Tour of Oman 2022 (February 10-15)

[Bolder]

That was well played by Cav.

 

[Escarabajo]

I ahve no idea why Richeze was DQ'ed. That was ridiculous IMHO. Unless you have proof that you planned it like that in the hotel room the previous night (LOL), there is absolutely nothing wrong with that sprint.

 

[carton]

Look, he didn't run out of any juice. He just stops pedalling as soon as he is blocking Cavendish fully, and then he immediately turns around and is all apologetic.

But yes, it's difficult to make a rule against, I agree on that.

Again, I'm not saying he ran out of juice at the precise instant he stopped pedaling, but he was going to run out of juice eventually. At 70kph you're either putting out the massive watts or the ratchet is disengaging and you're freewheeling anyway. This is why sprinters will sit on other sprinters' wheels and not opposing lead-out men. They will slow down eventually. If it's their sprinter on the wheel, sure, they'll try harder to keep going, but they will swing off eventually almost every time. If Gaviria had followed Richeze maybe Maxi tries to stiff-arm Kaden and make some space for Fernando -which would really be dangerous- but I really think the space just wasn't there and especially with this being Oman I'm quite positive Richeze just goes for the line and loses.

And I doubt Richeze was apologetic at all, but I may be wrong. That raised arm looked more to me like "what are you even on about". My point is even if you wanted to crack down on lead-out men closing doors -which might not be a bad idea, though I really think you need to change the rule book in very creative ways if you want to do that- this wasn't that. There was literally nothing else Richeze could've done there. He was against Groves and the barriers and at 38 he just doesn't have the juice to outsprint Kaden Groves at this point in his career. Not that he was he about to try to when his sprinter had gone, but that's beside the point. If you want to argue there was some gamesmanship involved you could argue that the tactical coup was him going at all, maybe he was savvy enough to think that would force Cavendish go around the long way around Gaviria. I don't give him that much credit, it would seem to me that all three of them were a bit caught out by how soon the line was after the bend and all he was capable of calculating was the need to open up the space for Gaviria to go on the other side. But again, that's beside the point. He had every right to open up to the right. When Cav decided to follow Richeze he screwed himself. There was nothing Richeze could've done to help him win besides slamming himself against the barrier or against Groves, and again, both would be highly illegal and also somewhat dangerous. In the words of Fernando Gaviria : "Sometimes in the sprint you take the wrong way and then you need to brake.”

 

[Unchained]

Oman looks like Phoenix Arizona..just saying

 

[will-10]

Just ban leadout men. Or make them invisible when they swing off

 

[SHAD0W93]

Again, I'm not saying he ran out of juice at the precise instant he stopped pedaling, but he was going to run out of juice eventually. At 70kph you're either putting out the massive watts or the ratchet is disengaging and you're freewheeling anyway. This is why sprinters will sit on other sprinters' wheels and not opposing lead-out men. They will slow down eventually. If it's their sprinter on the wheel, sure, they'll try harder to keep going, but they will swing off eventually almost every time. If Gaviria had followed Richeze maybe Maxi tries to stiff-arm Kaden and make some space for Fernando -which would really be dangerous- but I really think the space just wasn't there and especially with this being Oman I'm quite positive Richeze just goes for the line and loses.

And I doubt Richeze was apologetic at all, but I may be wrong. That raised arm looked more to me like "what are you even on about". My point is even if you wanted to crack down on lead-out men closing doors -which might not be a bad idea, though I really think you need to change the rule book in very creative ways if you want to do that- this wasn't that. There was literally nothing else Richeze could've done there. He was against Groves and the barriers and at 38 he just doesn't have the juice to outsprint Kaden Groves at this point in his career. Not that he was he about to try to when his sprinter had gone, but that's beside the point. If you want to argue there was some gamesmanship involved you could argue that the tactical coup was him going at all, maybe he was savvy enough to think that would force Cavendish go around the long way around Gaviria. I don't give him that much credit, it would seem to me that all three of them were a bit caught out by how soon the line was after the bend and all he was capable of calculating was the need to open up the space for Gaviria to go on the other side. But again, that's beside the point. He had every right to open up to the right. When Cav decided to follow Richeze he screwed himself. There was nothing Richeze could've done to help him win besides slamming himself against the barrier or against Groves, and again, both would be highly illegal and also somewhat dangerous. In the words of Fernando Gaviria : "Sometimes in the sprint you take the wrong way and then you need to brake.”

This all happened at 100 m to go, they knew how far they were from the finish. Richeze covered the shortest path to the line with Gaviria positioned on the left side of him. There was no way Gaviria could have went on the right path. Anyone that wanted to pass Gaviria had to take the shorter route and Richeze blocked it by sprinting into it and slowing down and slowly drifting towards the barrier to make no room to pass. Richeze shouldn’t have been disqualified though and the reason given was on a sportsmanship issue.

“We take the decision because Richeze, he’s coming to the right-hand side and he blocked Cavendish off,” jury chief Jempi Jooren told Wielerflits.
“We think Cavendish probably can win the race, but especially he lost the green jersey, so it was not a very big act of violence but it’s a very big act on sportive reasons.”
Jooren said he did not believe Richeze’s move was purposeful, but it was enough for disqualification.

 

[Nirvana]

Lol! Richeze doing what he does best, being a jerk

Nah, that's "mestiere" and adds to his greatness as leadout.

 

[AlfaLum]

This all happened at 100 m to go, they knew how far they were from the finish. Richeze covered the shortest path to the line with Gaviria positioned on the left side of him. There was no way Gaviria could have went on the right path. Anyone that wanted to pass Gaviria had to take the shorter route and Richeze blocked it by sprinting into it and slowing down and slowly drifting towards the barrier to make no room to pass. Richeze shouldn’t have been disqualified though and the reason given was on a sportsmanship issue.

“We take the decision because Richeze, he’s coming to the right-hand side and he blocked Cavendish off,” jury chief Jempi Jooren told Wielerflits.
“We think Cavendish probably can win the race, but especially he lost the green jersey, so it was not a very big act of violence but it’s a very big act on sportive reasons.”
Jooren said he did not believe Richeze’s move was purposeful, but it was enough for disqualification.

The DSQ was BS. This just was a very smart move by Richeze that did not put anybody in danger.

 

[RedheadDane]

The DSQ was BS. This just was a very smart move by Richeze that did not put anybody in danger.

I guess I'm being a bit cynical here:
But... even if it had put anyone in danger, what difference would it have made to just DSQ Richeze? Gaviria still won.

 

[Netserk]

This all happened at 100 m to go, they knew how far they were from the finish. Richeze covered the shortest path to the line with Gaviria positioned on the left side of him. There was no way Gaviria could have went on the right path. Anyone that wanted to pass Gaviria had to take the shorter route and Richeze blocked it by sprinting into it and slowing down and slowly drifting towards the barrier to make no room to pass. Richeze shouldn’t have been disqualified though and the reason given was on a sportsmanship issue.

“We take the decision because Richeze, he’s coming to the right-hand side and he blocked Cavendish off,” jury chief Jempi Jooren told Wielerflits.
“We think Cavendish probably can win the race, but especially he lost the green jersey, so it was not a very big act of violence but it’s a very big act on sportive reasons.”
Jooren said he did not believe Richeze’s move was purposeful, but it was enough for disqualification.

We think Cavendish probably can win the race, so he deserves special privileges.