Vuelta 2017: Stage 12: Motril - Antequera. Los Dólmenes 160kms *Spoilers*

dabber

I'm still confused. Was the first Froome incident a crash or just a mechanical/bike change?

dish_dash

Dabber wrote:

I'm still confused. Was the first Froome incident a crash or just a mechanical/bike change?

Unclear... shots I saw only began with him stopped and trying to ride the bike then switching to a new one, he'd hardly got going again before toppling over on a corner...

hypster

There was definitely something dodgy with that descent. Coty was over the barrier at one point and a motorbike was being hauled out of the rain channel as well. Then Froome went down.

Possibly oil on a bend or maybe even some sort of sabotage given the team bus that burnt down last night?

DeadCalm

Extraterrestrial effort from Froome and the other two Sky riders to narrow the gap to that bunch and then hold it steady.

DeVlaeminck

Not really, they definitely weren't racing for much of the time.

tim000

ITV reporting on twitter it was a mechanical first and then a fall.

inseine

Yates brothers blew up or gave up?

EnacheV

the Katusha car driver should be kicked out of the race, endangering riders. make a full stop you fking retard.

and no, they didn't waited, Astana and Bahrein were riding full gas.

i hope not another gifted GT to Nibali but again, this is the only way he can win, better people to crash out. The biggest overachiever in cycling history.

m.r.m.

Terrific ride by Contador! Turning back the years. Finally, the net gain wasn't huge, but it could have been (especially with Froome going down).

Froome can be both happy with the lack of time lost and (seemingly) no injury. Could have been a collar bone fracture!

blazing_saddles

M.R.M. wrote:

Terrific ride by Contador! Turning back the years. Finally, the net gain wasn't huge, but it could have been (especially with Froome going down).

Seems to be how he rides these days.
Showboating his way back up the GC, after losing a packet of time in the first week.
Lets see how both he and Froome get on over this weekend's big mountain stages.

Re: The motorbike crash, it seems that those excellent, crowd controlling Guardia Civil have majorly blotted their copy book.

https://twitter.com/Laura_Meseguer/stat ... 5936401408

The heavy hand of the law.

RonB

Folks may have seen the security guy pushing one of the spectators into the moto earlier on (he was running with the riders but it looked like a way OTT crazy thing to do). More worrying though was footage showing Maxim Belkov from Katusha who was pushed and kicked off his bike by a roadside "fan" towards the finish of today's stage. No respect

the article don

EnacheV wrote:

the Katusha car driver should be kicked out of the race, endangering riders. make a full stop you fking retard.

and no, they didn't waited, Astana and Bahrein were riding full gas.

i hope not another gifted GT to Nibali but again, this is the only way he can win, better people to crash out. The biggest overachiever in cycling history.

How were his other GTs "gifted"? Part of cycling is staying upright. To trot out a great sporting cliche,"you can only beat what's put in front of you".

tim000

RonB wrote:

Folks may have seen the security guy pushing one of the spectators into the moto earlier on (he was running with the riders but it looked like a way OTT crazy thing to do). More worrying though was footage showing Maxim Belkov from Katusha who was pushed and kicked off his bike by a roadside "fan" towards the finish of today's stage. No respect

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racin ... ana-348700

davidof

tim000 wrote:

ITV reporting on twitter it was a mechanical first and then a fall.

two crashes, lost front wheel

davidof

the article don wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

the Katusha car driver should be kicked out of the race, endangering riders. make a full stop you fking retard.

and no, they didn't waited, Astana and Bahrein were riding full gas.

i hope not another gifted GT to Nibali but again, this is the only way he can win, better people to crash out. The biggest overachiever in cycling history.

How were his other GTs "gifted"? Part of cycling is staying upright. To trot out a great sporting cliche,"you can only beat what's put in front of you".

Nibali put Froome and Contador under pressure and they came off. Part of cycling is being able to stay on the bike as you say. I think it was good tactics from Nibali.

mamba80

hypster wrote:

larkim wrote:

Just watched the clip of Froome going down for the second time. Very slow mo, a bit odd?

Definitely strange.

I'm a big Froome fan but I don't see why the bunch should wait. The race with Contador was full-on and anyone who falls off (twice!) deserves to lose time.

It just goes to show anything can happen in bike racing. All the clever trousers calling it all over should eat their words now.

Nooooooo! you dont say?

He would have to do that a few more times yet, we can live in hope

ContrelaMontre

EnacheV wrote:

the Katusha car driver should be kicked out of the race, endangering riders. make a full stop you fking retard.

and no, they didn't waited, Astana and Bahrein were riding full gas.

i hope not another gifted GT to Nibali but again, this is the only way he can win, better people to crash out. The biggest overachiever in cycling history.

Get in the sea

knedlicky

dish_dash wrote:

dish_dash wrote:

Marczyński out front pushing for his second stage win at this Vuelta...

And he does it... nice one!

Unfortunately a bit over-shadowed by Froome's imbalances.

Marczynski had a bit of luck in that (his closest chasers) Canty crashed and Poljanski had a mechanical, but by the sounds of it he knew exactly what he was doing during the stage anyway - and he also lives in Granada, so knows today's roads well.

salsiccia1

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

RichN95.

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

My guess is that it will turn out to be someone with special needs. The question is why is he that side of the barriers?

mfin

Good stage today. Shame the steward/police guy does the right thing and pushes a prat around and it ended up like that. Hey ho.

All very watchable, enjoying this year's race.

kleinstroker

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

Insane. Maybe he thought it was Froome, red shirt an all.

RichN95.

RichN95 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

My guess is that it will turn out to be someone with special needs. The question is why is he that side of the barriers?

Now confirmed that it was someone with Downs Syndrome. The body shape and the running gait was a clue.

Vino'sGhost

Another awesome day! Go contador! Go niBali go va va froom

Vino'sGhost

RichN95 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

My guess is that it will turn out to be someone with special needs. The question is why is he that side of the barriers?

Now confirmed that it was someone with Downs Syndrome. The body shape and the running gait was a clue.

What a shame, that could easily have ended a riders career or worse. Whoever it was should have been better managed.

salsiccia1

RichN95 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

My guess is that it will turn out to be someone with special needs. The question is why is he that side of the barriers?

Now confirmed that it was someone with Downs Syndrome. The body shape and the running gait was a clue.

Makes a bit more sense now. Perhaps he saw other fans giving riders pushes and got confused/excited, you can't imagine there being any malice in it. Either way it's a bit of a relief that it's not something more sinister like a pissed-up idiot or worse, and that there were no serious consequences.

RichN95.

Other things I saw at the finish today.

Ian Stannard is much bigger than I expected - he could play rugby
Rod Ellingworth is surprisingly fat
I said hello and thank you to Dan Jones who does Orica's Backstage Pass
Koen de Kort almost rode into me
Lotto NL are employing children by the look of the rider whose number ends in 3. He looked 15.
The only bus with a crowd around it was Trek's
Bertie signed some signs some kids had made - they were better than Frenchie's effort
The Movistar car missed the exit and almost hit our roundabout
The Sky trio passed through a lot quicker than the Nibali group
Grown men waving at helicopters is pathetic
I saw nothing of interest in Antequera and even had to go to McDonalds for a beer

DeVlaeminck

EnacheV wrote:

the Katusha car driver should be kicked out of the race, endangering riders. make a full stop you fking retard.

and no, they didn't waited, Astana and Bahrein were riding full gas.

i hope not another gifted GT to Nibali but again, this is the only way he can win, better people to crash out. The biggest overachiever in cycling history.

Did you watch it, no way were they full gas the whole time. They nearly had Contador back when Froome crashed, the gap then went up and came down rapidly at the end when they did start riding.

davidof

RichN95 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

WTAF is going on here

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYd-J0JnywW/

Edit: apologies, missed this being posted up the thread

My guess is that it will turn out to be someone with special needs. The question is why is he that side of the barriers?

Now confirmed that it was someone with Downs Syndrome. The body shape and the running gait was a clue.

He wanted to give him a helpful push up the hill, guess it didn't work out too well.

tim000

and the fan that took the moto down was pushed into it by a policeman . video here . http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/belkov- ... ws-shorts/