Pro-cycling thread

And the deviation came from pogacar giving him a gentle nudge on the bum. Combined with pogacar stopping his sprint at that point, it does look like DVB carved him up but really it just seems that's the moment when pogacar realises he's stuffed it.

Sprint lanes do seem like a decent idea, don't see any downsides? edit. ^ good points

The lanes would demonstrate deviation, making that action clear. Then the commissaires have to decide if the rider obstructed or endangered in their movement.

You’re allowed to deviate, but not if it obstructs or endangers.

So the argument for DVB here is that he didn’t deviate; or if he did, his deviation didn’t obstruct or endanger. Hard case to make IMO.

How many sprint finishes in the world tour have the final 50 on a bend?

If that was the case I’d follow the radius, but ideally you’d move the finish to a safe position.

No sympathy for Pog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgceBBiG_MI

I have sympathy for the commissaires, not Sprog. As I said earlier, at warp speed with no lanes it looked OK. Always willing to change my position on new information.

Pog took his hands off the bar to touch his arse so after that everything Van B did was fair game.

Pog fucked the chance for the win and THEN fucked his chance for a podium. It was glorious. Stick to the GTs bro.

Don't lean.

Every race in Italy, ever.

Still it's a bollocks idea. I don't mean to be belittling, but it's clear you've never sprinted in a race situation, because if you had, you'd also know it was bollocks.

The sprint is decided by the time DVB starts to drift to his right.

How wide are those lanes gonna be: pussy-o mountain goat width ( Ganna shoulder width +5cm), standard roadie ( 40cm bar +5cm) or sprinter/trackie (front hub +5cm) ??

Sprint lanes are a silly idea. Sprints don't happen in a straight line, this ain't swimming, and all the chopping would just happen on the entrance to the lanes as everyone fights for the best one.

Van B is doing what any sensible racer would do - go for the wheel of the guy in front of you. Pog trying to squeeze through the gap by fondling his arse shows he's more used to being 2min ahead on a mountain top finish than sprinting after 260k of Belgian loveliness.

Pogacar fucked up. In that situation, you shouldn't let the chasers get involved, precisely because it makes the sprint more complicated. MVDP didn't care, as he was confident he could win even if they did get back on, so Pogacar should've done one more turn to ensure they didn't.

You’re not explaining why you oppose it.

When I sprint on Woodford New Road, in what feels like a race situation to me, I find the cycle lane really helps.

Yep. He should've gone way earlier. He should've know he didn't have the beating of MVDP in a sprint and especially in this race when he already failed to drop him on the climbs. The fact he then left the sprint so late and ALSO fucked his podium spot was something I've not seen in this level of racing for a while (or it might've been last week, let's be honest my memory is fucked)

Take the sprint lanes chat over to the 'have you considered cycle training' thread >>>

I hear you just genuinely trying to think it through aloud.

Sprinting is a mad man’s game and I don’t think there’s much that can be done about it. I also don’t know how we expect riders to know exactly where everyone is and what’s going on.

Not sure lines would clear this up though. We can see DVB deviates without the lines, but there’s still a judgement call to make regardless.

... in other news ... Ben Tulett tenth in the time trial opener in the Basque country .. impressive
.. and Hondarrabia looks lovely...

Rule 5.1 is what the UCI has done about it, so enforcing that consistently would be a new position the sport could learn from.

What would help the enforcement of 5.1 would be lanes and definitions of obstruction and endangerment. Obstructing – preventing the ability to make forward motion? Endangering – putting a rider in a situation where forward motion would cause a crash?

The problem is Pog would argue he was obstructed, but van Baarle would probably argue Pog didn't have the momentum, space nor the legs to get stuck into the sprint but that he had all three. Who is right? How would you have shuffled those four riders into lanes? Also Pogacar shouldn't even have had van Baarle near him, he should have sprinted much earlier before he was backed into two more riders. I honestly think it was pretty fair.

Interestingly, Madouas was squeezed a little too but didn't complain.

Another SE London lad I believe.

enforcing that consistently

UCI: "r u new here?"

DVB clearly deviated. That’s done, right?

Pog was prevented from making forward motion. That’s clear?

If Pog had made forward motion, his front wheel would have been swept by DVB and he’d have gone down, possibly taking Madouas. I think clear, bar Madouas.

Obviously that’s just following my definitions of the terms, but the definitions help create a decision matrix. You only need obstruction OR endangering, not both.

Don't want to keep this lane discussion going too much longer, but there could be and argument lines, not lanes.
You don't need to pick a lane, but if there are evenly spaced lines on the road it will be much easier to judge or justify a ruling that someone deviated from their original line.

100%. Riders wouldn’t need to fan out and pick lanes, the sprint would take place as usual, but on top of the markings, which would guide the riders to prevent infractions and could be referenced in a dispute.

Happy to move on to AOB.