Cycling

Glad the Olympics is history and they're going back to Paris again.
 
And so it begins!

Pogacar for the win :)
Hopefully, but I expect Vingegaard to make it very difficult this year. Barring any accidents it's hard to imagine anything other than a first and second place for these two.

Sad about Ganna though and what an insane crash between Thomas and Vercher :oops:
 
Yup, looked like Thomas slipped on the slippery white line.

Quite a few crashes today as well.
 
Philipsen has abandoned after his fall today. He requires surgery on his collarbone and has a couple of broken ribs too.
 
I see Coquard was handed a yellow card and a fine for the Philipsen crash. I think it's a stupid decision tbh. Coquard was not to blame and he didn't do anything irregular imo.
 
I see Coquard was handed a yellow card and a fine for the Philipsen crash. I think it's a stupid decision tbh. Coquard was not to blame and he didn't do anything irregular imo.
While I agree that Coquard did not intentionally do anything to cause the crash, one could argue that his positioning( along with most of the others in the lead up to that sprint ) meant that a crash was likely. I think we now accept for example in rugby, there does not need to be intent to recieve a yellow card in a head clash situation, but if your body postioning allows that to happen you are responsible. Cycling is too dangerous. A rethink is needed with respect to how safety is managed. Perhaps it needs policing such that if a crash happens you can be sanctioned for an overt action, or for your decisions contributing to the crash.

Take for example that KOM crash on stage 1, we could all see from 300m out a crash was likely. What would you think if both recived a yellow card for that?

PS I am not sure if I agree with myself, but something needs to be done, that affects rider behaviour, throwing out ideas?
 
While I agree that Coquard did not intentionally do anything to cause the crash, one could argue that his positioning( along with most of the others in the lead up to that sprint ) meant that a crash was likely. I think we now accept for example in rugby, there does not need to be intent to recieve a yellow card in a head clash situation, but if your body postioning allows that to happen you are responsible. Cycling is too dangerous. A rethink is needed with respect to how safety is managed. Perhaps it needs policing such that if a crash happens you can be sanctioned for an overt action, or for your decisions contributing to the crash.

Take for example that KOM crash on stage 1, we could all see from 300m out a crash was likely. What would you think if both recived a yellow card for that?

PS I am not sure if I agree with myself, but something needs to be done, that affects rider behaviour, throwing out ideas?
Still a very stupid decision. It was just a normal sprint, Coquard was in a perfectly normal sprinting position, he didn't change his line or anything. There was just a touch, he lost a bit of control. It happens. Punish him, now you have to punish everyone else. There are far worse sprints with riders going all over the road, shouldering and everything and no one gets punished.

Take for example that KOM crash on stage 1, we could all see from 300m out a crash was likely. What would you think if both recived a yellow card for that?
To me it looks like a crash is very likely in literally every bunch sprint lol. No one deserves a yellow card unless they ride super dangerously imo, something Coquard def did not do. No one in that sprint did.
 
Eina, Philipsen just crashed out of the Tour.
Hit the decks at 60, he got off relatively lightly with road rash, a broken collar bone and a few bust ribs.
Do they use standard Lycra kit or something more advanced that's Kevlar reinforced or similar?
 
Still a very stupid decision. It was just a normal sprint, Coquard was in a perfectly normal sprinting position, he didn't change his line or anything. There was just a touch, he lost a bit of control. It happens. Punish him, now you have to punish everyone else. There are far worse sprints with riders going all over the road, shouldering and everything and no one gets punished.


To me it looks like a crash is very likely in literally every bunch sprint lol. No one deserves a yellow card unless they ride super dangerously imo, something Coquard def did not do. No one in that sprint did.
So essentially I agree with you. No one did anything deliberately dangerous and yet we have philipsen in hospital with "only" a clavicle fracture and some rib fractures. And in your words a crash is likely in literally every bunch sprint. How do we change this?

Coquard was in a position where a little bump and small loss of control resulted in a crash. Analogous to a rugby tackler putting his body in a position if the attacker drops his head by 5cm results in a head contact and yellow card.

For sure I agree with you this is not the standard at the moment and so Coquards card is the typical UCI knee jerk reaction. But I think it's time to start looking at sanctioning the inadvertent dangerous riding.
 
So essentially I agree with you. No one did anything deliberately dangerous and yet we have philipsen in hospital with "only" a clavicle fracture and some rib fractures. And in your words a crash is likely in literally every bunch sprint. How do we change this?
You don't. Just let pro cycling be pro cycling. Crashes like that are part of the sport.
 
Cofidis team manager hopes Coquard's yellow card will be overturned. I agree with everything he said. Especially the part where he says if you punish Coquard like this for no reason, you'll have to punish everyone and give out plenty of yellow cards every day and in a few days time there will be no one left in the race lol.


Meanwhile, a couple of days a ago a bunch of Cofidis bikes were also stolen. I remember the same thing happened to another team last year. You'd think security would be a bit better.
 
Wanted to do this from day 1 this year but I forgot. Wanted to post some cool pics from each stage so here goes (will limit it to max 3 pics per stage).

Stage 1

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