Stage 19, Friday September 12 | Salvaterro do Miño - Cangas do Morrazo | 180.5km

MPFG

Love to say Dan Martin will win this one ...so I will !!
However it could be one for the breakaway.....

OGE & BMC might chase for Matthews or Gilbert/Sanchez ...Movistar chasing depends if Valverde is up for it or keeping his legs for very difficult stage tomorrow

If breakaway stays could see De Marchi or Hesjedal again

Dr. Bre

eurosport showing davis cup so only live action starts at 4

TheBlaaMan

Is that not 4pm CET ie 3pm BST?

neris

they normally start about 3 bst. some amount of bull**** sports on eurosport given way too much airtime over the cycling.

pelevin

David Millar's last ever chance of a GT stage race win - presuming tomorrow's stage much too hard, & whatever about his chances in the final short TT. Would have thought he'd have to have to try & be in a breakaway today but I think he's had some accident & injuries during the race so maybe it's beyond his capacities to even try.

fat bloke

neris wrote: »

they normally start about 3 bst. some amount of bull**** sports on eurosport given way too much airtime over the cycling.

Bout time some of the other networks manned up and stopped ignoring some of the sports that eurosport have been supporting for years. Fair play to Eurosport. Where would we be without em? Desperately refreshing 240kb/s letter box streams with Friedrich Von Gobbeldegook's commentary.

Darkglasses

fat bloke wrote: »

Bout time some of the other networks manned up and stopped ignoring some of the sports that eurosport have been supporting for years. Fair play to Eurosport. Where would we be without em? Desperately refreshing 240kb/s letter box streams with Friedrich Von Gobbeldegook's commentary.

Or worse, tg4 :eek:

lennymc

Darkglasses wrote: »

Or worse, tg4 :eek:

Ní thuigim

neris

sky rider down n didnt look like he was moving

Darkglasses

neris wrote: »

sky rider down n didnt look like he was moving

Looked serious yeah

ThisRegard

neris wrote: »

sky rider down n didnt look like he was moving

Looked like he slid around and hit the tree head first.

gordongekko

Looked nasty. Cataldo I think it was.

blobbie

Cataldo according to Cycling News.

Didn't look good.

retalivity

much like the TOB, the peloton asleep at the end again!

pelevin

Bloody idiots after doing all the hard work of getting over the climb . . . And I'd 3 big euros on Degenkolb at 16/1.

neris

some very nice podium girls

blobbie

I'll have to try Cava some day

ThisRegard

blobbie wrote: »

I'll have to try Cava some day

Spanish champagne, Italian prosecco. But generally cheaper. Main thing is the bubbles.

blobbie

Team Sky ‏@TeamSky 19m
Great news that @DarioCataldo is back on his bike and trying to finish the stage. He'll be monitored by the team and we'll update later

ThisRegard

Yeah, saw a tweet from a few minutes ago saying he just finished. Apparently he remained conscious but was dazed.

fishfoodie

ThisRegard wrote: »

Yeah, saw a tweet from a few minutes ago saying he just finished. Apparently he remained conscious but was dazed.

I think Cycling needs to wise up like other sports are starting too, & the docs need to pull riders out if they sustain injuries like this !!! :mad:

That a rider who has, based on his teammates comments, sustained a concussion, would ride on & potentially have to do another climb & descent while concuss is totally unacceptable. The other Sky rider said his helmet had a big dent in it, i.e. 'useless in another impact', & didn't know where he was, & yet they rode to the end of the stage, WTF ?

If the rider turn out to be okay, after a proper examination, give them the time from whenever the bus arrives, but for God sake they shouldn't be allowing riders to descend a >80kph with a serious concussion, & a useless lump of foam on their head :mad::mad::mad:

ThisRegard

I agree that he should have been assessed for concussion before being allowed continue. Maybe he was, but he came in with the bus 13 minutes down. Enough time to be assessed correctly, probably not.

fishfoodie

ThisRegard wrote: »

I agree that he should have been assessed for concussion before being allowed continue. Maybe he was, but he came in with the bus 13 minutes down. Enough time to be assessed correctly, probably not.

What I'm saying is that if you fall, & hit your head, that's the end of the days stage for you. Dr O'Driscoll quit over the 10min assessment BS, it just isn't possible. So, to avoid unfairly penalizing a rider, you pull them for a proper assessment, & then at the end of the stage, if they're fit to continue, you credit them with the time they would get if they finished with the bus.

Beasty

If he was "dazed" he was concussed and should never have been allowed back on a bike. Another bang to the head in such circumstances could have very serious consequences. Cycling really must start paying attention to the possible consequences of head injuries (which are still not very well understood but what they do understand is that anyone who is suffereing the after effects of any concussion is much more susceptible to far more serious injury)

ford2600

I got concussion twice playing Gaelic Football.

First occasion, despite it being a county final, I had to ask one of the lads who won. I had played the entire 2nd concussed.

On second occasion I wad being driven to hospital by team manager whom I had known for 10 years. In concussed state I had no idea who he was or where we where. Freaky and scary.

