OT: Le Tour Stage 5 - summit finish
Yesterday Peter Sagan, the best rider in the world by some margin, was thrown out of the race for crashing Mark Cavendish into the wall, a decision that is a subject of intense controversy. (I think the result/points penalty he initially received was fine, but kicking him out is ridiculous). No Sagan means a lot of the stages are a lot less interesting, and I was concerned that the entire race may wind up a boring parade with Sky locking down control of the GC on Planche des Belle Filles today.
Not so fast. Fabiu Aru attacked the Sky train and it actually worked--Chris Froome lost his lieutenants in quick succession and was forced to chase alone. Aru stayed away, gaining 20 seconds plus some bonus time. Dan Martin, known for his finishing kick, also managed to clip Froome at the line. Top contender Richie Porte was unable to get past Froome but did stay close, while Nairo Quintana was dropped and ceded 16 seconds to Froome before bonuses.
That leaves Froome with the yellow jersey (leader/teammate Geraint Thomas did his train duty and lost 40 seconds) but Froome looking at least a bit vulnerable. On a climb that usually only yields modest separation, it was Fabiu Aru doing the talking.
It's still Froome's race to lose, but it's suddenly interesting.
I saw the video, and support the decision to toss Sagan. He intentionally wiped Cavendish out, and his "apology" rings hollow.
I'm not sure that this opens the overall race up that much, but the Green Jersey competition is now officially wide-open.
Whether it was "jostling" or something more is a matter of opinion, I suppose. I saw Sagan doing something different than swimming through there.
But it also matters, a lot, that the push was into a fixed wall during an all-out sprint. What I saw was Sagan wrecking Cavendish purposely. I base that on the video, not on the "bad-looking picture"*. It was a bad decision by Sagan, and a very dangerous one given the proximity of the wall for Cavendish (giving Cavendish no space to recover). Again, no problem with him being dismissed even though I'm not a Sagan hater.
*Which looks bad for a reason, IMO.
EDIT - Here's the video:
and the crash was discussed ad nauseum. The prevailing opinions from the Peloton seem to be it was all pretty benign and they all wish Cav a speedy recovery. For my own $.02, it looked like Cav tried to squeeze into too tight of a space and Sagan was defending his space moreso than trying to eliminate a rival. The race is less interesting with those two not on the start. For Sagan, if the jury felt compelled to send a message, I think the right play would have been to dock him 80 points and leave him in. Knowing Sagan, he would still somehow pull off the Green Jersey which would be remarkable. The jury would have sent their message, and Le Tour would have been better for it.
Crash aside, great ride by Aru yesterday. It will be interesting to see if he and his team can keep him in good position for the next two weeks. The way he looked yesteray, he appears worthy of a podium finish.
There was no intent to wipe out Cav, at the most Sagan veered off of his line to hold off Cav. Cav tried to force himself through. When I saw it live I thought it looked like it was purposeful, but after watching several replays for different angles the elbow flick was a reaction to Cav's bike coming into Sagan's and knocking off his balance. In 20+ years of watching the tour and other events, I have seen much worse without a race DQ. Sagan should have been relagated for the Stage but no DQ. The only reason I can see is because of the exent of the injuries to Cav.
Appreciate the thread, and definitely happy people are discussing Le Tour on the board, but in the future it would be apprecaited if you could keep the title more general for those of us that are on tape delay and watch at night. Something like, "Le Tour - Stage 5" should still be sufficiently informative, but would keep it from being a spoiler for anyone that hasn't watched yet.
Also, I thought the one point that everyone seems to be missing from the craziness yesterday is that Cav was on the back wheel of Demare, the eventual stage winner. If there was no room for Cavendish, how come Demare got through? I think that if Sagan hadn't thrown the elbow Cav would've blown by everyone and won the Stage.
Thanks for changing, just a few minutes too late for me today though :(
Oh yes, there is much more to see in the race than just who wins the stage.
Thanks man, really appreciate it. Please keep posting the threads - great to have a place to turn to discuss the daily drama.
I'll try to chime in again later once I've had a chance to catch up. ;)
I am in the Pacific time zone, and unless I get up in the middle of the night (especially for mountain stages) I pretty much always watch on DVR delay. FWIW, I actually watch while riding on my indoor trainer and try to "ride along"
I'm cool with Sagan being thrown out. He stuck his elbow out and blocked Cavendish into a wall and thus breaking his shoulder in the crash. He caused the crash, let him sit it out.
Just watched the video. Suprised that doesn't happen at the end of every stage -- how the hell else do you move up when you are packed like sardines without bumbing each other?
They usually only do that for the 2nd tier guys, which I think they assumed Aru was. The primary rivals they usually cover or at least lift up the tempo. They didn't react at all when Aru went up the road. That could be because they were at their limit already, but usually that's not how they ride tempo. Sad thing about this year's course is we won't really know for sure until probably stage 18. All the other mountain stages have 20k+ of down hill before the finish.
Given the speed at which the lieutenants were dispatched after Aru's attack, my conclusion is that Sky was willing but unable to track him down.
And Aru has won a Vuelta. He didn't have a huge deficit. He's a terrific climber. <cough>heracesforAstana<cough>. He's not a guy Sky can afford to let go.
If the race is still in question going into Stage 18 I think everybody will be happy with that. And while the downhill portions take the bit out of some of the mountains, it does make the time bonuses interesting. If Dan Martin can keep this form up he could be a real threat.
While I understand your point, until Aru can be consistant and hang around further into the race, I'll give my nod to Froome. There still are 2 tough summit stages left along with 3 or so hard mountain stages and an ITT on the last day before Paris. I look for Froome to have the race in hand before then, considering he doesn't crash or have bad luck. If Aru is within striking distance in the mid to late teen stages, he might have a chance.
I've actually been surprised by Contador's performance. He doesn't have too many years left and I think he's on the other side of his prime.
He is definitely on his own descent, and I was surprised he didn't crack yesterday. Quintana is becoming something of a fallacy to me. He is always purported to be a terrific climber and the chief threat to Froome, yet in all the big ascents he seems to be spat out the back of the lead group when there is an attack - unless he is doing the attacking in which case he usually gets caught and passed. In any event, I feel like this tour is set up better for an aging Contador than Quintana and seems ripe for a young star to emerge. I think Aru will establish himself in this tour as a rider that could supplant Froome.
And wearing the French Champion's jersey, no less.
However,
If that is the case then how do they punish Sagan at all? Cavendish came from behind and put his head and shoulders on Sagan's back lost balance and crashed. To me it looked like Sagan's elbow was more of a reaction to the contact and not a purposeful move. Also, how could Sagan know that Cavendish was even there in the first place in order to block since he was ahead. I have seen Cavendish use his upper body in a similar fashion and crashed a guy. I don't believe a penalty was warranted.
Nope.
They need to keep the elbows in, or every finish will be a catastrophe.
Pretty disappointed in the Tour so far. They put in less climbing and time trailing in an effort to keep things close, but it also means a lot of less than exciting stages. 3 summit finishes just isn't enough.