Giro 2014 - Stage 6 - Sassano-Montecassino * Spoiler *

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Comments

  • tuneskyline
    tuneskyline Posts: 370
    It looked very slippery. You could see in the first crash a rider go down with out any contact. His bike just went from under him. Crashing is part of racing. I agree with Kelly. Just race and get on with it. It's unfortunate for some and lets hope no serious injury's but riders will now have to go on the attack and it could get very exciting.
  • philwint
    philwint Posts: 763
    For me the moral question is fairly binary: Did that 8 man break form:

    1. As a direct result of everyone else being held up by the crash

    or

    2. Had it already formed, and those behind the split had the gap worsened by the crash

    I was watching out of the corner of my eye on the ipad, so I don't know which it was.

    If 2. then I think the group had every right to keep racing, if 1. I think that is more dubious. I'm not saying it's cheating or anything like that, but bad enough for me to think "cynical bastards"
    Phil

    www.philwinterbourne.co.uk
  • inseine
    inseine Posts: 5,788
    Evans is going well this year and BMC seem to have finally found their mojo. looking good for the old gezzer.
    http://cyclinganddesign.blogspot.fr/
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    Roche and Majka - 15'08.
  • Paulie W
    Paulie W Posts: 1,492
    Top 10 on GC:

    1. Michael Matthews
    2. Cadel Evans +21
    3. Rigoberto Uran +1:18
    4. Steve Morabito +1:25
    5. Matteo Rabottini +1:25
    6. Ivan Santaromita +1:47
    7. Fabio Aru +1:51
    8. Tim Wellens +1:52
    9. Ivan Basso +2:06
    10. Nairo Quintana +2:08
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 21,903
    So how many GC contenders are within 5 mins? There weren't that many to start with.
  • dish_dash
    dish_dash Posts: 5,647
    Milton50 wrote:
    ContrelaMontre wrote:
    Report coming through that Joaquim Rodriguez came through 7:23 down on the leaders...

    Oof!

    I assume he'll now just retire and turn up 100% fresh for the Vuelta. Maybe he'll try and win the Zoncolan stage but I don't think trying to scrape yet another GT top 5 will interest him.

    Apparently he's been taken to hospital for x-rays to his wrist... shame...
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    So top 3 at present is:-

    1 Matthews
    2 Evans @ 21 secs
    3 Uran @ 1'18 secs

    Quintana 10th at 2' 08"

    It's far from all over but the number of outside contenders is greatly reduced. OPQS now know which horse they need to back though and Quintana will need to race hard to get the time back. From a (cold hearted) spectator point of view it has hopefully opened things up for a GC battle as well as riders going for stages.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    I wish I'd taken those odds on Aru that were on offer a few days ago now!
  • tuneskyline
    tuneskyline Posts: 370
    What happens later in the race say if Evans has a crash. Should all the other riders stop? I think the exception was when some idiots put tacks in the road and caused punctures but crashes, mech failures can happen to anyone and they do and riders should just carry on and race.
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    lost today:
    scarponi 1'37
    Jrod 7'43
    Kruiswijk 15'08
    Majka 15'08
    Roche 15'08

    think all the other GC contenders were in the 49 seconds group
  • Paulie W
    Paulie W Posts: 1,492
    OnYourRight wrote:
    Where’s Basso in the GC?

    See above ^
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    Majka may also have finished in the 49 seconds group . Finished on a teammates bike according to a few twitter posts.
  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    We didn't see the big crash on Eurosport. But BMC in particular had been drilling it towards the end of the stage. Totally right as I saw it, and since Kelly thought so too, it's decided.
  • mechanism
    mechanism Posts: 891
    philwint wrote:
    For me the moral question is fairly binary: Did that 8 man break form:

    1. As a direct result of everyone else being held up by the crash

    or

    2. Had it already formed, and those behind the split had the gap worsened by the crash

    I was watching out of the corner of my eye on the ipad, so I don't know which it was.

