Tour of Poland (Tour de Pologne) August 12 to 18, 2024

[Rob5091]

not sure it really is much about luck, to be honest. Those ditches/ravines with concrete walls they have in Poland are just asking for a fatal incident to happen every couple of years.

The Jumbo guys on Twitter (Benji, Plugge) are blaming "no radios" instead now to push their agenda, but it didn't really look like the main issue to me today.

Yeah, it's a bit much to use some poor guy lying in a ditch to push your agenda
Plugge on X

At least Lappi put on his big boy pants and called him out on it -
Lappartient on X

Hi Richard,You are caught in the act of fake news! Today's crashes at the @tourdepologne
have nothing to do with the absence of radios and you know it. The riders were taken care of according to standards.Our priority at the @UCI_cycling is safety. You want to keep the radios on to give instructions, not for safety. Take responsibility for it!Let’s continue working together!

 

[search]

Yeah, it's a bit much to use some poor guy lying in a ditch to push your agenda
Plugge on X

At least Lappi put on his big boy pants and called him out on it -
Lappartient on X

to be fair, going by the comments Benji got from some riders, those with a radio were informed on time about the crash in the breakaway:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823773434335154618

View: https://x.com/BenjiNaesen/status/1823773434335154618


It's a bit surprising to me as the peloton was only a ~minute behind, and normally it takes a while to forward information from A to B to C, but it seems like the Gibbons crash would likely not have happened with radios indeed.

But Plugge talking about "chaos", "a farce" etc. is of course nonsense. Is he even in the race? Lappartient calling things "fake news" is about equally bad, though.

 

[Arked]

not sure it really is much about luck, to be honest. Those ditches/ravines with concrete walls they have in Poland are just asking for a fatal incident to happen every couple of years.

The roads in southern Poland have deep ditches due to hilly or mountainous terrain. Otherwise, there would be rivers flowing down the roads which are mostly leading through the valleys, gorges etc. I'm not sure if it's unique for Poland. How does it look in other parts of Europe with similar terrain?

 

[Rob5091]

Yeah, but how many crashes have we had when the entire peloton had radios? It's a bit like blaming corners for crashes (which we had not so long ago). As Victor Lafay said after the Itzulia crash, if you go round a bend at 50 km/h when the maximum possible is 40 km/h, guess what's going to happen. It probably does not help either with some DS shouting in your ear all the time, keep to the front! keep to the front!

 

[Arked]

As of radios I think there should be full communication present. Making the sport more random for it to be more interesting is not the way to go in my opinion. I want the race to be decided with well informed decisions not chaos, uncertainty and misinformation.

 

[Rob5091]

As of radios I think there should be full communication present. Making the sport more random for it to be more interesting is not the way to go in my opinion. I want the race to be decided with well informed decisions not chaos, uncertainty and misinformation.

Without radios I think guys would ride more defensively so they can physicaly see their opponents. It becomes a sort of "Mexican stand off". Or as it is now, with a train pushing as hard as possible to drop guys instead of attacking.

 

[search]

The roads in southern Poland have deep ditches due to hilly or mountainous terrain. Otherwise, there would be rivers flowing down the roads which are mostly leading through the valleys, gorges etc. I'm not sure if it's unique for Poland. How does it look in other parts of Europe with similar terrain?

I don't doubt they are useful, but imo they need to be better secured. Here's a screenshot from the lap after, and you can see that everyone who goes wide is at risk of hitting that concrete "bridge" at the end of the ditch

Lambrecht's crash happened at a very unexpected place, as far as I can remember, so there was probably no way to prevent that, but on a fast descent it's a different story.

 

[yaco]

I think some are missing the point. Radio's are needed for immediate safety as sometimes riders go off on a descent which is not covered by TV or even noticed in the actual race. It allows distressed riders to inform their team that they've had a crash.

