Cavendish Doesn't Deserve Green

[swampy1970]

Originally Posted by rclouviere .

Cav is an awesome sprinter, but I don't have a lot of respect for him. Saw one stage where he was in 166th place, and he had to have teammates around him to get him in. Pretty lame.

I guess finishing on that stage in 166th was pretty lame.... because finishing a hilly stage in the same group as guys like Leipheimer is lame. NOT.

Cav's comeback ride of the century to sneak inside the time cut was on Plateau de Bielle, which lead to Farrars assanine statements about Cav after losing the sprint the day after.

I don't really care for the "gray area" rules like this one - but they're rules and it's written in the book... so the autobus will adhear to it. You also had the big guys who were taking it a little easier on the stage where most of the folks finished outside the time limit - guys like Tony Martin and Cancellara trying to save a bit of energy. It's all relative though, easier still isn't easy and this level of "easy" will still leave the lads with very sore legs - the telegraphe and galibier are not easy climbs, alpe dhuez was probably the easiest of the day, but imagine keeping to 30 minutes of Contador when he's after revenge on that terrain.

If they'd missed the cutoff my a long way I'm not sure that the organizers would have taken such leniency though...

I don't think most folks realize how much these guys suffer in the hills when guys like Contador and Schleck are nailing it on the front.

That said, given that Cav, Rojas and Gilbert all missed timecuts in the Alps - seeing Cadel in green would have been just reward for the great finishes on the tough but smaller uphill efforts in the first week.

 

[swampy1970]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott2468 .

Time gaps simply don't work. That's why they don't enforce them. Especially on short, sharp, brutal climbs like stage 19.

Maybe eliminate the last 5% of the remaining field each day. That would certainly add another race within the race.


Since when has the 34km climb of the Telegraph and Galibier been short and sharp? Sure the stage was rather short but the climbs were anything but. The Alpe at ~9mile was the shortest but they still averaged around 20mph.

I see that the loonie bin let folks out for the day... Its bad enough that the teams with GC riders want to stay upfront all day - too many riders already want to stay up front on the flat stages which is why you get all the crashes that we see in modern Tours. If you start implementing silly rules like that it'd be carnage everyday. It'd make this years crash rate in the first week and a half seem positively light.

What next - propose that the 3km rule for crashing and not losing time gets pushed out to 20km, or just scrap that rule and have at it?

If you're serious about the above retardation, I'll add a suggestion that's on a par with that. I say that at train crossings they raise and lower the barriers at random intervals - but enhance the barriers pre-Tour so it moves up and down much faster and put a big medevil ball and chain on the end for added effect. Award the Tropheé du Hoogerland to any rider than gets walloped with the ball and still makes it to the finish.

As for the proposed 5% rule - I can't say that seeing about 70 riders amble around Paris on the final day would seem that grand.

 

[Attlus]

hate to tell you but MANY riders have their team pace them back to the race when they get out of the peloton for some reason. Most likely, your favorite rider has done it before. there is a lot that we dont see at the tour because they cant show every camera all the time and they cant have 200 cameras on every rider all the time

Originally Posted by rclouviere .

Cav is an awesome sprinter, but I don't have a lot of respect for him. Saw one stage where he was in 166th place, and he had to have teammates around him to get him in. Pretty lame.

 

[Scott2468]

Originally Posted by swampy1970 .



Quote:

Since when has the 34km climb of the Telegraph and Galibier been short and sharp? Sure the stage was rather short but the climbs were anything but. The Alpe at ~9mile was the shortest but they still averaged around 20mph.

I see that the loonie bin let folks out for the day... Its bad enough that the teams with GC riders want to stay upfront all day - too many riders already want to stay up front on the flat stages which is why you get all the crashes that we see in modern Tours. If you start implementing silly rules like that it'd be carnage everyday. It'd make this years crash rate in the first week and a half seem positively light.

What next - propose that the 3km rule for crashing and not losing time gets pushed out to 20km, or just scrap that rule and have at it?

If you're serious about the above retardation, I'll add a suggestion that's on a par with that. I say that at train crossings they raise and lower the barriers at random intervals - but enhance the barriers pre-Tour so it moves up and down much faster and put a big medevil ball and chain on the end for added effect. Award the Tropheé du Hoogerland to any rider than gets walloped with the ball and still makes it to the finish.

As for the proposed 5% rule - I can't say that seeing about 70 riders amble around Paris on the final day would seem that grand.

Swampy, apologies for not being clear. None of the actual climbs were short & sharp. I meant the day being only 110 km ??? ridden by the lead group at a phenomenol pace over brutal climbs makes for a short cut off time limit that will never be enforced.

Yes, I agree it would be hectic, possible canage but something needs to be done. Eliminate time limits in total may be better?

A couple of weeks ago I listened to Phil Anderson talk about this very subject during a 702 ABC radio interview. He was talking how the riders in the bus stuck together,. They knew safety in numbers ensured no-one was eliminated. He quoted how a young, green Neil Stephens wanted to push the pace at the rear. He tried to drum up some help. I can't remember who Anderson said did it, but it was a big name protecting his rider, punched Stephens in the face and told him to get back. He did.

Surely this is not racing? Surely this manipulating of rules and flexibility is not sporting? By the way, Anderson stated he didn't personally didn't mind this going on as tours are hard enough anyway.

 

[tonyzackery]

LOL! Incredible!
You a got one (im)poster referencing loonie bins and retardation regarding a particular comment, and you have the original poster coming back making apologies to the (im)poster?! Sad.

Anything, within reason, that can be done to cull some of the chaff (out of the 219(!!!) TdF starters) as soon as practicable is acceptable to me. Less riders (9 riders per team is ridiculous enough already) on some of those narrow roads will definitely mean less crashes. <100 riders parading around Paris on the last day group ride? Absolutely nothing wrong with that...

Don't worry, got my mud boots on in anticipation - and I won't be apologizing/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif...