Giro Stage 4: Giovinazzo - Bari *Spoiler*

1246

Comments

  • TMR
    TMR Posts: 3,986
    I do like his FDJ helmet.
  • mroli
    mroli Posts: 3,622
    Mezgec almost lost his wheel on the last corner. Pulled up. Veelers sprinted.
    http://www.georgesfoundation.org
    http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
    http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,163
    Above The Cows wrote:
    Skittles!

    Thought he'd dropped out?
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    Imagine if the GC contenders were all expected to be at the front today too.
  • alan_a
    alan_a Posts: 1,581
    That crash wasn't the road's fault, it was poor bike handling and 2 riders bumping into each other.

    Lightweights!!!
    http://www.3pistescycle.co.uk
    Twitter @3pistescycle
    INSTA @tourclownunder
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    What a lot of dirty faces they all have!
    Correlation is not causation.
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    frenchfighter wrote:
    What did I miss? Ice on the roads?

    Might as well have been by the looks of how they went down.
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    Pross wrote:
    Above The Cows wrote:
    Skittles!

    Thought he'd dropped out?

    :lol:
    Correlation is not causation.
  • Crankbrother
    Crankbrother Posts: 1,695
    Th teams need to take a hard look at themselves ... Refusing to race then going at it en-mass with fresh legs and almost full teams ... Their own actions lead to the falls, not the course ...

    They should have bern told that only 3 riders per team were to race on the final lap to cut down on the obvious accidents and give teams who could have attacked at other points in the stage a chance ...
  • mroli
    mroli Posts: 3,622
    Alan A wrote:
    That crash wasn't the road's fault, it was poor bike handling and 2 riders bumping into each other.

    Lightweights!!!
    Ha - what about the crash where the 3 Cannondale riders leading the peloton all went down?! :D
    http://www.georgesfoundation.org
    http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
    http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    So the stage went through a town called Bitonto, where it seems the local highway planners took the term ring road literally.

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.102056,16.6991088,13z
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Matthews:
    "From the start it was really slippery. Straight away we had a chat in the bunch and decided to neutralise the race. It's a long tour and we all need to stay safe out there.
    "It's totally different Ireland is a country where it always rains and the roads are used to the changing conditions. "
    Bouhanni:
    "I thought that I would never get back onto the peloton, but the team did very well to get me back on. In the final straight I had to give everything and fortunately I won."
    Contador is the Greatest
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    I've no idea who is being sarcastic now.
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    I'm pleased for Bouhanni I thought he was toast at one point when he was struggling to get back on.

    I think the stage was a lesson for everyone who thought they new better from an armchair in Croydon or wherever as to the safety of the conditions for cycle racing on those roads in Italy today.
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    hammerite wrote:
    So the stage went through a town called Bitonto, where it seems the local highway planners took the term ring road literally.

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.102056,16.6991088,13z

    That is AMAZING!
    Correlation is not causation.
  • Paul 8v
    Paul 8v Posts: 5,458
    edited May 2014
    I saw the Paolini shoulder barge in the highlights at the end, blimey!
    Road
    MTB
    NEW Cross
    Track/Grass Track/Winter bike
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,163
    Above The Cows wrote:
    hammerite wrote:
    So the stage went through a town called Bitonto, where it seems the local highway planners took the term ring road literally.

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.102056,16.6991088,13z

    That is AMAZING!

    Apart from the fact they didn't finish it :lol: Looks like Pacman.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,163
    frenchfighter wrote:
    Matthews:
    "From the start it was really slippery. Straight away we had a chat in the bunch and decided to neutralise the race. It's a long tour and we all need to stay safe out there.
    "It's totally different Ireland is a country where it always rains and the roads are used to the changing conditions. "

    I wonder who 'we' are? From some of the posts on here it appears that not everyone was in agreement. Having not watched it it reminds me of that TdF stage in 2010 with Cancellara neutralising the stage to protect Andy.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Above The Cows wrote:
    hammerite wrote:
    So the stage went through a town called Bitonto, where it seems the local highway planners took the term ring road literally.

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.102056,16.6991088,13z

    That is AMAZING!

