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Some big time penalties handed down, 7h is serious.
I wonder at what point it's pretty much beyond a penalty and a DQ.
skinny-
My understanding is that you won't be DQ'd if you make lots of little errors which could be mistakes from missing one sign, etc and that others also made - even if it adds up to quite a lot.
You would get DQ'd if you are seen to have deliberately cheated, so drafting is a no - even if the advantage is not great - drafting for an hour saves you a few minutes - there is no way you can do it by accident. Also if you are judged to have ridden as a pair (stopping at the same places, riding together on successive days), that is not a mistake, it is deliberate, so DQ.
In the past I've thought that the penalties weren't enough to offset the advantage that people gained from them, so maybe they have upped them a bit this year.
But maybe not - @Samuli got half an hour total from a bit of A1 plus the bridge that I also did. That bridge saved me heaps of time as it opened up a much faster route so I would think a few hours would have been fair for that. And taking the gravel on the A1 was a pain, broke up rhythm, etc, so definitely worth more than a few minutes penalty.
frank9755
Interesting - I did miss that one. I remember it was pretty busy around there with lots of trucks on the road either side of the bridge - which made it not so pleasant but really fast!
Agree - looks like they have been very thorough and it's great they take the trouble to do this. It's what sets the TCR apart from other races. It can't have been easy to have unpicked all the infringements on the A1 vs parallel roads that were only a few feet away.