Tour de France 2017

Its 20% to the finish? Does it flatten out before the line or not?

Perfect. Many thanks all

There's no provision in the rules for appeals so I think what happened is that they came to a fair decision, Bora-Hansgrohe kicked up a stink, the Commissaires fucked them off.

hippy - did you encounter any headbutts swerves or last minute lunges on the tabr

or did that kind of stuff only happen when trying to catch the barmans attention at the end of a hard days riding ?

No. The last 20% section is a bit Noddy though. It's a short pointless dead end going through a field.

There's nasty, spikey little ramp right before the finish, steepest part of the climb IIRC

I recall reading they built it for Tour finishes. It just goes to a car park.

Understandable on a human level if true, but hardly judicial, which is what the race jury is supposed to be. Ah well, comissaires, scrutineers and all other clipboard-wielding officious types are a bane of everyone's life at some point, I suspect.

Sounds entirely plausible. It follows the line of a chair lift up from the restaurant at the bottom of the lift, but I can't imagine they built it for servicing the chair lift. Can't remember seeing any car park when I was there, but it was a few years ago, so time and oxygen deprivation means my memory of the summit is not to be trusted.

Gord Fraser makes this point:

"Here's my beef. Why can't the UCI find some ex pros to take the comms course and insist on one at all times on the race jury? I'm constantly frustrated by officials quoting a rule book w zero practical race experience. A former bunch sprinter on the panel for flat stages and climber for the mountains."

Which is totally on point: ex-pros should be on any judicial panel. Strange that Demare's movement, which more than a few ex-riders and commentators have blamed for the crash, doesn't seem to been taken into account at all.

The elbow looks incriminating, but not what caused it.
Sagan didn't look around to see Cav on the back on Demare, and as Demare passed him he got on the wheel, not realising until they made contact that Cav was there, and unintentionally guided him into the barriers.

The last thing Cav saw before going down was probably Sagan's elbow flashing in front of him, so easy for him to attribute the crash to that.
No intent to force him into the barriers, but still dangerous because lack of due care and attention, probably not warrant a DQ though.

Shame for the Tour in general really.

I think sadly we'll see more crashes in the sprint finales, everyone else will think they have a chance, and Demare & Bouhanni seems like a liability at the moment. Kristoff and Degenkolb needing wins, and the sprint trains not firing as they should.

He's French...

Did anyone see that Sagan/Cav crash in yesterday's stage?

No one?

Guardian does coverage.

J'accuse!

Someone needs to elbow that watching wearing cunt of the road.

Has Cav done his shoulder before?

Edit: He has, speedy recovery

good to hear degenklob and swift are starting

now let's enjoy some racing

Who's the most anorexic vs who's got the best none drugs vs who's got a hidden motor vs all of the above

I agree. It's utterly bizarre that you have people judging the actions of people engaged in a sport when they've never taken part in that sport themselves, at least not at any serious level. Even F1 now has one ex-driver steward at every race to inject a bit of realism into the stewards' decisions, and I'd say that's worked pretty well.

Obviously the fact I've never been in a professional sprint finish doesn't affect my ability to be absolutely spot on about the rights and wrongs of the situation though.

Only from the odd truck driver, some Colarado ute drivers and the fkndgs.

Strange?

What nationality is he?

Is he? Wowsers, that means...

slowreveal.gif

Can't say I recall. Was it the inter. sprint or the finale?

Yes, he mentioned it felt like his replacement ligament had let go or something as his arm wasn't sitting right.