Tour riders resting on a car

[jnbacon]

In some of the footage from various stages (I don't have television), I've seen riders grabbing the edge of their team car to have some work done (mechanical fix? medical attention?). Since they aren't booted from the race, presumably it is allowed. But are there rules that apply to this? Can it be done only for repairs or medical attention? Do all riders get a lift by their team cars at some point, maybe in the feed zone?

By relying on live web casts, I miss a lot of the details.

[DocRay]

OLN coverage won't help either.

They can lean on the cars for medical or mechanical fixes, but the car cannot advance the rider forward, it must keep the same pace or less. They cannot lean on the team car for food or water. The race stewards watch this very closely.

[Laggard]

OLN coverage won't help either.

They can lean on the cars for medical or mechanical fixes, but the car cannot advance the rider forward, it must keep the same pace or less. They cannot lean on the team car for food or water. The race stewards watch this very closely.

Yes. Phil and Paul, while giving us lousy coverage, mentioned this exact same thing.
;)

[Smoothie104]

yeah, you will see some water bottles being passed to the riders from the car on the climbs. There is always a few seconds delay from when the rider grabs it, and the team director lets go of it. And the last bottle is always held and pushed forward towards the peleton. It doesn;t seem like much, but just those few seconds of being pulled along help so much, at least mentally.

[Doid23]

The stewards do watch it very closely. Seen too many races this spring to remember which one, but I definately remember someone getting fined and penalized time for receiving illegal assistance from a team car during a bottle exchange or strategy discussion.

[zero]

The tour riders have been watching too many madisons on the track

[Allen H]

Yes. Phil and Paul, while giving us lousy coverage, mentioned this exact same thing.
;)

I suspect you were being facetious, but just in case you weren't - OLN/Phil & Paul have no say over the live camera feed - that's the French networks' doing. So what OLN provides is commentary on the live video feed they get (i.e., not their fault for "lousy coverage", if you mean the live race coverage (you can fault OLN for too many Sheryl Crow reaction shots, however) ;))

[Laggard]

I should have said "phil and paul while giving us lousy commentary."

[Cipo]

I definately remember someone getting fined and penalized time

Didn't cyclingnews used to post the daily list of fines and penalties as part of their coverage? Do they still do that? Is there anywhere else to get that information?

The fines are usually pretty minimal, a slap on the wrist really, but it was always fun to read about someone getting dinged for taking a leak at an inappropriate place ie. within sight of spectators along the roadside.

[ZappCatt]

Cyclingnews puts it in their daily stage wrapup:



"Fines in stage 12

Johan Vansummeren (Davitamon-Lotto), Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner), and Unai Etxebarria (Euskaltel) were fined 2 x 50 Swiss francs for holding onto bidons from team cars on two occasions, plus penalised 5 points on the points classification and 0'10 on GC.

Jan Ullrich was fined 100 Swiss francs for not signing in. "