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Tour de France 2017 |OT|

Totally forgot about GVA as well.

Pic from yesterday:

DDv_nvtXoAAJ4Tl.jpg-large-832x447.jpg
 
Bonkers win for Sagan, but also a great day for my VeloGames team; I have G, GVA, Sagan, and Majka. :)

Mines not looking too crash hot. Already lost Valverde and I made the genius move to dump Matthews about an hour before the lockout. A few points from Froome still being up there and that's about it.
 
My future sight tells me that this Tour will consist of the Sky train holding together all the way. Froome/Thomas for the first two places, with Thomas receiving an order to let Froome win. Nobody else can get even close.
 

Addnan

Member
Wish they showed more data like they did during Giro, power, cadence, heart rate etc. Just interesting to follow.
 

Joni

Member
Out alone all day. That's not worth the pain.

It is worth it. This guy is riding for a team that is doing the Tour for the very first time. They won the combativity on Sunday, they are sure to get it again today. Basically, they have earned their wildcard for next year in four days.
 
Sagan murdered Cav right there. That was horrible.

Edit: He has to get some sort of penalty right? It still looked dirty after a couple replays.
 

NewDust

Member
Wouldn't be surprised if Sagan has to surrender his points for the green jersey today.

And it seemed he also was the culprit of the fall at the 1km mark, but I need a rewatch to be certain.
 
Helicopter shot makes it look like Sagan elbowed him to the fence, but in the frontal shot it looks like Cavendish's head touches Sagan's leg, which causes him to lose balance and stick his elbow out. Sagan's body seems to move to the left of his bike.

I'm torn. It looks terrible, but I refuse to acknowledge my boy Sagan is just an outright asshole.
 
Conversely, I hate Sagan but I can't believe he would so something so blatant on purpose.

Looks pretty bad though.

Poor Cav. Looks like the record isn't going to get beat.
 

kch

Member
Yeah Sagan had no ill will with that move it was most likely a chain reaction from everyone going different ways and him trying to keep balance. Cav was already going down before the elbow comes out. Simply now room left for Cav there.
 

Fonds

Member
As far as I can tell from these angles it's Sagan trying to make himself as wide as possible.
However, he tried to make himself as wide as possible in a position where there was no more wiggle room.

I'm curious about their stories and more importantly what the organisation will do with him.
Sagan pulls loads of viewers, ejecting him won't do their ratings any good.
 

kch

Member
A tree basically covers the critical moment between Peto and Cav, and the next thing we see is Peto's elbow sticking out.

From the super slowmo frontal replay it looks like Cav runs out of room to pass Sagan and starts going down, then Sagan's elbow comes out as a reaction to Cav touching him slightly from behind.
 
From the super slowmo frontal replay it looks like Cav runs out of room to pass Sagan and starts going down, then Sagan's elbow comes out as a reaction to Cav touching him slightly from behind.

Cav only runs out of room because Sagan swung right across him. However, that stuff happens in racing and it doesn't look like Cav is angry about that. He is angry about the elbow and so is Roger Hammond.

There was definitely an elbow and it looks like Sagan doubles down on it and leans further into Cav. Some might say he was simply trying to keep his balance. I think I'm coming down on team deliberate here tbh.
 

Faddy

Banned
Cav only runs out of room because Sagan swung right across him. However, that stuff happens in racing and it doesn't look like Cav is angry about that. He is angry about the elbow and so is Roger Hammond.

There was definitely an elbow and it looks like Sagan doubles down on it and leans further into Cav. Some might say he was simply trying to keep his balance. I think I'm coming down on team deliberate here tbh.

Cav was going down before the elbow. The elbow is possibly a reaction to the contact between the two of them.

The real issue is about Sagan cutting off Cavendish. Was Cav close enough to Demare's wheel to make Sagan's move unsafe.
 

NewDust

Member
Are we ignoring Démare's tactics though? He clearly cuts in front the rider in red, causing him to almost crash.

https://twitter.com/AlesCule/status/882257366749786112

Demare gets spared because of the Sagan/Cav incident and Kristoffs ability to keep upright. And because he is French!

Sagan seems to be declassified from the Stage 4 general classification, but gets to keep his points from the intermediate sprint, so no DQ. Exactly as I predicted.

Sagan got -80 points and +35 seconds.

Well seems to be both more severe and less severe than I thought.
 
Are we ignoring Démare's tactics though? He clearly cuts in front the rider in red, causing him to almost crash.

https://twitter.com/AlesCule/status/882257366749786112

He does but that only indirectly affects the Sagan/Cav incident. Sagan watches him and tries to move into the space he left but Cav, who was on Démare's wheel, is already in that space. Deliberate elbow or now, dodgy tactics from Démare or not, Sagan is at fault for that 100% IMO.

Losing points but no DQ is probably the right decision. If I had to guess, I would say there was some intent in the elbow, possibly instinctive but all the same it was there. However, it's hard to prove that and there is enough doubt, as well as Sagan's reputation, to give him the benefit of that doubt.

Hope Cav is OK though.
 
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