UCI Racing News/Results 2020 (Spoiler Alert)

Sam was lucky there happened right behind him from the looks of it

mr spuckler

Someone looks in really bad shape on the ground there.

neris

someone in the middle of the road not moving

mr spuckler

De Bhál wrote: »

ewan welded to him

Sam had Ewan's wheel before the sprint was opened up.

Jesus were they checking for a pulse there on the Delko rider :eek:

Inquitus

A classic maybe but riding round in circles on the flat for 200km before a sprint doesn't get the juices flowing. DQS made a mess of Sam's leadout anyways before he had the mechanical, they took it on far too early imo.

neris

https://twitter.com/oleksieradz/status/1316396425614368768?s=20

Raoul Duke

Inquitus wrote: »

A classic maybe but riding round in circles on the flat for 200km before a sprint doesn't get the juices flowing. DQS made a mess of Sam's leadout anyways before he had the mechanical, they took it on far too early imo.

Looked like Sam lost Morkovs wheel, then got boxed in, had to break and had a mechanical. Even if he didn't have the mechanical, the race was lost. Should have stuck with Morkov.

neris

Bad form from Ackerman he cut right out in front hitting the front wheel causing the crash

https://twitter.com/LVCKV/status/1316397115694698499?s=20

selwyn froggitt

https://twitter.com/ukcyclingexpert/status/1316397649180995584

neris

Raoul Duke wrote: »

Can the Eurosport producers please tell Carlton Kirby to stop breathing so heavily into the microphone. A very unnerving minute or so there with just the sound of him breathing like a stalker over the telephone.

https://twitter.com/jamesward01/status/1316397130471354369?s=20

CrowdedHouse

Ackermann DQ

lennymc

https://riwalcyclingteam.dk/the-team/team-news/arvid-de-kleijn-sprints-to-7th-in-scheldeprijs
updated on the riwal rider - doing ok, nothing broken thankfully.

mr spuckler

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Ackermann DQ

"This was clearly miss-judged from the jury," says director Steffen Radochla. "Pascal found a hole and launched his sprint without touching any rider. Unfortunately, one guy touched his back wheel then and took a fall. But this was a racing incident we see quite often. From my view this is simply the wrong decision. It’s a pity for Pascal but also for all the other guys as they did a really good job today in the finale."


Well that's one interpretation I suppose.

lennymc

im kind of thinking it was a racing incident, the rider who touched wheels was behind ackerman, sprints are pretty hairy places, and you need your wits about you, and overlapping wheels in a race is eventually going to catch you out.

Dodge

lennymc wrote: »

im kind of thinking it was a racing incident, the rider who touched wheels was behind ackerman, sprints are pretty hairy places, and you need your wits about you, and overlapping wheels in a race is eventually going to catch you out.

Ah he veered massively with 100-200m left. You can’t do that in a sprint

lennymc

he moved a couple of meters, with no one to the right of him to go past riders in front of him. Sprinting requires that you slipstream, get a slingshot past the rider in front of you - you cant ride through them. Look at any sprint and you will see riders coming off the wheel - it's part of sprinting.

If the rules were applied consistently, Bonifazio who finished third should be disqualified. He started on the white line, went right about 3 meters, closed the door on the Vlaanderen rider who had to sit up, and then finished the sprint on the opposite side of the road. Every race you look at that finishes in a sprint, there will be riders changing line - i think it was just unfortunate that in this instance, somone crashed.

I feel sorry for the Riwal guy, but, it is racing, and sometimes racing sucks balls.

eeeee

Have to disagree, regarding sprinting in general.
There's no excuse not to sprint straight - we do it on track every time we race, and our finishes are a lot faster than road sprints.
Sundrive being wide and outdoor is a good proxy for road from that point of view.
It's about discipline, spatial awareness, and handling skills.
From a general racing point of view, Switching in a sprint is one of the most dangerous and heedless things you can do on a bike and against the rules both here and in tbe UCI rulebook.

Can you sprint by people? Of course. Can you sprint past a lead out person? Of course.
Can you come off your line once you open up and cut off / chop people up? Absolutely not.
There is a line there. It's policed to varying degrees of severity, but it's very, very possible to sprint at full tilt in a straight line.
The fastest cyclists in the world, the fastest sprints in the world, happen within about a foot on track. They're not swinging after 200k of a road stage, but they are going much faster in a smaller place on the briefest of straights!
It can be done, and is done on the road week in and week out.

lennymc

eeeee wrote: »

Have to disagree, regarding sprinting in general.
There's no excuse not to sprint straight - we do it on track every time we race, and our finishes are a lot faster than road sprints.
Sundrive being wide and outdoor is a good proxy for road from that point of view.
It's about discipline, spatial awareness, and handling skills.
From a general racing point of view, Switching in a sprint is one of the most dangerous and heedless things you can do on a bike and against the rules both here and in tbe UCI rulebook.

Can you sprint by people? Of course. Can you sprint past a lead out person? Of course.
Can you come off your line once you open up and cut off / chop people up? Absolutely not.
There is a line there. It's policed to varying degrees of severity, but it's very, very possible to sprint at full tilt in a straight line.
The fastest cyclists in the world, the fastest sprints in the world, happen within about a foot on track. They're not swinging after 200k of a road stage, but they are going much faster in a smaller place on the briefest of straights!
It can be done, and is done on the road week in and week out.

the rule is:
2.3.036 Riders shall be strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching
into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others.

