No he wasn't, he was drifting towards the white line. He only corrects after the FDJ rider hit the deck.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

Then the next major part of the carnage was caused by Greg Henderson hitting the anchors and bringing about 10 down on top of him and then into the light pole. Watch the red Lotto-Soudal jersey disappear backwards just as Bonnet hits the deck.

cancellara out - broken vertebrae

very bad luck

Tom Doumulin. severely injured and out of the race

Every rider is responsible for their own front wheel, road racing 101. It was his fault.

 It really is strange though. I've been hit exactly like that by somebody elses wheel at those same speeds but we were going so fast it just nudged me over... it did not cause my entire bike to wobble and go out from under me. I'm guessing he didn't have a firm grip on his handlebars and the wheel turned in on him at the exact moment he was off guard. My heart skipped a beat when I saw how nasty they went down and how well Cancellaras bike flies above the rest.... poor guy hurt the only good part of his back, that just sucks.

EDIT: just watched it on HD and wow what a difference. You really can't blame the fdj rider. His Drops got hooked by Barguil saddle/hip area and twisted his handlebars.

He was cut off by Barguil (first time in TdF). It looks like his left hip catches Bonnet's handlebar and sends him down.

I watched the slo-mo frame by frame and it was Barguil's fault.

While I agree that Phil and Paul are idiots.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7nquTUVZ40

You can see there's a 2nd crash after the 1st crash that's on the left side of the road that's at a different location than the 1st crash.

1st crash - 1:08 (mostly on the right with one or two riders on the left)
2nd crash - 1:21 (all on the left)

ETA: Timestamps

Silliest thing I have read today....but the good news is that it is early and you stand a decent chance of being 1-upped.

Seriously - watch the video. Guy coming from behind doesn't hold his line and takes out the FDJ riders front wheel. NOTHING he could do about it.

If you think it was the FDJ rider's fault, I'd suggest you retake Road Racing 101.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Welcome to the backstage club, I've been following their channel for almost 2 years now, entertaining and insightful and still getting better in my opinion.

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Don't forget to unclip!

Every race clinic I went to stressed that your front wheel is your responsibility to protect. If someone starts to overlap, 1) move up so that you're side by side and touching only causes elbows/arms to contact; 2) move over to the left/right (if possible); or 3) give the guy your line (obviously not the desired option when racing, but better to stay up than go down).

Although the FDJ rider did have a little room to move over to the left, it does look like the guy cuts off the FDJ rider pretty quickly. It looks like the FDJ rider didn't expect the guy to move over since he wasn't clear yet, and then didn't have enough time to react to having his front wheel touch. But this question has come up in local race clinics time and time again. Even though the guy who's cutting you off is riding like a jackass, it's still your front wheel and still your responsibility.

There's a bit of a difference between your local cat 5 race and the TDF... There comes a level where you're either trusting guys around you to ride like they know what they're doing, or you're leaving so much space you'll just be instantly shuffled to the back by people more aggressive than you.

Yes, your front wheel is your "responsibility"....but that doesn't mean when some idiot takes it out, with a bonehead move that no one could foresee, that the resulting crash is your fault.

Before you ever get to "Your front wheel is your responsibility" in any "clinic", you have "Hold your fookin' line."

There is no way in hell anyone can blame the FDJ rider for that crash yesterday.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Even if the rider behind moves he may take out the rider behind him, or the rider behind him, in a group that large something has to give. It should be everyone's responsibility to ride safely, including the rider in front, sudden changes in line are dangerous, my opinion is the front rider has some responsibility.

If I was the front rider I would be feeling terrible today. Just my opinion, I am not claiming this to be a "Fact" of bike racing.

Yes. There's a huge difference between a cat 5 crit and the TdF. And I'm sure the FDJ rider didn't think someone was going to come across his front wheel like that. Hence, why he probably went down so unexpectedly and wasn't able to recover. And yes, you don't want to leave so much space that people take wheels from you left and right. But, I'd think you'd agree that if the FDJ rider went down because he wasn't attentive, he'd probably have stayed upright if he was riding more proactively and thinking about protecting his wheel. You don't have to have a 3 feet bubble around your front wheel, but if you see a guy starting to drift into you, and you have room to scoot over to your left, where are you going to go? I'm no pro rider (obviously) and I know it's easy to monday morning qb video feeds, but it really seems like the FDJ rider wasn't paying attention to what was happening around him.

they are the best. :) poor simon yesterday....

i thought this foto was pretty powerful...

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

^ Exactly, and no my post wasn't the stupidest thing you've read all day but perhaps how you thought about it was. You never ride with your bars level with someone's hips in a bunch. If the bunch shifts you've got nowhere to go, but it happens. It happens when there are always slight changes in pace and you don't want to lose your position. But when it happens you have a choice, either ease up and drop back on the wheel or push up into the gap in front so your bars are level and in a position where you can much more safely hold your ground with elbows etc. He lost concentration for a split second and that was that. People must think it's ok to mentally switch off when you're rolling around in a big bunch, I don't know about others but I'm mentally exhausted as we as physically at the end of a road race.

+1 to your +1. Haha. I too am mentally fried after a road race, and sometimes even more exhausted mentally than physically. Narrowly missed two crashes that unfolded in front of my in my last road race and would have surely gone down if I wasn't paying attention to what was happening further up.

But again, I'm also not saying that the rider that cut across the FDJ rider wasn't riding like a jackass... I'm just saying it's always your responsibility to protect your front wheel. And yes... HOLD YOUR LINE. But when someone doesn't/can't/won't hold their line, PROTECT YOUR WHEEL.

This looked like a "racing incident" and while it is fun to try and figure out what happened, this type of crash really does not merit assigning "blame" like it was some sort of traffic accident among civilians. Bike racing is not exactly the smartest human activity ever invented and sometimes stuff just happens.

Fully agree. I think if we analogized this to F1, the race director/stewards would likely label this a racing incident and take no further action. It's not like the FDJ rider was riding erratically or dangerously. I think assigning "blame" in this particular situation has been more of a textbook exercise if anything. And yes, if I was the rider that came across the front of the FDJ guy, I'd be apologizing profusely and feeling like an asshole.

Great GoPro footage from yesterday's stage:

https://www.youtube.com/...21&v=ehFyYxUfIZw