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Tour de France 2017 |OT|

Joni

Member
Looks like he got off easy. That was a bad move by Sagan. It will make the race for the green jersey a bit more exciting as well.
Too bad Kittel missed the sprint because of that first fall.
 
That's bullshit. -80 pts is way too much for something that looks debatable.

Edit: It sure looks to me like Cavendish is falling here, before Sagan pulls his elbow out but what do I know.

DD57hLVXcAAaKGr.jpg:large


I mean, Cav clearly makes contact with Sagan before he puts his elbow out.
DD5p3snXUAAf8hZ.jpg


Then, after Cav starts falling and hits Sagan's arm, he moves his elbow to protect himself.

DD58rPYXkAAFV2z.jpg
 

Faddy

Banned
Seeing stuff about Sagan being out of the Tour. Ridiculous. He moved off his line in a sprint, dangerous and deserving of a relegation but not getting kicked off the Tour.
 
And Sagans out of this race.

Jeez, that's a serious precedent. I'm all for demoting him for what I'll call "reckless sprinting" but a DQ is a step too far, that's usually reserved for violent conduct like Renshaw or those 2 Italians that punched on a few years ago.

On what stage will Bouhanni get sent home?
 
They took 80 points off his numbers, gave him a +30s penalty, and then they simply said "nah let's just kick him out".

Terrible stuff by the organization. What a joke of a race.
 

Faddy

Banned
Here is the front on video which makes it clear Sagan doesn't hit Cavendish with an elbow.

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheLegendMito21/status/882269127708221440/video/1

Once you take the elbow out I don't see how this incident is serious enough to go past the rule book


http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/16/26/68/12-DIS-20170701-E_English.pdf

10.1.Deviating from selected lane, endangering
other riders
1st offence: relegation to the last place in his group, point
classification penalty equal to the points awarded to the first
place of the stage, 200 + 30’’ in general class.

2nd offence: relegation to last place in the stage, point
classification penalty equal to the points awarded to the first
place of the stage, 200 + 1’ in general class.
3rd offence: elimination + 200

Which is the first penalty they awarded against Sagan.
 
I feel like I've seen countless sprints where similar line changing and elbowing results in a downed rider.

Cav was already up and on Sagan when the elbow came up. I could understanding calling elbow if it was more mid-body/bike
 

Faddy

Banned
looks like he did to me. went for another one and missed with that but there was contact the first time.

That is not an elbow, that is standard body pushing in a sprint. From the overhead shot it looks like Sagan flicks his arm and the point of his elbow hits Cav in the face but on the head on angle that is clearly not the case.
 
Whoa that's super harsh. Especially considering that Demare cut everybody off too, it's just that Kristoff or whoever managed to stay on his bike.
 

kch

Member
That's some proper bullshit what is the jury smoking?! Jesus this is all sorts of ass. Yeah like others said way way worse things have happen in between sprinters before compared to this. Will be interesting to see if they follow through on this and punish everyone equally in close sprints from now on..
 

FrankCanada97

Roughly the size of a baaaaaarge
Seems pretty harsh, I don't recall such penalties for similar incidents. I don't care much for sprint stages anyways, they are always susceptible to the biggest crashes in the final kilometers.
 

Juicy Bob

Member
As a complete outsider, I have applied my zero knowledge of this sport and confidently determined that Sagan's elbow wasn't deliberate and DQing him from the whole Tour is outrageous.

He should've received a ride-through penalty through the pits and three points on his superlicense.
 

Charamiwa

Banned
It's not just the elbow, he clearly pushes Cavendish against the barrier with his whole body prior to that. Cavendish tries to follow Demare, Sagan keeps going right against the barrier when he should stay in line, add to that the elbow and the horrific crash and you have something crazy enough to warrant a DQ.

Intentional or not, it's extremely dangerous and not the first time it happens with Sagan this year. He was even involved in the first crash right after the flamme rouge.
 

Fonds

Member
The problem I have with this is incident above all, is that is in a sense manufactured by the organization themselves.

Stages with 180-200k's of sensationless cycling, that ends in twisty and narrow sprint finishes.
This forces these kinds of mindless bouts of power where all sprinters involved are at risk of making mistakes.
The Tour themselves are as much to blame as the riders involved here.
 

Joni

Member
The problem I have with this is incident above all, is that is in a sense manufactured by the organization themselves.

Stages with 180-200k's of sensationless cycling, that ends in twisty and narrow sprint finishes.
This forces these kinds of mindless bouts of power where all sprinters involved are at risk of making mistakes.
The Tour themselves are as much to blame as the riders involved here.

There was no reason for this to end in a crash, considering there were so few of them and the road being large enough for a sprint like this. This is solely to blame on a rider's actions.
 

MrS

Banned
Cavendish is an arsehole anyway. He gets what he deserves and tears won't be shed over him.
 
Also, one must say Sagan has a very mountain biking esque way of of balancing himself against lateral forces. Which involves raising elbows and wiggling your hips.
 
Surprised Sagan got the DQ. Even while watching the replays I felt this was more Cav's fault for crowding in. If you watch the video closely, you actually see Cav push into Sagan as he starts to run out of room. Sagan seems to just react as anyone would, using his elbow to shrug another rider off. It wasn't intentional, it wasn't malicious, and it was brought on by another rider crowding into him, which a second before he probably barely knew was there.

Very surprised at the ruling and seems incredibly unfair. Was okay with the docking of points and time, but this seems overly harsh for what amounts to a pure accident brought on by some strange circumstances.
 

Fonds

Member
There was no reason for this to end in a crash, considering there were so few of them and the road being large enough for a sprint like this. This is solely to blame on a rider's actions.

When you're boldering onwards at 65kph with nothing but muscle power, you tend become a bit less aware of your surroundings and your ability to correct yourself becomes a tad worse.
These guys were all behaving like mad men. Demar crosses from far right to left, Cav tries to squeeze through a tiny hole that isn't there, Sagan sways to the right with a rider there.
These are all not pretty parts of a sprint, but none of them are intentional.
It is as I stated before, a product of letting these guys sit comfortably for 200k's only to let them explode in the last 2.
 
Good decision. This kind of scummy behavior that jeopardizes the health of other cyclists cannot be tolerated. The points/seconds penalization was a joke.
 

Ruruja

Member
Baffled by people trying to blame Cav for this. DQ was harsh but it was definitely dirty from Sagan, even without the elbow he just squeezed Cav into the barriers.
 
Safety and mass bicycle sprints don't go together, at all. They're all taking a gigantic risk just by doing it.

Also, Cav was taking a deliberate risk passing close to the barriers. Sagan was over aggressive in protecting his space, but it's mostly a race incident IMO. It's not like anyone stays in line these days, I mean look at Demare going zigzag like nuts, and rewarded with a win. Demotion for Sagan would've been the proper action. Or DQ for Sagan and demotion for Demare.
 
Knowing absolutely nothing about cycling, it doesn´t look like Sagan deliberately hits Cavendish with his elbow, but more like once he feels Cavendish next to him he deliberately pushes him with his shoulder/upper arm and his elbow rises afterward due to that momentum... I feel that this should probably also be very frowned upon?

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheLegendMito21/status/882269127708221440/video/1

Yeah, agree

Surprised Sagan got the DQ. Even while watching the replays I felt this was more Cav's fault for crowding in...

Cav's fault?? Lol. No.
 

krishian

Member
Safety and mass bicycle sprints don't go together, at all. They're all taking a gigantic risk just by doing it.

Also, Cav was taking a deliberate risk passing close to the barriers. Sagan was over aggressive in protecting his space, but it's mostly a race incident IMO. It's not like anyone stays in line these days, I mean look at Demare going zigzag like nuts, and rewarded with a win. Demotion for Sagan would've been the proper action. Or DQ for Sagan and demotion for Demare.
If anything, Demare started this whole thing with his slaloming all over the place.
 
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