    If 2. then I think the group had every right to keep racing, if 1. I think that is more dubious. I'm not saying it's cheating or anything like that, but bad enough for me to think "cynical bastards"

    They were all together as they bunched up for the roundabout. The camera stayed with the crash so not sure exactly how the break formed.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    15 minutes is a huge amount to lose, I guess it reaches the point where you think there's no point in riding the climb hard and ending up 6 or 7 minutes down so just roll in as I assume none of them were seriously injured.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Graeme_S wrote:
    They were approaching a roundabout and riders just started sliding off their bikes on the wet tarmac
    dsoutar wrote:
    The main crash was an approach to a roundabout. Probably just oil on the roads so any attempt to break just put the bikes down
    About 150 m before a roundabout one rider went down near the left edge of the road, bringing 3-4 others down, which looked just due to slippy surfaces, but I’d be less certain to say it was simply slippy roads where riders went down just ahead of the roundabout.

    When the break was caught, not long before, the speed then suddenly picked up presumably as some teams wanted to be in front before they reached the bottom of the final climb. They were fairly tearing along.
    But there would have been a momentary slowing down to negotiate the island, where wheel-touching may have occurred more easily than normal due to the wet making brakes less efficient.

    Who’s to know how much those at the front knew of the crash – if they were ahead of it when it happened, if their DS didn’t inform them of how many went down, etc.
    It’s just one of those things in cycling.
    Maybe if we hadn’t have been shown pictures of Caruso, there wouldn’t be so much armchair criticism of Evans/BMC.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Missed this live. WOW. I cant believe what I saw. What a fucking disaster. Not sure if the organisers should neutralise but the few out front should have done - they have no shame right now. None.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Entire stage (3.5hours) here:
    http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/me ... c82&page=0
    Contador is the Greatest
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    I obviously hope Caruso is ok, but I think the severity of one rider's injuries is a bit of a red herring as regards to whether or not the racing should have continued. It's not like you'd have expected Evans to rush back and provide first aid, or like he bunny hopped over a paramedic assisting Caruso to form the break. The crash and everything that followed went on behind Evans.

    Whether or not it was sportsmanlike to continue to push on after other GC contenders had crashed and/or been held up is the question, the severity of Caruso's injuries (and hopefully it's nothing too serious) aren't relevant to that.
  • ocdupalais
    ocdupalais Posts: 4,317
    I think the PTP points for selecting Evans should be doubled - and I don't say this simply because I chose him.... if you were going to chose one GC contender to scrape through a day like today, who else but the wily old hound?

    Right now, as Quintana grumbles his way through a massage whilst dribbling into a towel, his DS is winding him up about attacking at the first opportunity... And when might that be?
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Pross wrote:
    I wish I'd taken those odds on Aru that were on offer a few days ago now!

    LOL. When it was mentioned I nearly put 50 quid on it.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    edited May 2014
    Caruso crashed badly in Italy too.

    F these slippery Italian roads. As slippery as their tax accounting.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    *cough* disk brakes *cough* ;)

    To be honest though the problem is whatever Italians use for tarmac. I can't think of another country where rain is near guaranteed to cause havoc.
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    I really cant believe this. Had Fabu been out front he would have neutralised those fuckers. No morals these days not like the old days.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • ellerslierd
    ellerslierd Posts: 266
    frenchfighter wrote:
    No morals these days not like the old days.

    EDIT - Delete
  • Crankbrother
    Crankbrother Posts: 1,695
    frenchfighter wrote:
    ... they have no shame right now. None.

    Bertie wins via shipped chain ... Whilst right next to Andy ...

    Valverde wins by cycling past the race leader (Evans) who punctures whilst ahead of him ...

    For shame, heroes of the peleton, for shame ...

    Pfft ...
  • mechanism
    mechanism Posts: 891
    Drilling on the front just before the crash(es):
    liBJb9N.jpg

    The two crashes:
    T0zltAK.jpg
    fQthI2v.jpg
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    ddraver wrote:
    *cough* disk brakes *cough* ;)

    To be honest though the problem is whatever Italians use for tarmac. I can't think of another country where rain is near guaranteed to cause havoc.

    It should be basically the same as us and the rest of Europe, we all use the same EN standard with bits of national variation.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Gazzetta reports that Vicioso has a thigh injury, Caruso a shoulder injury and Rodriguez a ribs injury.

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