TDF Stage 9 ***SPOILER***
Comments
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Hoogerland interview on NOS:
http://nos.nl/video/255119-hoogerland-b ... elijk.htmlContador is the Greatest0 -
This isn't racing - it's survival. Today was really traumatic to watch. I nipped out for a bit and came back to absolute carnage. I'm not a fan of Vino but it's a sad way to end a career. As for Flecha and Hoogerland, that's just ridiculous - both of them had a good shot at a stage win (Flecha especially, perhaps). Will Hoogerland be able to ride with those cuts?
An absolute disgrace.Head Hands Heart Lungs Legs0 -
frenchfighter wrote:Hoogerland interview on NOS:
http://nos.nl/video/255119-hoogerland-b ... elijk.html
what does he say...? He looks surprisingly calm!We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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looking at that pic, it seems he "almost" took out his Hamstring Tendon. that could be a career ender if it was.. Lucky Lucky chap..
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Just reading someone saying Flecha rolled nicely on impact. Not sure if it was intentional or just he naturally landed that way...impressive if on purpose although I guess he has more than enough instincts by now.Contador is the Greatest0
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Kloden's x-rays are negative.Contador is the Greatest0
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frenchfighter wrote:Just reading someone saying Flecha rolled nicely on impact. Not sure if it was intentional or just he naturally landed that way...impressive if on purpose although I guess he has more than enough instincts by now.
The fact he didin't know what was coming probably helped. He would have been loose and relaxed when he hit the floor. A tensed up body gets more injuries in an impact.0 -
r.Peter0
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Like or not like, what a dreadful way to bow out.
And as above, that rip behind the knee is so close to the hamstring.
Tbh it all makes me sad. there's no sense of excitement of the danger and crashes. Just carnage and careers finished, chances lost and sadness.
I really feel for them and hope the rest of the tour can settle down and be a good race. A bit late for some now.
Lets hope the refs can be helpful and restore something from all this. Plus maybe the peloton will police it all and allow a re balance to be struck in the short term to redress time lost if the refs don't - and i think the refs will to be fair.Peter0 -
Johnny Hoogerland:
'We can still be happy that we're alive. It's horrible. I can blame everyone but I don't think anyone does this sort of thing on purpose. I think the people in the car will have a very big guilty feeling and they will surely apologize to me and Flecha. Juan Antonio came to me an he apologized. It should not happen but it's always possible that this sort of thing happens. Nobody can be blamed for this. It's a horrible accident and I was in it. But I said to Flecha, We're still alive and Wouter Weylandt died in a crash. Cycling is getting more and more hectic which is also nice because more and more people are watching but, for sure, some people will say that it may be like this because well, I can't explain it but I think most people feel very, very bad about this sort of thing. I have three cuts that are about seven centimeters long and quite deep too. I'll go to the hospital now and I think I'll need about 30 stitches at least I did what felt like a few somersaults. I don't know where the car came from. Before I knew it, Flecha was on the ground and there was nothing I could do. I landed on the fence and I looked at my legs and thought, Is this what cycling is about?' I have the polka-dot jersey but I'm going to spend the rest day in a lot of pain.'"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
ddraver wrote:frenchfighter wrote:Hoogerland interview on NOS:
http://nos.nl/video/255119-hoogerland-b ... elijk.html
what does he say...? He looks surprisingly calm!
He's basically saying he's not really angry, no-one would do that deliberately, it's just really unfortunate. Not in a calm 'zen' way but more in an upset way.
He says nothing's broken, just lots of cuts, which will be painful.
Virtually on the edge of tears.
Makes sense, similar thing happened to me with a car and it was too bad to get angry about it, it's just upsetting.0 -
I don't know which was worse to watch - Hoogerland being catapulted in to the barbed wire or Vinokourov being helped to his feet knowing now what injuries he had. Horrible.
Voeckler did a great job to stay on his bike during the car driving idiocy.0 -
Absolutely gutted for Van Den Broeck today. I like him, and similar to Wiggins, was looking forward to seeing what he could do come the rest of the race.
Even feel sorry for Vino, didn't deserve to crash out of his last Tour like that."That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college! " - Homer0 -
S'been a funny Tour.
A lot of the Dutchies I've been watching, ex riders who are now backstaff for various Dutch teams, (well, two anyway) have been saying how it's a really strange course and that's what's making people so nervous.
It's so weighted towards the back end, it's really strange. They make lots of difficult stressful stages for the GC guys, but don't let them slug it out to get some order untill well into the 2nd week.
S'why you get so many GC riders trying to stay out of harms way and ending up more in the action than they should be. S'what the sprinters teams have been complaining about too.
S'not for nothing there seems to be a high proportion of kopmannen (best translation I have for that is 'heads of state' which is rubbish) that are involved in the crashes.