Not an appropriate state to be in riding a bike for injured party or those sharing the road.

Beasty

Was speaking to the leading expert in this field in Ireland following my own concussion earlier this year. Mine was very serious and I have been advised not to race again this year (a couple of medics who are not as experienced in the area actually suggested I should never race again). He mentioned that cycling along with a lot of other sports are really not properly up to speed on this issue. He mentioned 2 sports that are adopting a much better approach than most - rugby and, perhaps surprisingly, boxing

Beasty

I would add there is talk of introducing a rule in Ireland requiring cyclists who have suffered suspected concussion not to be allowed to race for a minimum period. One of the problems though is many people suffer what they think are minor knocks and never get themselves properly checked out

fishfoodie

Well lets face it, boxing has had to watch some of it's greatest ever athletes be destroyed by awful brain injuries.

Sadly it seems to take awful injuries, & deaths, to make sporting administrators admit that they need to make changes. Amateur Boxing in particular made some radical changes to maintain the competitive & skill element, while recognizing the need to protect the competitors, often from themselves ! Professional boxing isn't sport, its a circus :mad:

Cycling needs to get beyond Tommy Simpsons dying words being to, "put me back on my bike" ! There's no loss of machismo from not killing yourself.

Beasty

It was probably the amateur side of the "sport" he was referring to, particularly as his focus was really on sport within Ireland

Beasty

ford2600 wrote: »

I got concussion twice playing Gaelic Football.

First occasion, despite it being a county final, I had to ask one of the lads who won. I had played the entire 2nd concussed.

On second occasion I wad being driven to hospital by team manager whom I had known for 10 years. In concussed state I had no idea who he was or where we where. Freaky and scary.

Not an appropriate state to be in riding a bike for injured party or those sharing the road.

Just thinking back to my own concussion "experiences"

First time was playing rugby at school - this was the mid 1970s and I was probably about 15. Just remember walking round the dressing room wondering what day of the week it was. Apparently I had played on oblivious to any injury. The teachers never spotted it and that evening I went straight back out for a school rugby practice - only told one other pupil (who never let on) about it and spent that evening with what had happened that week slowly coming back to me - my parents never even knew about it as I managed to hide it from them

Then 5 years ago I had my first serious cycling accident, flying over the bars on the commute into work. Apparently I appeared quite "with it" at the scene and wanted to get back onto the bike to complete my journey. First I remember though was coming out of the scanner at the Beaumont a couple of hours later

This year's crash didn't really count as I was laid out unconscious on the outside lane of a dual carriageway for 30 mins or more so was never likely to try and get back on the bike ..... However even with that one I managed to convince a lot of people I was in a much better state than it turned out I was really in for quite a few weeks (possibly months) after

fishfoodie

Beasty wrote: »

Just thinking back to my own concussion "experiences"

...

Then 5 years ago I had my first serious cycling accident, flying over the bars on the commute into work. Apparently I appeared quite "with it" at the scene and wanted to get back onto the bike to complete my journey. First I remember though was coming out of the scanner at the Beaumont a couple of hours later

That tallies with my own experience. A friend in work I thought described the way it often happens perfectly. He got a forearm to the head in a GAA match & knocked to the ground; he was okay for the next 10 minutes to half time, & got a check at HT, but deteriorated over HT as the adrenalin dropped off, & at the start of the 2nd half, his first part in play, was to catch a ball, & take a kick towards goal .... his own goal !

This kind of incident, & the fact that players don't want to come off ; is why the 10min brain bin assessment is not just BS, it's criminally negligent. BOD admitted to messing up the pre-season baseline concussion tests, just so that when he had to do one for real, the baseline was artificially low, so he had a better chance of passing.

We all know the crap the team doctors have gotten up to in the past; what are the chances of one making a decision to effectively give a key rider, on their own team, a 15-20 minute penalty in the TdF if they take a bad spill ?

eeeee

I have been concussed coming off horses in my youth and gotten back on, sometimes not, I can only go on what people who were with me told me. It's the height of stupidity letting someone who's dazed after a bad bang on the head back on a bike. I have been concussed once off a bike (lost my memory for 2 weeks) and at the time I refused to get into an ambulance and tried repeatedly to cycle my broken bike home. You aren't in full control of yourself at all.

Something like what they do in horse racing where you are automatically stood down from racing for 10 days post concussion. It's not only themselves they're risking, it's every other rider with them. I am sure many would be fine, I have been, until you aren't. He was lucky, he shouldn't start for 2 weeks now if concussed.

Beasty

For major races like this I think there should be an independent doctor assessment. If it means a rider cannot finish a stage but is subsequently found to be fit enough to continue then as already said they could be given the time of the bunch they were in. If concussion is confirmed they must be removed from the race

ThisRegard

It'll be interesting to hear Sky's report, if there is one, and if he'll start tomorrow.

What struck me about the crash was that there was no great rush to stop and help, the commissionaire's car just drove on by when it was obvious he wasn't moving. I'm sure there's protocol on what to do in such incidents but it seemed callous. I'm sure the team car was right behind but still.