Vuelta a España 2019 stage 6 > Mora de Rubielos - Ares del Maestrat 198.9km

[RedheadDane]

A day to forget for EF. Not sure why Tejay crashed as the descent didn't look very technical but at least he's still in the race. Bad luck for Roche as well who was having a good race.

I actually thought Tejay had done the smart thing my going into the break and avoiding crashing with the others. Maybe he's just such a nice guy:
"Oh... my team-mates crashed? Guess I better…"

 

[Lequack]

Teejay finished dead last today, a minute behind Gaviria.

 

[carton]

Teejay finished dead last today, a minute behind Gaviria.

Sh$t day for EF.

On a side note, funny how Molano finished with Jakobsen and Richeze with Gaviria.

 

[RedheadDane]

So... apparently the gruppetto finished on the fastest predicted time schedule for the stage...

 

[Escarabajo]

Collarbone and scapula fracture for Uran.

https://www.revistamundociclistico....rto-uran-tras-su-caida-en-la-vuelta-a-espana/

 

[Izzyeviel]

So, does that mean he's not appearing at the Worlds?

 

[HelloDolly]

Formolo wont start now

I hate crashes and yet UCI and DS & Comms shrug and say that is part of racing
Why not review the course and ensure better safety .It should not be that these can ruin a race and a riders season so easily without review .Even if the riders who crashed out didnt win the race they would have shaped it like on Sunday

Here is Nicolas Roches diary today on the matter
https://www.independent.ie/sport/ot...t-really-shouldnt-have-happened-38449807.html

 

[tobydawq]

Formolo wont start now

I hate crashes and yet UCI and DS & Comms shrug and say that is part of racing
Why not review the course and ensure better safety .It should not be that these can ruin a race and a riders season so easily without review .Even if the riders who crashed out didnt win the race they would have shaped it like on Sunday

Here is Nicolas Roches diary today on the matter
https://www.independent.ie/sport/ot...t-really-shouldnt-have-happened-38449807.html

Maybe a bit optimistic to think that all of us are subscribers to the Irish Independent online edition...

 

[HelloDolly]

You dont have to subscribe to the Irish Independent ...you can log in with your facebook or Google account

 

[HelloDolly]

Nicholas Roche
August 30 2019 2:30 AM

Thursday, August 29 – Stage 6: Mora de Rubielos to Ares del Maestrat (198.9km)
It’s funny how things can change in 24 hours.
“What’s your name again?”
“Nicolas Roche.”
“Weren’t you leading the Vuelta yesterday?”
“Yeah... that was yesterday.”
The guy asking the question was a cycling fan, but he was also a doctor at Castello Hospital, where I ended up before the end of today’s stage.
Yesterday I was in great form and race leader of a Grand Tour, today I’m barely able to walk and out of the race.
The crash that ended my Vuelta was one of those that shouldn’t really have happened.
After a 9km climb kicked things off this morning the attacks just kept coming and it was one of the fastest starts I’ve seen in a long time in the opening week of a Grand Tour.
It took 50km for the breakaway to go clear and by then there were five groups on the road, and only about 50 riders left in the front of the peloton.
Despite the fact that we still had 100km to go on a mountain stage, a long descent about 65km into the stage saw a big drag race going on at the front of the peloton and as we were doing around 90kph on a big dual carriageway, we approached a sweeping left-hand turn.
One of the Jumbo-Visma guys up front went a bit too wide and clipped the guy behind him and at that speed there was nowhere else to go. The peloton turned into a two-wheeled set of dominoes.
My reactions actually saw me swerve around some of the guys who were falling, but before I had time to fully avoid it, two or three guys hit me like a ton of bricks from behind and, as more guys ploughed into the pile, I found myself in a stack of about 20 bikes and riders on the tarmac.
As I tried to sit up, I looked around and saw Rigoberto Uran, who had started the day in sixth place overall, and his Education First team-mate Hugh Carthy hunched over on the ground.
Both had broken their collarbones and Uran was clutching his shoulder, which was also broken.
A bit further away, Victor de la Parte of CCC was screaming in agony after breaking his shoulder and a rib.
My arm was cut and stinging like hell but I couldn’t move my right leg, so I had to sit on the ground for quite a while until some of the ambulance guys pulled a few bikes off me and got me upright.
Reaction
After a crash, your first reaction is always to look for your bike and after hobbling over to it, I got back on and set off down the mountain.
There were only maybe 500m of the descent left so I free-wheeled at first but as soon as the road evened out and I tried to stand up out of the saddle, I couldn’t put any weight on my leg.
The team car came up and checked me over as I held onto the window for a few metres but as soon as I tried to pedal again I knew my Vuelta was over.
I pulled over and stopped at the side of the road – where I climbed off, sat on a little wall and started bawling my eyes out.
Some of the tears were from the pain but most of them were shed in sheer frustration at the fact that I was out of the Vuelta.
I never like abandoning races and this is only the second Grand Tour I’ve been forced out of in 22 starts, but more than that I was looking forward to the rest of this Vuelta.
Even if I had fallen away from the race for the overall classification in the days to come, I was convinced there would have been more opportunities for me to go for a stage win.
The two-hour ambulance ride to hospital was a pretty sombre one.
When we got there, they scanned my chest and leg to see if I had broken any ribs, or my femur, but thankfully I haven’t.
Instead, I have a dozen stitches in my forearm, a huge contusion on my shoulder, cuts and bruises down my chest, and my right thigh is heavily bruised and pretty dead at the moment, which is crap because it means I can’t pedal.
The doctors say the injuries will probably heal in a couple of weeks but at the moment, I’m not thinking about that.
My goal all season has been this Vuelta, and it’s hard to take – the rug having been pulled from under me.

