymous]

The best thing would have been Cance to put his bike where his mouth is and dropped back and pulled the Schlecks back as far as he could. That would be racing.

The Saxo's neutralized the prob. with Cance's mouth. But Shack need Saxo in the race still.

Exactly!!!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Two riders have said oil was on descent.

Cadel and Fuglsang

Bookwalter has said all bmc riders are ok.

 

[Moondance]

He was riding with them today

Cadel tweets


Oil on the descent????

From the crashed motorbike?

Conspiracies abound. All i know is that El Shack didn't wait for Gesink in the Basque Country when he slipped over an oil slick.

 

[Anonymous]

@ Thoughtforfood...

Wow, we actually agree on something..... this is what Prudhomme was looking for ( a challenging stage ), and Cance pu$$ed out

"So tomorrow we can expect everyone to wait if someone falls on the cobbles? I thought part of putting cobbles in, and dodgy descents in was to cause gaps? I respect that one of the main leaders came down, and that in fact, it looked like all of the favorites were caught up or crashed, but those are the breaks. If it were a flat road and a dog came out, okay, wait. If you are in a group of favorites and one rides off of the side of a mountain, okay wait. If the yellow catches a handlebar and goes down, okay wait. If there is a stage on short steep climbs and descents in an area known for rain causing gaps because of terrain, and you add roads like that to your race, then that obstacle is there for a reason. That reason is to break up the race. The race broke up, and nobody wanted to take advantage. I wish some had is all."

I'll bet we both hate murderers too...wanna talk politics and see if we can go 3 for 3

 

[roundabout]

What about the Garmin guys?

I didn't see them wait for them!

Huh, the group was riding slowly. I imagine that Vandevelde and Farrar were hurt really bad if they were unable to catch back.

Probably explains Hunter's frustrations.

 

[Publicus]

Given omerta, I am not surprised at all that the peloton went along with this neutralisation (no matter how begrudgingly some of them now claim).

I'd still like to get a better picture of just what transpired (with respect to the crashes).

 

[53x11 in DC]

I
See how much you guys like hitting the deck at 60km/h .....

I have. It sucks. They didn't neutralize the race for any of us. We didn't cry about it. And we're just a bunch of amateur schmucks.

 

[53x11 in DC]

I'll bet we both hate murderers too...wanna talk politics and see if we can go 3 for 3

I'd hate to break a winning streak!