To race or to wait?

slowbike

I do think they should adhere to unwritten rules - no point writing it down as with any rule - someone will test it ... at least with the unwritten rules the peleton can deal withit themselves.
Was Aru wrong to attack? Yup - probably - he should've waited for the bike change then gone off as soon as CF hit the back of the pack. .

Problem seems to be is that no team is willing to do more than the "drag race" racing at the moment - breakaways are few and far between and contain nobody of risk to the jersey competition

ugo.santalucia

Slowbike wrote:

Problem seems to be is that no team is willing to do more than the "drag race" racing at the moment - breakaways are few and far between and contain nobody of risk to the jersey competition

Yeah, they do their 11 to 5 shift without much passion... dunno, if you see it as a job and you are happy to finish second, then you are no longer a racer*

*Words actually taken from Ayrton Senna

slowbike

Of course, we don't know what decisions are taken by the DS - what their tactics are - and how flexible the team want to be.

Crozza

ugo.santalucia wrote:

There are no such rules, I just wish they weren't so well behaved.

In 2004 (or was it 2003) Ullrich lost a Tour de France for being a gentleman and waiting for Armstrong who then dropped him.. in 2010 (I think) Contador won a Tour for not being a gentleman (then removed for the infamous beef... )... there is a lot to gain and I don't understand why they don't seize their chances when they are there

in 2010 my feeling is that Contador would have found a way to win anyway as he was the strongest rider, but because he attacked when Schleck dropped his chain the victory was tainted for me. And others by all accounts, who could then claim "he only won because..."

surprised that Quintana is getting off Scot free for Sunday's incident - he was right on Aru's wheel and I am under no illusiuon it was to sit in and register his displeasure. ever since he got caught catching a lift on the moto up Ventoux last year I've mistrusted him

larkim

Glad you raised Quintana. I could accept that maybe he just reacted to seeing Aru accelerate, and hadn't noticed Froome's issue I suppose. And he didn't seem to take a turn on the front, so would have been just doing his usual covering / cautious riding anyway. But there is a spin of events which suggests that he saw what Aru saw, and did what Aru did before having a later crisis of conscience when he thought a little more about it.

ugo.santalucia

gosh, you are a bunch of cycling bigots... :-)

bobmcstuff

I see velonews put out an article with a "race or wait" headline relating to Froome's mechanical yesterday - presumably just to stir sh1t up on twitter since i dont think anyone in their right mind was expecting AG2R to knock it off. Unless you have never seen a bike race before possibly.

Richmond Racer 2

The. Race. Was. On.

No_Ta_Doctor

It was funny seeing Dan Martin interviewed after the stage yesterday. He started answering a question only to realise about half way through that the phrase "taking advantage of" had been included, and was loaded for clickbait. Cue ferocious effort to clarify that nowt untoward had gone on.

joey54321

bobmcstuff wrote:

I see velonews put out an article with a "race or wait" headline relating to Froome's mechanical yesterday - presumably just to stir sh1t up on twitter since i dont think anyone in their right mind was expecting AG2R to knock it off. Unless you have never seen a bike race before possibly.

The article did conclude with something along the lines of "the two scenarios were completely different".

Anyone who says they shouldn't have waited for that mechanical is deluded.

bobmcstuff

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

The. Race. Was. On.

That's what the body of the article said (except written how you might explain it to a seven year old), i think they just chose a provocative headline to wind peole up on twitter.

timoid.

No tA Doctor wrote:

It was funny seeing Dan Martin interviewed after the stage yesterday. He started answering a question only to realise about half way through that the phrase "taking advantage of" had been included, and was loaded for clickbait. Cue ferocious effort to clarify that nowt untoward had gone on.

It was a good response from Dan. Make people realise that when the race is on, you don't stop. No malice, just racing.

rick_chasey

He's been great value in the interviews & on the road.

jimmythecuckoo

ContrelaMontre wrote:

The Cycling Podcast covered this well today.

Finally caught up with this episode.

For me its all being made more complicated than it needs be.

If someone is to become the incumbent of the yellow jersey, they want to obtain it on the road by being stronger or tactically better than the previous wearer.

No more, no less.