    +1 :D
    Contador is the Greatest
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,031
    Given the conditions the solution today seemed a reasonable compromise. Clearly there was no way they could have "raced" multiple laps on that, gravel roads etc are one thing but the key thing today wasn't so much lack of grip as riders having no idea how much grip there was, you know roughly how slow to ride on wet tarmac, dry tarmac, gravel, cobbles or whatever but how do you judge those corners today?

    Pleased for Bouhanni he deserves this even if it's come in freakish circumstances.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    Pross wrote:
    Above The Cows wrote:
    hammerite wrote:
    So the stage went through a town called Bitonto, where it seems the local highway planners took the term ring road literally.

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.102056,16.6991088,13z

    That is AMAZING!

    Apart from the fact they didn't finish it :lol: Looks like Pacman.

    I just did a virtual ronde/giro of it on streetview.

    Yes I AM that sad. :D
    Correlation is not causation.
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,310
    Pross wrote:
    frenchfighter wrote:
    Matthews:
    "From the start it was really slippery. Straight away we had a chat in the bunch and decided to neutralise the race. It's a long tour and we all need to stay safe out there.
    "It's totally different Ireland is a country where it always rains and the roads are used to the changing conditions. "

    I wonder who 'we' are? From some of the posts on here it appears that not everyone was in agreement. Having not watched it it reminds me of that TdF stage in 2010 with Cancellara neutralising the stage to protect Andy.


    BnhdTZeIUAAYEnK.jpg

    Retweeted by Cyclocosm.com
    Erik Breukink ‏@BreukEB · 1h
    You can have the pink yersey but that doesn't mean you are the boss. Quinziato is angry. Race goes on. #giroditalia pic.twitter.com/gfVTlELnOE
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,163
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.
  • Crampeur
    Crampeur Posts: 1,065
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc
  • Paul 8v
    Paul 8v Posts: 5,458
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.
    It appears that their roads become lethal in the wet. That said, do they all stop driving every time it rains in fear of a massive pile up? Remember the Giro last year or the world championships, people sliding around all over the place.

    I can understand the other riders getting annoyed but I thought the shoulder barge was a bit over the top. I'm not a fan of the OGE team as a whole but they didn't deserve that. On the other hand, imagine the stick a team full of Aussies would have given someone else for cancelling a stage because of rain...
    Road
    MTB
    NEW Cross
    Track/Grass Track/Winter bike
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I think I read somewhere that the oil from the olives makes it slicker when wet? Could be bollox tho.....

    "the Inner Ring ‏@inrng 3h
    Italian roads grippy in dry but big change in wet. Olive groves can make roads oily + rare rain means roads not washed, greasy film in rain"
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    Crampeur wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc

    I was just about to post that video. Some Italian roads, especially in the South, tend to be crazy slippery when wet.

    And, so, a pan flat stage was reduced to racing in the last kms only - how's that different from the previous stages?
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,163
    Crampeur wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc

    Was today anything like that though? That looked like oil on the road or possibly the adverts painted on there. From the reports above the main crash appears to have been riders from one team going down.
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    Pross wrote:
    Crampeur wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc

    Was today anything like that though? That looked like oil on the road or possibly the adverts painted on there. From the reports above the main crash appears to have been riders from one team going down.

    It was unrideable (or whatever the word is!).

    They - about 60 people - raced for about 6 km, and we had at least 3 major crashes that took out almost the entire peloton. It ended up with a group of 6 or so left, and only two of those made it round the final corner safely.

    I can't even imagine what it would have been like if Quintana and JRod had to try and stay with the sprinters.
  • Crampeur
    Crampeur Posts: 1,065
    Pross wrote:
    Crampeur wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    Having not seen the stage what exactly was the problem with the surface today then? I don't see how a standard road that gets used by traffic safely on a daily basis can be as dangerous as is being made out. I don't know about Italian highway engineering but over here a surface has to have a certain level of 'grip' depending on how fast and / or 'twisty' it is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc

    Was today anything like that though? That looked like oil on the road or possibly the adverts painted on there. From the reports above the main crash appears to have been riders from one team going down.

    There was another crash a few seconds before where a lot of riders went down on the corner before, and it looked it they just slid out. Judging by how gingerly the riders took it, even in the last corner, it was clearly pretty bad. Even then Mezgec sat up because he almost lost it.

Categories