Posted on 06/30/2017 5:24:21 PM PDT by Baynative
On Saturday, 198 of the world's best cyclists will start the Tour de France. Only four have a realistic shot at winning.
That's according to the highest-ranked American bike racer at the Tour, Andrew Talansky, in a recent interview with Business Insider.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Yeah ... typical in a sprint toward the finish. Definitely a close call. I’d hate to be one of the judges in this instance.
Hell yes! Want some other’s? John Howard, George Mount, Dale and Wayne. Heck Larry Malone used to live up in Santa Fe. Rode with Bobby Phillips... if Obi Wan Kenobi was a rider, he’d be Bobby.
Heck, John “Iron Grip” Chapman and Steve Wozniak would have turned Mr. Elbow into catfood.
"Conclusion: if you dg Sagan, you should dq Greipel AND Demare! Demare veers off and is coming around Sagan, and Cav had Demare’s wheel, all is fine. Now Greipel has to get around his leadout guy and veers SHARPLY right and collides with Bouhanni... ...this happens right in front of Sagan with Demare right next to him. Having PERSONALLY been in this situation before, when two riders going full sprint almost crash in front of you, you quickly veer around or jam the brakes, Sagan did neither (pro) didn’t panic and didn’t veer, but did move right to get around.
I am on board with these comments all the way and I'll add another "having been there insight". One of the first sprint tactics taught is "If you are on the side of the road, move toward the edge so you only have to watch one side of you for attacks"
Another point on the decision is that if this had happened in the middle of the road exactly as it did but Cav hit another rider there would be absolutely no discussion of penalties, im my opinion. I wish Youtube had been around in the 90's so we could look back through some videos of Cippolini, Riis, Siandri, Abdujaparov, Zabel or Jalabert bumping shoulders and trading paint. 
On the way down - Mark Cavendish HTC, 2010
“I’d hate to be one of the judges in this instance.”
True.
The “elbow” makes it look real bad to the untrained eye.
The judges however, are not untrained.
So it’s a PR-type decision.
All in all, a bad situation.
Thanks for including me on the list and as always the updates. A little late getting to reading it this year, and watching on TV....
Wow, that second picture shows Cav in a very similar situation, (this time with plenty of room), nonetheless veering into the rider next to him.
Just like he did yesterday.
I am so disgusted with the TdF judges! It seems like they saw the opportunity for a French rider to wear green and figured if they kicked Sagan out, Demare had a shot at green in Paris. Makes me sick! Clearly, there was jostling in the final sprint but there always is! Cavendish is well known for leaning hard on other riders in the final 100m and he did in this instance, too. I saw one photo where Cav’s break hood is up underneath of Sagan’s armpit- lifting an elbow to get it out is perfectly understandable.
I will admit I am biased as I really like Sagan. I like watching him ride and his athleticism is amazing. He just makes the TdF more fun in my opinion. Now Froome is in yellow so we have 15 days to watch him get another jersey over and over. Totally monotonous. Not sure if I’m going to watch anymore.
“I am so disgusted with the TdF judges!”
Me too, I think most fans are.
“It seems like they saw the opportunity for a French rider to wear green and figured if they kicked Sagan out, Demare had a shot at green in Paris. Makes me sick!”
I didn’t think of that, but it does explain the inexplicable decision of the judges.
I said before it was not a logical but a “PR” decision, now your idea tends to confirm.
I wonder the makeup of the UCI panel who decided?
I had to hit the road early this morning and missed the Tour pre-race comments. I'll bet the real former riders had plenty to say about Sagan being sent home. I'm going to try to catch the rerun later.
The more I think about it the madder I get. Maybe the next thing the Tour will do is start letting people call in and make them enforce fouls they think they saw on TV like they do in golf tournaments.
I guess I'll be back for the mountains, but I really have no interest in the road stages, now.
Thanks Bay!
Yeah, this took the wind out of my sails too. Maybe Froome and Contador can somehow spice it up? Dunno.
Paul Sherwin showed a slow motion and stop action video that clearly showed Cavendish putting his head into Sagan from slightly behind to try to move him away from the wall and it also showed that Sagan was using his arm/elbow to balance himself and did not actually contact Cavendish.
Jens mirrored JP Jones' comments in #96 and said if they want to DQ people there should have been four or five of them sent home including stage winner Arnaud Démare who started the chaos by switching his lane as Sagan was coming up the middle.
“Or is it OK if you are Italian?”
It appears riding like a squirrel is fine so long as your French and have an outside chance at the Green jersey.
Thanks Baynative!
This morning before the start of stage 5 Griepel (former HTC teammate) was interviewed again and he said, I should have kept my mouth shut until I saw the video. I think the UCI decision was wrong!"
I love Sagan as a professional bike racer for a lot of valid reasons. I have warmed to Cavendish over time. Cavendish is brash and cocky, and a bit mouthy, but he puts it all on the line.
In this case, two pros handled a bad situation about as well as any two sportsmen ever have. Chapeau to them both.
The flat stage interest now resolves around the Germans vs. the French and Italians. We will definitely miss the Slovenian and the Brit. Too bad.
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