UCI to investigate massive Tour of Flanders crash, road-blocking team tactics

[mjr]

UCI had no choice in this case, it was a huge crash. Sometimes they have to enforce the rules and this is one of those cases even though I do not blame Mr M.

They had a choice. They could have left it at the DQ and issued a reminder/warning instead of adding this circus to highlight their commissaires' inconsistent application of the rules.

 

[matticus]

Does Tim Wellens have a right to comment?

Tim Wellens suffered numerous injury including four breaks in his collarbone but now, as the UCI investigate the possibility of further sanctions against the Bahrain - Victorious rider, Wellens has come out in his defence.

“That was of course not a smart move on his part. But I think Maciejuk has already been punished enough on social media,” the 31-year-old Belgian tells Het Nieuwsblad. "I don't know the Pole from Bahrain Victorious personally, but I suppose he would have given his collarbone not to be the cause of this massive crash."

 

[Alex321]

Chris Horner explains it really well. Although Mr M (I can't spell his name either) caused the crash, it was not deliberate. Many riders race on the side. It seems UCI only enforce the rule when something really drastic happens but have a blind eye for smaller incidents.

UCI had no choice in this case, it was a huge crash. Sometimes they have to enforce the rules and this is one of those cases even though I do not blame Mr M.

I do.

He wasn't just riding in the gutter, or even on a good grass surface. It should have been obvious he would struggle for control, long before he lost it and had to swerve back into the pack.

There are places you can push the boundaries a bit without much risk. That wasn't one of them.

 

[matticus]

Interesting how the armchair fans are a lot less forgiving that the actual pros themselves.

Including a guy with a broken collarbone from the incident!

 

[Alex321]

Interesting how the armchair fans are a lot less forgiving that the actual pros themselves.

Including a guy with a broken collarbone from the incident!

In what way?

We are blaming him for the crash, and as far as I am aware, so are the people injured in it. And he should be punished for that.

I agree with the riders involved that the DQ was punishment enough.

I haven't seen any of the "armchair fans" suggesting anything else.

 

[Adam4868]

Bring back capital punishment !

 

[mjr]

He wasn't just riding in the gutter, or even on a good grass surface. It should have been obvious he would struggle for control, long before he lost it and had to swerve back into the pack.

He was riding over what looked like cobbled parking spaces, outside the carriageway and its gutter, then used the grass because he didn't rejoin the peloton on the road before they ended. I suspect he would have held it together on good grass, but what looked nice and green was basically a huge swampy puddle that he bounced into and slingshotted out from.

Huge as that crash was, that's still not the hidden water to claim the most cycling victims this year: I'm sure I read that a waterway in Utrecht was so coated with red algae that cyclists have been falling in because they mistake it for a new red-tarmac cycleway, but I can't find the toot or tweet again.

 

[Alex321]

Huge as that crash was, that's still not the hidden water to claim the most cycling victims this year: I'm sure I read that a waterway in Utrecht was so coated with red algae that cyclists have been falling in because they mistake it for a new red-tarmac cycleway, but I can't find the toot or tweet again.

Something about it on Reddit here

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/11paggr/people_falling_in_to_the_water_because_they_think/

 

[matticus]

I agree with the riders involved that the DQ was punishment enough.

OK, it's the weekend, let's agree to agree on that!