On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 04:50:36 +0000, warren wrote:
> In article <
[email protected]>, Raptor <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Duffy Pratt wrote:
>> > Someone on his team was going to have to hoof it. Whose energy do you think they wanted to
>> > save?
>> >
>> > Duffy
>>
>> For 500 meters? I honestly wonder if it would even occur to me to not walk were I in the same
>> place. But I've never been a Tour team leader either.
>
> Lance should not walk, and I'm sure he had a teammate right there with him handing him his bike as
> soon as it was noticed that Lance's bike wasn't rideable. It's done all the time and they even
> show this in the new "vote for the best domestique" commercial. The other guy will wait for the
> team car.
>
There is a point here I think, albeit abstruse.
If you read the rules carfully (UCI and TdeF variations thereof) you will determine that after a
crash, mechanical or other ~allowable~ incident in the last 1,000 meters, riders are given the same
time as the riders in whose company they were riding at the time of the incident.
But reading further in the rules you will see that the rider is given a placing (as opposed to the
actual time he is given) in accordance with the order in which he actually crosses the line. If he
fails to cross the line he is given a placing of ~Last~.
And reading further into the rules you will see that one of the ~tie-breaker~ calculations, if a
winner cannot be otherwise determined, takes into account finishing positions.
Ergo it is important to cross the line as soon as possible after an incident.
But whether or not the lads were thinking of this in the stage one melee I really can't say.
