Tour de France 2016

Nairo Quintana is only 12?? FFS wel that might fuck up his climbing if he gets much bigger in his teenage years

I'm gutted.
This was meant to be the best tour for a long time.
It's now become a embarrassment.

That photo of froome running will forever be the image of this tour. It's an embarrassment to the sport.

That said, froome looks pretty good running!

I like Carlton Kirby but even so I was surprised to hear him saying that Sean
Kelly won at Chalet Reynard when it was the "finish point for Paris-Roubaix".

Whichever way you look at it, it'll be a shit storm from someone's perspective..

I'm struggling to think of something as chaotic* in previous races but really the incident is born of its times:
More spectators
More spectators 'interacting with the race' - to get on TV, selfies etc etc
More motorbikes
More "safety" - counterintuitive but the shortening of the stage forced thousands of fans 6km down the mountain, clogging the last km to Chalet Reynard

From what I can gather, all teams** accept the decision. That says a lot.

*Guerini on Alpe d'Huez springs to mind...
** Valverde is probably moaning somewhere.

You sound a little orgasmic, in a good way

Enjoying the Canc v Valverde arm waving

And this who rant about froome disrespecting the yellow.
Oh do bore off.

What a non story.

Just writing click bait bullshit.

Quintana might well be 12...

in dog years.

There's a bad way??

Good point well made

Tour de Farce

Yeah but Kiriyenka

It's also another French, er, unfortunate incident this summer. There have been a lot - rampant strikes, rubbish piling up in the streets, poor security and organisation at the Euros and the Eiffel Tower closed for safety reasons.

I think the country is still technically under emergency rule after the Paris attacks in November. The security focus was meant to move to the Tour after the Euros - when you see how close the crowds were up Ventoux today it's hard to believe that.

On Bastille day as well...

Gerrans went down with 33km to go, so why did they wait?

There was at least one movistar riders also down. And they were 33km out. The peloton are less likely to moderate attacks the further into the stage you go.

I also think 'wait' is the wrong term. They just delay pushin-on a bit.

It's just not the same. In the Froome, Porte, Mollema incident the road was blocked - something the ASO should really never have let happen, so they feel an obligation I guess.

Nobody could claim the same for the Gerrans wind thing.

Yeah, that implies stopped which wasn't what I meant. Video here for anyone who's interested to see it:
http://video.eurosport.es/ciclismo/tour-de-francia-2016-momento-tenso-entre-valverde-y-cancellara_vid816296/video.shtml

Never enough Kiri.

I think the country is still technically under emergency rule after the Paris attacks

Will end just after the TdF apparently..

Cycling, even TdF, is small fry (I hope) on target lists. Maybe Champs Elysees..

This is 'just' about crowd control and logistics. I do think this is a tipping point (for the sport) though. When it can affect results (and therefore sponsorship) shit will be gotten together very quickly..

Omg pure slapstick

t's very rare if not exceptional for anyone to be plopped back to the top of the leader board, non?

Froome's not just plopped back to the top of the leaderboard though is he? That's just utter bullshit.

He's given the same time as Bauke Mollema. You know, one of the other people that was in the same crash. Bauke Mollema was not given back any time for crashing, he just got his finishing time including the time stopped because of the crash.

So what becomes important here is the cause of the crash. That's excessive crowding on the route. Another effect of that crowding was that no car, Sky or NSV could actually get to Froome to give him a replacement bike. When the NSV could finally get through the crowds to Froome, they gave him an unrideable bike. So giving Froome the same time as Mollema means that he also lost the same amount of time due to the crash.

To make the argument that he's plopped back on top you'd have to prove that he would have been put there even if giving him the same time as Mollema wouldn't have achieved that. I don't reckon you can. Also note that Porte, also involved in the crash, was given the same time despite having to stop briefly to make a mechanical repair and riding later. If anything, Porte gets more favourable treatment and advances in the GC because of it.

Wish I hadn't mentioned security now, as unfortunately the news breaking from Nice is that a lorry has been driven into a Bastille day crowd. The mayor has tweeted that dozens have died:
https://twitter.com/cestrosi/status/753702069220114432

(That's not verified though).

Practically I think Tour crowds or the peloton itself would be hard to target but yes the Champs Elysees is a different scenario.

Security risks aside yes I think we can all agree they need to get their shit together and sort the motorbike and spectator problems.

in reference to this point, this article provides a good overview http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36563002

This.

There needs to be a 5k barriered section at the summits with Gendarmerie swatting the rockets before hand.

The motos need a restricted area around the riders, this was bound to happen again, see Stig Broeckx. Poor cunt was nailed twice in one season leaving him in a coma for fuck sake.

Motos, photo/camera minimum 3 metres away riders at all times, no passing. It's these cunts flying up the outside of the bunch that are doing the damage.

Courtesy of Khush Jabbie of KhushKapz

It's seems your right enough ISIS claiming responsibility.:/

Agreed..

I knew that you would have a keener finger on the rolling news pulse than me but that - the lorry - looks awful; in every sense.

The Tour will change because of this. It has done before because of other (vaguely) similar stuff. But it won't stop it being the biggest bike race in the world. It won't stop being the Tour.. It won't stop all the good (and bad) that comes with that..

(Edit: reads badly. The second para is about Froome incident. Not the lorry)