2010 Tour de France: Stage 2, Brussels - Spa, 201 km

[pennstater]

Ouch, that guy has lost a fair bit of skin.

Sure did. I didn't notice how banged up he was during the viewing of the race. Then again cameras were scrambling. However, Tyler Hamilton finished the Tour with a broken collar bone. Probably a bad example...

LA is a pretty tough dude and those look like superficial wounds. He will certainly be sore, but he won't be the only one with aches after stage two and the upcoming stage 3. Can't wait for stage 3. I predict a BMC rider will take the cobbled stage. Then again I can't even predict a full moon...

 

[swampy1970]

Matt White is the only guy that I seem to agree with regarding today's events. It is what it is... Sh1t happens. Quote Matt

"Nothing is ever too dangerous. Yes, it was a slippery day but it's the same roads they raced on at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. I don't know if there was oil on the roads or what but there were numerous huge crashes."

Yeah, it sucks when someone goes down, especially a GC guy but we can't wrap these guys up on cotton wool.

I seem to remember when Armstrong came out with some 'words' against the giro organizers regarding a cr@ppy route in the rain many on here gave him greif for that... And now we have Spartacus doing pretty much the same and for 'some funny reason' we don't seem to have the same level of derision shown against him. I wonder why...

As Cav said before the stage today "it's bike racing innit. Sometimes you end up on the ground."

 

[ThatBiker]

Yeah, it sucks when someone goes down, especially a GC guy but we can't wrap these guys up on cotton wool.

They were talking people away in ambulances. Several riders are out with broken bones.

If 60 riders going down hard due to oil slicks left behind from a crashed motor isn't a valid reason to neutralize a race, then what is?

 

[swampy1970]

They were talking people away in ambulances. Several riders are out with broken bones.

If 60 riders going down hard due to oil slicks left behind from a crashed motor isn't a valid reason to neutralize a race, then what is?

Which mysterious motor would this be? The bunch was going down the hill faster than the lead group and the lampre rider in front went down first... then the motorcycle went down ... Then everyone else went down. When you have two folks laying on the deck on a narrow lane in the wet you don't need oil to bring everyone down.

 

[fastalarms]

I must admit that the fact that the Schleks were the main beneficiaries and that the group didn't slow down enough to let everyone catch up ad that some still arrived including Cav 10 minutes atfer the neutralised peleton did make me take Fabios actions with a pinch of salt.
I would much rather the race had simply continued and a decision had been made by the stewards after the finish as to how to alocate times.
At the end of the day it was a crash and many previous ones have altered the tour finish. Christian VV is out altogether with broken ribs .
There is further technical discussions needed to determine the cause fo these crashes.
Are the modern brakes too powerful for the grip of the tyres?
Should the mechanics have fitted tyres with better rain grip?
Are the riders simply lacking skill. Do they ever spend any time practicing wet descents?
I know myself after a few years of racing and a decade or racing go karts that when wet you have to take care and do everything extra smoothly and look for where the grip on the road is by looking for the duller patches or sections. Not so easy in a bunch to be fair but then again did the peleton act carelessly by not stringing out for the descent.

 

[ThatBiker]

Which mysterious motor would this be ...

That would be the oil that the people who where there reported as being there.

Oh right I forgot. Some guy on the internet knows more about what happened than the people who were there.

I heard Eddy Merckx interviewed last night and he said that neutralizing the race was the right thing to do.

Let's see who should I go with Eddy the ******* Cannible Merckx or some internet tough guy? Decisions, decisions.

 

[swampy1970]

Off the roads were really that bad, how come the guys who were still off the front stayed up and didn't fall down like skittles?

If it was the motorcycle at the front of the bunch that crashed which caused the mini oil slick on the road, how come the lampre rider that was infront of him went down first? The camera bike only went down trying to avoid the downed rider. Just telling it as it was shown a fair few times on tv late last night.

Unless that motorbike was a BMW it'd be hard to fathom that the crankcase would be so badly damaged that it'd leak oil following a ~40mph crash.

 

[TimEaston]

I'm all for the riders looking out for their safety, so whatever the reason for today's neutralization, be it protest or out of deference to all the riders that were down on the road, I'm ok with it. The riders have to look after themselves because neither the organizers nor the fans do. Of course, decisions are made easily when sitting comfortably at the computer monitor. Alas, the riders didn't have that luxury.

I accept waiting for most of the big riders to join the peleton but I don't think they should have neutralized the sprint even though it helped Cav.