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did the Giro just turn into a gong show?! (spoiler)

Last Post 05/31/2014 07:31 PM by Frederick Jones. 35 Replies.

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Pin0Q0

Posts:229

05/29/2014 06:33 AM
Red flag means "caution" that's it, does not mean you can't pass, plus the peloton stopped at the top to have a coffee break and put warm clothes on that's why the gap was huge. There has been no confirmation that the race radio told directors to stop racing, tweet yes but that's not official. C'mmon you are supposed to be a pro. Good for Quintana, let the young lad have his moment and if he wins it then he deserves it. CAT 3 didn't have a feed zone considering most race lengths were from 30 to 40 miles. It was hard enough just grabbing water bottles w/o rubbing wheel. Had my most crashes on CAT4. Lot of mountain bike riders making the switch to road.

Master50

Posts:340

05/29/2014 08:48 PM
Posted By Orange Crush on 05/28/2014 10:27 PM Posted By Mike Shea on 05/28/2014 10:09 PM In the end I think the results are as they should be I agree but that is not the point of the thread. How come such chaos was allowed to ensue? How come organizers can just make up rules that are nowhere to be found in any UCI race book? How come this "neutralization" was communicated on race radio without proper consultation with commisionaires? What were the UCI commissaires doing when all this happened? In the end, this farce is a major black eye for Giro and UCI. We urgently need a tweet from Cookson Part of the post fiasco problem is the information is coming from too many people. I just read a statement from the organizer the neutralization was intended for the top 6 or 7 switchbacks for reasons of poor visibility. That is about 1600 meters After that no red flags flew. The Commissaires never set any of this in motion and if they had put the red flag out believe me they have whistles and very loud voices with big cars to tell a rider to stay behind the car. Like most fiascos I am sure some discussion about neutralizations will occur but every case has its own challenges. In principle we use the Railroad crossing rules to order the process but that almost always involves a race stoppage to get control of the message and make the restart procedure clear. I can't recall any neutralization on the decent of a race. If I ran out on the road on a decent and waived a red flag I would expect to see them slow down out of self preservation but stop? not unless the road was blocked. IE I am talking about a warning as that is what the red flag means to a rider. When I was officiating I have a small paddle with a red and a green side. No one passes me when it is out except the riders. I actually have to tell them I mean them since to them I am controlling the cars and certainly not them... The riders know when a commissaire puts out the red flag it means stop but not to them. they have to be told the red flag is for them like we do at the neutral start. Of course they were told the start has a neutral zone and the red flag is for them. other wise it is for the cars.

79pmooney

Posts:3180

05/30/2014 11:49 AM
Well, at least Quintana is making one thing clear. He is out to win this race and it looks like he will do it with enough margin that this descent will not be the difference. Uran or Aru could prove me wrong tomorrow, Quintana is louing mighty strong. Ultimately, isn't Quintana doing exactly what we want a grand tour winner to do? Ride the front and aggressively? Ben

Oldfart

Posts:511

05/31/2014 11:59 AM
The fans today were a toon show. I think some one in a WC jersey will be lucky to get off the mountain without a beat down.

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

05/31/2014 12:59 PM
Yeah that was bad. The racing this Giro has been excellent; but the organization at key moments was crap. Zero crowd control on some of the steepest sections. Quintana got away lucky with someone almost giving him a bear hug.

longslowdistance

Posts:2881

05/31/2014 07:31 PM
Chiming in to agree about the bedlam on the Zoloncon. Nutjobs roaming free with no Carabinieri in sight until the last km. An embarrassment for the organizers, they must realize they are an international laughing stock, hopefully they will learn from this. As for the racing, it was an outstanding Grand Tour and hopefully the problems will be rectified and what we will remember is the racing. Chapeau Cadel, for representing us old guys so well. And Quintana - if they tailor more big races for him, just how many can he win?