brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
The race officials have warned the teams that anyone finishing more than 2hrs and 30 minutes behind the stage winner on Wednesday will be deemed to be OTL and withdrawn from the race.
La Vuelta 2016 **SPOILERS**
- Thread starter rich p
- Start date
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Mad Doug Biker
Just a damaged guy.
- Location
- Craggy Island
During the Vuelta earlier on Eurosport, they were talking about the Tour of Qatar and I heard the lines
'If you have never been to Qatar and like mountains..... Don't go, it's awful'.
'The place is so flat you can double your elevated view by standing on a phone directory. I was once there and saw what I thought were black mountains in the distance. I asked what they were and after a bit of confusion, was informed that it was something about 150 meters away from me, you really have no sense of scale there!'.
'If you have never been to Qatar and like mountains..... Don't go, it's awful'.
'The place is so flat you can double your elevated view by standing on a phone directory. I was once there and saw what I thought were black mountains in the distance. I asked what they were and after a bit of confusion, was informed that it was something about 150 meters away from me, you really have no sense of scale there!'.
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
A Fenman or Hollander to win the world championships while everyone else falls over disorientated, then? If you'd like to enjoy riding this very challenging cycling landscape for yourself, our flipping flat Holland hundred on 17 Sep has been posted on the recreational rides forum
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I had a dig around and found the underlying time limit regulation in a UCI document. It presumably gets adapted by different events:
2.3.039 Any rider finishing in a time exceeding that of the winner by more than 8% shall not be placed. The time limit may in exceptional circumstances be increased by the commissaires panel in consultation with the organiser.
How crap is that? It admits defeat before it even starts. "Here's the rule but we might ignore it if we feel that way inclined, because it's not a very good rule."
And now they are forced to say "you know that rule, the one we ignored the other day? Well, we don't propose to ignore it on Wednesday. (Or do we?)"
2.3.039 Any rider finishing in a time exceeding that of the winner by more than 8% shall not be placed. The time limit may in exceptional circumstances be increased by the commissaires panel in consultation with the organiser.
How crap is that? It admits defeat before it even starts. "Here's the rule but we might ignore it if we feel that way inclined, because it's not a very good rule."
And now they are forced to say "you know that rule, the one we ignored the other day? Well, we don't propose to ignore it on Wednesday. (Or do we?)"
coffeejo
Ælfrēd
- Location
- West Somerset
Let me guess, the cut off point is 120 minutes?
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Let me guess, the cut off point is 120 minutes?
According to the itinerary, they expect the stage winner to take about 5hrs. I'm no maths genius but even I can work out that 2.5hrs is rather more than 8% of that time.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
I'm sure I've seen time limit amendments by stage category in the TdF race rules. Are the Vuelta's rules online?
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Yes, I was just looking that up myself. The cutoff is dependent on the difficulty of the stage and the speed of the winner. For tomorrow's stage, the cutoff is likely to be +12% of the winner's time.
Full details here (page 8):
http://netstorage.lequipe.fr/ASO/cyclisme/la-vuelta/2016/reglements/V16-Reglamento-ES-FR-EN-v4_.pdf
Full details here (page 8):
http://netstorage.lequipe.fr/ASO/cyclisme/la-vuelta/2016/reglements/V16-Reglamento-ES-FR-EN-v4_.pdf
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
The rule works fine most of the time but it isn't designed to cope with a go-slow protest by more than half the peloton.
It's not the rule that's broken, it's the race.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
They got battered by attacking riding, not the difficulty of the stage
brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
The 2 and a half hours was supposed to be a witty jibe - Marmion got it.
coffeejo
Ælfrēd
- Location
- West Somerset
Mine was meant to be a witty follow up. It crashed and burned. IGMC.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Well, the rule failed to act as a deterrent, allowing riders to take it easy, so it would seem that the regulations don't act as a sufficient deterrent.
But your point that it works fine most of the time is good. Every now and then something unusual and exceptional happens and we all get our knickers in a twist and shout that something must be done. Then forget all about it and await the next unusual and exceptional event.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
It whooshed over my head. You need to underline these things with heavy handed use of smileys. Subtlety will get you nowhere.
Spinney
Bimbleur extraordinaire
- Location
- Back up north
In the Tour, hasn't Cav and other sprinters come in outside the cut-off time on mountain stages and they've been allowed to stay in? With no crashes or other 'excuses' for taking a long time.