 

[Salvarani]

Horrible crash, but interesting to read and hear it from his perspective.

 

[Lequack]

23 Big Photos from Stage 6 (descriptions to come) — corvos/flockton

2019 vuelta-a-espana photos stage-06

 

[tobydawq]

Okay, weird that you have to login to read something for free. But okay, now I can respond to your original message:

What do you want them to do? Unless they ban descents from cycling, crashes like these will forever be a risk.

 

[HelloDolly]

maybe not have a fast highway with a sweeping left bend

But at the very least review why so many crashed out

UCI spend all day collecting fines maybe would be better to review the course when there are crashes that take out so many and ensure better safety in the future

In no job would this be just shrugged off ...so why in cycling

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't think crashes can be completely avoided, but organisers should certainly do whatever they can to ensure there are as few crashes as possible.

 

[starlord]

Okay, weird that you have to login to read something for free.

Are you new to internet? You can read it for "free" in exchange for your email address

 

[HelloDolly]

I don't think crashes can be completely avoided, but organisers should certainly do whatever they can to ensure there are as few crashes as possible.

This is what I meant

Crashing is part of cycling ...sure and off course you cannot rule out crashes totally but Nicolas Roche felt yesterdays one was avoidable. He doesnt blame anyone as riders dont but you can see from the head line that he thought it was avoidable

And there have been a few of these this year ..like in the TTT
and on other races

Crashes due to poor bike handling or in attention etc are always going to happen
But that does not stop UCI making recommendations and review where some are due to poor and dangerous course or issues that were avoidable

 

[tobydawq]

Are you new to internet? You can read it for "free" in exchange for your email address

Apparently. Most Danish newspaper websites have a pay wall (at least I think it's a pay wall), so I thought that was the same here.

 

[RedheadDane]

This is what I meant

Crashing is part of cycling ...sure and off course you cannot rule out crashes totally but Nicolas Roche felt yesterdays one was avoidable. He doesnt blame anyone as riders dont but you can see from the head line that he thought it was avoidable

And there have been a few of these this year ..like in the TTT
and on other races

Crashes due to poor bike handling or in attention etc are always going to happen
But that does not stop UCI making recommendations and review where some are due to poor and dangerous course or issues that were avoidable

I would actually argue that the one in the TTT was unavoidable. Or... so completely unusual that nobody had any way of knowing that such a situation would occur. How could anyone know that a kiddy-pool was gonna burst uphill?

 

[starlord]

Apparently. Most Danish newspaper websites have a pay wall (at least I think it's a pay wall), so I thought that was the same here.

Oh, okay. I was just pointing out how much this kind of "free" internet content usually costs.

 

[tobydawq]

Oh, okay. I was just pointing out how much this kind of "free" internet content usually costs.

They can have my mail all they want, I have more than a 1000 unread messages and don't care about that xD

 

[jmdirt]

This is what I meant

Crashing is part of cycling ...sure and off course you cannot rule out crashes totally but Nicolas Roche felt yesterdays one was avoidable. He doesnt blame anyone as riders dont but you can see from the head line that he thought it was avoidable

And there have been a few of these this year ..like in the TTT
and on other races

Crashes due to poor bike handling or in attention etc are always going to happen
But that does not stop UCI making recommendations and review where some are due to poor and dangerous course or issues that were avoidable

But should they happen so often? I can't think of a major race this year that wasn't affected by a crash. Maybe NASCAR fans enjoy the 'big one' but I would prefer to see better races because of better riding.