Look at Bennet winning on the champs elyses, he deviates from his line when he is behind a rider, moves across the road and launches his sprint. It was a very similar move to ackermann today. I believe that had there been no accident, there would be no action. Ackermann came out from behind the rider, and opened up his sprint. He didnt deviate after that. Again, look at the moves of bonifazio in the same sprint, he veered right, went left, blocked the Vlanderen rider. Look at ewan in the tdf stage 11 race that sagan was relegated in. Sprinters move, and they have to for sprinting. Road sprinting is chaotic.

In relation to the track, crashes still happen at the track, (are the speeds really higher in a bunch sprint on track compared to road?). It's a different discipline, however, and not comparable imho. Sundrive is wide, but i dont think it could be compared to a road. The camber, longer distance as a result of coming of the turn wide are a disadvantage to the track, and as a result the tighter line is faster.
A touch of wheels is a touch of wheels, and wheels will always touch in racing.

August said :
“I’m a bit bruised and battered and I probably have a concussion. I only remember parts of the course we’ve done ten times so my memory is selective. I don’t remember the sprint too well but I’ve watched it on the screen now. It’s a sprint incident. Ackermann is a great sprinter and he can dive into a hole if it’s there. Sometimes these sprints look different on TV but from what I saw I think he moved too quickly from left to right,” I read that as a racing incident, Ackerman made a bit of a mistake.

Dont get me wrong, the likes of Gronevegan with the nudge on Jackobson deserves punishment, and was not a racing incident, but this one was not (imho) - there are countless examples of riders coming off wheels to the same extent that Ackermann did without being disqualified. Consistent, the commissaires are not.

edit - some speeds - Greipel at just under 77 kph in the tour down under in a sprint.
Track world cup feb this year - sprint qualifying times, Harrie Lavreysen @77.813 kph

eeeee

I see your point re the argy bargy before launch, that's a part of sprinting, but once you launch there's no excuse for moving all over the place, left and right. It slows you down for one. And is explicitly against the rules for another. And endangers other riders for another another one!

Track sprints are much faster, routinely hitting 80kph and more. And they're straigh, coming off a sharp bend, unlike road races that usually have 30m+ of a straight to sprint on.
It can be done.

You see it in road races here all the time, people jumping all over the bike switching like mad cos people haven't the skills to sprint properly.

Ackerman has clearly got the skills not to be switching or chopping people off when he launches. It needs to be stamped out at that level, because it excuses bad behaviour lower down the line.

ETA have a look at the sprint final speeds, not the flying 200 times. The men routinely cross the line at 80kph and even above.

lennymc

eeeee wrote: »

You see it in road races here all the time, people jumping all over the bike switching like mad cos people haven't the skills to sprint properly.

I've had bikes bounce off me in sprints here. They are hectic - i love them. We are probably going ot, but people sprinting for 25th place.... wtf.

Actually, i was taken out of it after crossing the line in a race once by two lads sprinting and leaning on each other in the middle of the bunch.

I must try get back to the track soon. Still waiting on the velodrome! LOL

eeeee

We have velodromes
It's time to bring Omnium out again!

I will never forget the shock at the riding standard in my first race. 500m after the start there was a touch of wheels and the bunch parted like the dead sea and a rider was bouncing along their to tube.
And that was the start!
I was sprinting for third at the end, and another rider went straight into the rider beside me. That was the end of our sprint.
I still can't get over how bad the standard of riding is on the road. And when they come to track :eek:

I'm now giving myself a warning for going off topic *smacks back of hand *

lennymc

the omnium is living in my attic at the moment. I think road racing is just risky - pros crash in neutral zones. I blame all them trackies who cant turn right........ (runs and hides, and promptly goes back on topic with)

The Ronde is on this weekend, realistically, it's hard to see past Alaphillipe, Van Aert and Van der Poel - is there anyone else to challenge these guys at the moment

Macy0161

Not sure on Ackermann's move to be honest. Looked like just one of those things that he went for the gap just as Jensen launched. But as it was Ackermann/ Bora, 100% it was right.

lennymc wrote: »

The Ronde is on this weekend, realistically, it's hard to see past Alaphillipe, Van Aert and Van der Poel - is there anyone else to challenge these guys at the moment

Mads is my pick. Ducking under Alaphillipe's arm on the line!

Dodge

Macy0161 wrote: »

Mads is my pick. Ducking under Alaphillipe's arm on the the line!

Pedersen pulled out of the race yesterday ‘to be safe’. The DS said something like ‘mad crashes are always possible here’. How right he was...

Macy0161

Dodge wrote: »

Pedersen pulled out of the race yesterday ‘to be safe’. The DS said something like ‘mad crashes are always possible here’. How right he was...

Yep saw that. Hiding to nothing really, especially without the traditional route. He would've had to sprint.

lennymc

Forgot about Mads actually.

Dodge

No Vuelta for Nico Roche. Wrist injury apparently

Sam Bennett the only officially named Irish cyclist but Dan Martin is expected to be named when Israel announce their team

The racing in Belgium was windy today. Riders getting hand slings to help them on to the back of the main group of 20 or so. Caleb Ewan was carried on the bars of Kwiatkowski's bike when they abandoned, looking like a dad and his son

MvdP ended up in a ditch too near the end in a cross wind section.

dastardly00

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The racing in Belgium was windy today. Riders getting hand slings to help them on to the back of the main group of 20 or so. Caleb Ewan was carried on the bars of Kwiatkowski's bike when they abandoned, looking like a dad and his son

MvdP ended up in a ditch too near the end in a cross wind section.

I'm so glad that MvdP got into the car after his crash rather than trying to get back on the bike because he very dazed