Was also interested, Boogerd was saying the other day, as a tangent from Gesink's crash, that it's only in the Tour do they ride SO close together, especially at high speeds. He says in pretty much every other race at the higher speeds they just string out more, and they just don't ride quite as closely together.
As an aside, he also said he'd only ever changed bike mid race twice in his entire career...0 -
Is this tour worse than any other? I'd like to see some hard stats first, as I can think of plenty of huge first week crashes from over the years.
The top riders have always ridden close to the front, so I can't see much change there either. Maybe one difference is in the past the really top riders think LA or Ullrich could look after themselves without total reliance on team mates to hold them there, and maybe that is no longer happening. So when you add in the support team mates to hold the likes of the Schlecks or Wiggo up there, then there are just too many people for the road :?:0 -
I think that part of the reason is that the DSs yell at the teams down the race radio 'hazard coming up, get to the front' but everyone says this at the same time - have race radio's reduced one risk and created another? I reckon the commisaires should be the only ones allowed to message to the riders and that the riders should be the only ones to be able to call the car for drinks/mechanical/other consult"I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
--Jens Voight0 -
eh wrote:Is this tour worse than any other? I'd like to see some hard stats first, as I can think of plenty of huge first week crashes from over the years.
The top riders have always ridden close to the front, so I can't see much change there either. Maybe one difference is in the past the really top riders think LA or Ullrich could look after themselves without total reliance on team mates to hold them there, and maybe that is no longer happening. So when you add in the support team mates to hold the likes of the Schlecks or Wiggo up there, then there are just too many people for the road :?:
I don't remember ever seeing armstrong or US Postal guys (or T Mobile guys) virtually setting up their own rival leadout to the sprinter trains. They were always that bit futher behind.
Now we have 3 or 4 like that. I don't remember the sprinters teams complaining about GC riders getting mixed up in stuff they shouldn't.
In terms of GC rider carnage, I can't really remember a worse one other than perhaps '98, but that was the police doing the damage to peloton.0 -
Heard Andy Shrek saying that they should have radio's for the riders safety. Boll**ks
How the hell did they manage years ago and there was not as many crashes eh .....This would explain why Schleck is a wheel hanger with someone in a car telling him to keep up front...does he need somebody to hold his hand all the time. How does a race radio stop people touching wheels and bringing the whole bunch down.
Get rid of radios and tell the riders to bloody think for themselves.0 -
The stats were shown earlier to be roughly the same as any other year but it does seem like carnage. In the past there seemed to be a heirarchy and the big cheeses would only repsond to eachother and the little guys got told where to go. The top guys kept an order whereas now the respect has gone and it's a big ole bun fight; dog eat dog.
The Teams need to be meeting to try to restrict the access for riders at the front who are not necessary. The big cheeses should only have one or two riders in support. You can't have 10 GC riders having thier whole Team surround them and be at the front; impossible.
It's that old thing that you get from the big cheeses- "If you're not going to work then F*ck off!!"
My mate passed out on a decent and landed in a barbed wire fence; he had no Helmet on (being an ultra traditionalist-Steel frame, fixed gear, no TT bars etc) and he had scratch marks across his face which almost had his eye out. Not good for the looks department. The scars shown today at the Tour will be dined out on years to come; me and my mates show people our scars all the time in the pub.
-Jerry“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”- Albert Einstein
"You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water."
-Jacques Anquetil0 -
frenchfighter wrote:Getty
Erm - he seems to have a barbed wire tattoo on his right leg. Ironic ?0 -
Gazzetta67 wrote:Heard Andy Shrek saying that they should have radio's for the riders safety. Boll**ks
How the hell did they manage years ago and there was not as many crashes eh ......
Other than the vehicle responsible crashes i don't think this year is much different from any other. There is quite a bit of hysteria going in the cycling world at the moment.Gasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
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I think a small point is that in the Team car they are preparing wheels, kit, sorting bottles, watching the race, watching Moto GP and talking to the riders. This kind of thing should happen all the time and amazing it doesn't. anyone who has stood beside the road waiting for a bike race knows how crazy the tean car drivers are and also how close to crowds they get.
Dodgy old game.
-Jerry“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”- Albert Einstein
"You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water."
-Jacques Anquetil0 -
The point is surely the stats don't show who is crashing out.
I've never seen so many team leaders get dumped onto the tarmac.0 -
The bookies have switched favourites:
Current Odds (betfair):
ASch 5/4
Cont 85/40
Evns 5
FSch 37
Bass 65
Klod 90
I agree. Bertie doesn't look right. Andy, riding into shape and has got through week one with the Frank weapon still to play.
Basso must be a danger. Kept out of trouble for week 1 and probably still recovering from that crash last month.
Could be interesting, although we've really lost too much of the second tier already.
How long will Tommy V hold onto yellow. Is LLS more of a GC factor?
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