Watching the fantastic recovery by Lance after Belokis crash I just thought that with his amount of determination to finish, barring disaster, this race is over. What a great sportsman.
I can’t wait to see it myself tonight. I don’t know if the race is over yet, though.
I am very surprised that there hasn’t been any whining that he cut the course and should be disqualified. At least, I haven’t heard of any.
Good point:
When I watch the big bike races I think of how silly some of the rules are in triathlon and the fanatcism with which they are enforced.
I was once DQ’d in a duathlon for running the wrong way in the transition zone!!
What Lance did today would be grounds for an automatic DQ in just about any triathlon. Same thing with all the riders tossing aside water bottles during the stage( note I am NOT advocating littering bike courses). Or how about the outside assisatnce from fans and team personal. Again, all grounds for a DQ in any triathlon.
Interesting.
check out the photo and tell me again you would have faulted Lance for going x-country. . .Not a lot of choice for him. Or maybe YOU could have braked down from descending speeds and stayed on the road while avoiding the mess of bicycle and rider directly in your path.
I’m not faulting him at all. I think he did what was a perfectly logical thing to do in that case. But when you consider some of the things that have happened in that past that have caused complaints, I would have expected that some of the usual suspects would be trying to get him out the old fashioned way: By complaining about him. Don’t forget the 4 year investigation of US Postal for drug use wherein they found nothing, and their whole basis was that Lance kept winning the Tour, so he must be on drugs.(It’s called chemotherapy!)
Meanwhile Rumsas has his wife driving a pharmacy across the border.
I thought what Lance did was incredible. I haven’t seen it yet, though, only read about it.
Sorry - should have made myself clearer. What Lance did today on the bike was extraordinary. He did what he had to do and he showed not only a cool head under immense physical and psychlogical pressure, but also exceptional bike handling skills. Now consider a hypothetical but possible situation in a big triathlon. Peter Reid is approaching the turn at Hawi at Ironman Hawaii a car or another cyclist pulls out onto the course right in front of him. He shows amazing bike handling skill and is forced to cut to the inside of the turn-around cone - taking only a couple of metres off the course. He is possibly DQ’d right on the spot or goes on to win the race and is then DQ’d.
first day one, in the big crash, he is riding next to Levi who breaks his hip while Lance gets a few bruises then today. If he had been forced about 2 feet to the left of where he was he would have been a$$ over elbows in a big ditch with broken wheel or frame at a minimum. check out the video.
If he didn’t break anything he would have lost at least a minute or two, getting a new bike, etc. and would now be sitting behind Hamilton in the GC.
and the Societe de Tour de France immediately confirmed they waived the penalty for obvious reasons.
Ahem
I have had that situation. the rider was forced to cross a double yellow centerline to avoid serious injury from an on course incursion less than 50 -100 feet in front of my Moto.
I gave him a thumbs up and a smile
In any event, it is good to see that there are officials out there who interpret the rules in accordance with conditions, necessity, and a rider’s intent.
It’s also good to see someone perform an incredible piece of improvisation and not get punished for it when they have technically violated a rule (Article 20 in this case).