 

[will-10]

Yeah, it's a bit much to use some poor guy lying in a ditch to push your agenda
Plugge on X

At least Lappi put on his big boy pants and called him out on it -
Lappartient on X

Called him out? How is Lappartient any less impartial than Plugge on this matter? Both have made it pretty clear which side of the fence they're on regardless of what's actually happening on the (literal) ground here.

 

[search]

I think some are missing the point. Radio's are needed for immediate safety as sometimes riders go off on a descent which is not covered by TV or even noticed in the actual race. It allows distressed riders to inform their team that they've had a crash.

I don't think it's the point, everyone knows that race radios are very useful in certain situations. The question is whether they have more advantages than disadvantages, and how things can be improved

 

[Rob5091]

If it's Thursday, it's time for a sprint. Stage 4 from Kudowa-Zdroj to Prudnik 195.3 km. Starts 12.15 CET and TV from 12.20 CET

Some lumpy stuff to start the day, but by the time they get to the last 50 km it should be "peloton compacto" and time for the fast guys to show their stuff. Unless of course the breakaway hangs on.

Just a recap of today's stage - sprint or breakaway? Also restricted use of radios like yesterday's stage 3 - stage 5 will see a complete ban so guys better get used to it today.
Kooij, Merlier or Ewan, I'd pick for a sprint. Schachmann a DNS today. Breakaway? Bahrain had Bilbao at the front yesterday so maybe they might try, Paluta to try for more KOM points, Israel PT have Ackermann but maybe they'll too have a go.

 

[Squire]

Would be nice to see Dainese finally giving some return on Tudor's presumably quite sizeable investment in him. It's a bit weird how he has never properly popped off. He's really fast, quite durable, and okay his positioning is not great, but a lot of other sprinters that get more results are also reliant on support.

 

[yaco]

I don't think it's the point, everyone knows that race radios are very useful in certain situations. The question is whether they have more advantages than disadvantages, and how things can be improved

Safety overrules everything.

 

[yaco]

Just a recap of today's stage - sprint or breakaway? Also restricted use of radios like yesterday's stage 3 - stage 5 will see a complete ban so guys better get used to it today.
Kooij, Merlier or Ewan, I'd pick for a sprint. Schachmann a DNS today. Breakaway? Bahrain had Bilbao at the front yesterday so maybe they might try, Paluta to try for more KOM points, Israel PT have Ackermann but maybe they'll too have a go.

The sprinters have not suffered through three days to let a sprint opportunity slip through their fingers.

 

[search]

Safety overrules everything.

in a perfect world, there may be a way to keep safety standards and improve the racing, without a DS screaming in the riders' ears 90% of the time.

 

[Rob5091]

What a bizarre stage! Why is Liv Alula Jayco riding at the front of the peleton when they should be in the break. Why is NFB acting as a rouluer when she should be resting to help Vollering in the last 2 stages.

Errr .... lots of races today, easy to get confused. This is the Poland thread ...

 

[Rob5091]

The sprinters have not suffered through three days to let a sprint opportunity slip through their fingers.

Yep, seems so. Paluta got his KOM points and then Gieryk was lone man out front.

 

[yaco]

Yep, seems so. Paluta got his KOM points and then Gieryk was lone man out front.

I am interested to see how Kooij ( who should be at the Vuelta ) performs in the final. Think he can run Merlier close if he gets a good position for the final.

 

[postmanhat]

Just trying to watch this race for the first time, and it doesn't seem to available on Discovery in The UK?

 

[yaco]

This is a super relaxed last 40kms in Poland.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Errr .... lots of races today, easy to get confused. This is the Poland thread ...

Moved it

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re radios: every rider had two way communication with race control, not with their own cars, would solve the safety issue, while removing the riding as robots syndrome. Has it never been trialled?

 

[RedheadDane]

They appear to have lost them...

 

[search]

must be recorded images now, or did the helicopter get lost as well?

 

[search]

funny that having pictures or not makes absolutely no difference for Ant McCrossan's commentary