Tour de France 2013 *spoilers*

[festival]

I thought Cavendish had done it deliberately and haven't seen anything to change my mind back. It looked nasty from my perspective.

If you had ever been involved in bunch sprints albeit at club level, I don't see how you could ever come to that conclusion.
The 'deliberate' part was Cav seeing what was happening in front of him in the blink of an eye and ensuring he didn't come off worse.
The Argos rider was guilty of sloppy riding at least and gamesmanship at worst, depending on what was going through his mind the moment he moved off his line.
All Cav was guilty of was giving an example of excellent bike handling, to ensure he stayed upright when threatened with danger by the other riders poor awareness.
Generally the aggressive sprinting of the past is not tolerated today due to the greater numbers of riders involved in the finale, but today, Cav's actions was nothing more than good bike handling to preserve his health in a dangerous situation caused by the other rider.

 

[Pedrosanchezo]

Veelers was being a touch cheeky and ever so slightly blocking Cav. The missile then responded a bit too impulsively imo.

All this talk of Cav and his naughty antics! What about Kittel? He's in fine form and as Cav said in the interview, he is one of the worlds best just now. Griepel had no answer even though he was in a sound position to launch.

Marcel kittel - Kudos.

 

[SWSteve]

When it's slowed right down it doesn't look good for Cav. But they're moving at obscene speeds and he came out then back, no blame for the Manxman in my eyes. Maybe he should be given the green jersey for being hard as nails.

 

[albion]

You have two things there.
Cav is the one sprinting with extreme force o bars and pedals having to move out to overtake.
Yet he is the one keeping the straighter line with Veelers moving off line late on.

Veelers looked round to see riders on both sides to why did he not just keep a straight line?
That is quite easy when you have eased off the gas.

Cav called it right. In competition it is quite hard to know your line and he always has to fight the handlebars on sudden acceleration.
Likely Veeleres was also hiding the fact that he strategically held him up by accusing.

 

[Crackle]

I'm not convinced there was no intent, maybe not to knock him off but I reckon he was responding to Veelers moving about. You can see Veelers checking where he is and drifting over. It didn't look good on the replay and it didn't look good when it happened before I saw the replay. His only saving grace was that Veelers shifted his line, otherwise, dq.

 

[VamP]

I'm not convinced there was no intent, maybe not to knock him off but I reckon he was responding to Veelers moving about. You can see Veelers checking where he is and drifting over. It didn't look good on the replay and it didn't look good when it happened before I saw the replay. His only saving grace was that Veelers shifted his line, otherwise, dq.

If Veelers hadn't moved off line there would have been no contact. As it was he only went down because he wasn't paying attention, which is a bad thing to do when you're at the head of a sprinting field. It was a slight contact and had he been aware of Cav, which he should have been, he wouldn't have gone down.

 

[albion]

The best anyone can say is 'a bit of each'.
And as Cav was the only one racing fighting his bike , Cavs err was the easier to make.

 

[dragon72]

I must say, after last year's snore-fest, this year's tour has been fantastic viewing.

Every single stage has produced something sensational to talk about.

What the dickens is going to happen in the ITT tomorrow?!?!

 

[smutchin]

What the dickens is going to happen in the ITT tomorrow?!?!

Andy Schleck wins by a large enough margin to put him in yellow.

You heard it here first.

 

[festival]

I'm not convinced there was no intent, maybe not to knock him off but I reckon he was responding to Veelers moving about. You can see Veelers checking where he is and drifting over. It didn't look good on the replay and it didn't look good when it happened before I saw the replay. His only saving grace was that Veelers shifted his line, otherwise, dq.

Of course he responding to Veelers moving about, its called good bike handling and an act of self preservation when another rider is threatening his safety.
If you break it all down to basics, Veelers was in the wrong place at the wrong time, some times you get away with it, sometimes you cause grief to others, while this time a clever rider ( Cav ) saw it coming and made sure he didn't suffer due to others poor riding.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Classic lead-out man gamesmanship by Veelers, accidentally on purpose getting in Cav's way just enough to put him off his sprint. And of course Cav pushed him away deliberately in return - what else is he going to do? Veelers got exactly what he deserved, and I expect the reason why Kittel didn't assign any blame was that he knew exactly what Veelers was doing.

 

[Slaav]

Having now looked at it several times I still think Cav 'leaned in' a bit more than required....

Having checked and reminded myself what sprint finishes are like - not so sure!

It is very tough at the end of these stages and I think the fact that Cav didnt continue to test the front two said volumes, in that he knew he had been impeeded and couldnt make the win and also was worried about what happended.

In F1; Racing incident, and move on....

 

[montage]

My thoughts on the finish - firstly, not a great place to put the finish. Whoever had the inside line was pretty much certain to win. Secondly, on that note, embarrassing for Greipel, he had that on a plate and decided to blame the road surface. Excellent sprint by Kittel, he is likely to be the next Cav. Veelers screwed Cav's chances. Lotto is by far the strongest sprint team, Cav lost today because he put faith in his team, which didn't work out so well. In my opinion he would be better off fighting for Greipels wheel in future sprints. With that corner next to the finish, today was all about the teamwork. David Millar still has serious firepower after a huge turn on the front, not that anybody was doubting it. GC contenders' teams staying on the front until the final 3km must be bloody annoying for the sprinters.

Finally, we really, really need Cav to show a display of dominance before the final stage - otherwise there will be heart attacks nationwide.

 

[montage]

Oh an on the Cav shoulder barge - he's friggin tiny. Do people really think he tried to use his body weight as a weapon? Newton's third law bla bla bla

 

[lukesdad]

Is that Newton the Commissaire