La Vuelta ciclista a España 2019 **Spoilers**

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Adam4868

Legendary Member
There's a school of thought that thinks it's all part of racing and tough shoot if you crash.
I'm ambivalent
They interviewed Movistar ds at the finish who said.We didn't take advantage,we didn't realise.We knew it was a bad corner and we planned to ride on there anyway.
Jumbo DS "yea right,I wouldn't have give the order there,the race wasn't really on at that stage"
I'm not to sure there was any love lost today
 

cisamcgu

Legendary Member
Location
Merseyside-ish
Unless you are a) knocked off by a spectator b) hit by a marshall or c) splatted by a car (police or team), then surely it is all part and parcel of road racing ? If someone 8hrs behind the leader falls off does everyone stop and wait , 4hrs, 10 minutes ? Does Roglic wait if the rider in 7th place falls off ? Does the 7th place rider wait for Roglic ?

All seems a bit contrived to me... just race regardless
 
I think the etiquette is flexible depending where the race is at, so if it's on, all bets are off but when that happened the peloton were relatively calm and Movistar used the crash to cynically put time into people. It doesn't really surprise me, after all, they put time into each other and Valverde is a despicable cheat anyhow. They only knocked it off when it became clear they weren't going to profit from it and the peloton began to turn against them for riding.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Bit more detail. Didn't know about the cars being used to draft back with UCI approval. Seems odd

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...favouring-roglic-after-stage-19-spill-cycling
I thought they seemed to be getting away with more drafting than usual!

When you think about it though, it isn't unheard of for the commissaires to intervene to impose 'fairness', for example when they stopped the breakaway in a recent Tour of Britain stage because the bunch were stuck behind closed level crossing barriers. It would have made a nonsense of the race to allow the break to just continue. Similarly in cases like today - do we really want sneaky opportunists to win a big race? If Movistar had already broken away before the crash, fair enough - carry on.
 

Adam4868

Legendary Member
Unless you are a) knocked off by a spectator b) hit by a marshall or c) splatted by a car (police or team), then surely it is all part and parcel of road racing ? If someone 8hrs behind the leader falls off does everyone stop and wait , 4hrs, 10 minutes ? Does Roglic wait if the rider in 7th place falls off ? Does the 7th place rider wait for Roglic ?

All seems a bit contrived to me... just race regardless
Not sure if mentioned but the ettiquete thing applies to the red jersey(race leader) I remember Nibali attacking Froome when he had a mechanical in the Tour I think ? It's all about what comes around goes around I guess.I doubt Movistar and Valverde will have made many friends today.Bit of Karma maybe that it gained them nothing and the commissionaires turned a blind eye to Roglic getting back on.
Still can't fathom how Valverde isn't fecked yet.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
I recall when Froome persuaded the peloton to knock it off a few years ago, when Stannard had taken a fall. Don't know how he got away with that.
It's a grey area.
 

Adam4868

Legendary Member
I recall when Froome persuaded the peloton to knock it off a few years ago, when Stannard had taken a fall. Don't know how he got away with that.
It's a grey area.
Yea I know what you mean,it's all a bit of a grey area the "unwritten rules" But for me a crash when there's no race on so to speak,I'd say slow up and wait.Different for a mechanical or puncture as that's part and parcel of racing.If that were the case you could try and puncture or make a mechanical happen if you wanted to.
Same thing as not attacking in a feed zone or when there's a pee stop.It would be a sure way to lose allies though.
 

cisamcgu

Legendary Member
Location
Merseyside-ish
The UCI told Movistar they were going to draft Roglic back to the peleton regardless of what was happening ?

Movistar DS : “We spent hours and hours doing recons. Obviously I don’t like crashes but we’ve lost races because of crashes. I told them to stop only when the UCI said that they would allow riders to use the cars to catch up.”

Seems to me, much as I dislike Valverde, that the race is pretty much rigged, and regardless of what Movistar or Astana do, Roglic has already been crowned :sad:
 
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