Road Bike Racing - Millar protest or what????

Below is a quote from Velonews.com. Does anyone have the scoop on this????


In a bizarre incident at the summit, Millar refused to cross the line after climbing to the top of Angliru. According to Victor Cordero, sport director for the Vuelta a Espana race organization, Millar arrived to the finish line but declined to cross it.

"Millar came to the finish line, took his number off of his back and laid it on the ground one-half meter before the finish line. We don't know if it's a protest because he crashed or why, but technically he did not finish the race and is out," Cordero said.

The article seems pretty clear that he is protesting the inclusion of the Angrliru

Whaaa...? Perhaps he felt that the crash was caused by one of the motorbikes or cars or by spectator actions and blames it on the race organizers. Perhaps he rode to the finish to register his protest to show that he could finish but refused to go on. Perhaps he was protesting that the climb was unfairly difficult, effectively eliminating otherwise strong riders from any hope of high gc.

I just went to OLNTV.com where Phil, Paul and Bob write very brief reports on each day's stage. Phil's comment SOUNDS LIKE Millar was protesting the difficulty of the climb, but he doesn't actually say. Paul and Bobke don't mention it at all. Maybe they will elaborate this evening.

I think he would have been smarter to finish the stage. Then issue a statement and resign in the morning. At least it would keep his options open until he cooled down. Now he has burned the bridge.

Not only was the climb difficult (23% grade) for the riders but some of the team cars had to pull over because they couldn't go on with the roads being so steep AND wet.
At one point it looked like the road was almost blocked by cars and motorbikes.

I doubt if anything will come of Millar's protest since he was the only one protesting. Too bad he's out. :(

My Understanding is that Millar is protesting
the fact that his 2nd crash (and the more
significant one) was caused by either an official
vehicle, or a photographer's motorcycle.
I do know that it has been reported
that his bike was run over by
one of the motorcycles (initially it said his leg).
FWIW the crash in stage 16 was also caused
by motorcycles, and then there's poor Dylan
Casey who had one on his chest.
I'm waiting to see what comes of the protest,
and investigation before I pass judgement on
this one.
Given his standings (in both GC and the stage)
I don't really see that he has cause to protest
the climb.
I have heard that other riders are protesting
the behaviour of the support and photo vehicles.
Did you see Bruyneel go zipping around horn
blaring? can't be too much fun for the riders
behind him.
Marty

Quoting CyclingNews' coverage:

Millar crashed twice on the descent within five minutes, the second time after being hit by the BigMat team car, and although he remounted, his discomfort was evident. Millar made it up the Angliru climb, but stopped a metre from the finish line in protest at the extreme conditions of the stage. The organisers treated this as an abandon.

That's a cryin' shame. I'm don't understand the logic about not crossing the finish line. Just the fact that it occured should be sufficient for organizers to do something to enforce more caution among support vehicles.

i read that mr millar, as well as a handful of other riders, weren't happy with the road conditions on the stage....whatever that means......

together with the fact a 'big mat' team car knocked him off (on the ascent of l'angliru - his second fall on the stage) plus the weather being absolutely dire, he was probably a bit p!ssed off.

had he won the stage of course, i doubt he would have been moaning at all.

he does seem to have a habit of moaing when things don't go his way. but he is a brit so i'll let him off cos i am biased!

see what me millar has to say about it at www.itsmillartime.com

cabledonut.

"i read that mr millar, as well as a handful of other riders, weren't happy with the road conditions on the stage....whatever that means...... "

I remember reading a pre-race description of this stage that refered to this area as a coal mining area where the roads were coated with a thin layer of coal grit (think graphite lubricating powder). The organizers did nothing to clear this stuff off, just refering to it as something that would make the stage more exciting.

Of course, I don't think that excuses his behavior. The roads weren't any worse for him than they were for the other 140+ riders who started the stage, and none of them walked off in a snit.

Well, I sat in on the OLNTV live chat with Bob Roll yesterday afternoon, and he pointedly did not answer any questions about the Millar situation except for an oblique statement to the effect that Millar is an excellent rider who has had some good results. I also watched the rest day recap show last night, and I don't think I missed more than a few seconds. I heard absolutely no mention. Did I miss it?

OK, OK, I finally remembered to go check www.itsmillartime.com as cabledonut suggested where his protest is explained. It wasn't the Angliru climb but the descent of the previous climb that many riders felt was unnecessarily dangerous. After his second crash he felt like the injuries might prevent him from finishing the Vuelta anyway so he decided to go out with a statement of his and other riders' dissatisfaction. Although he said he FELT like he had been run over by a car there was no other mention of having actually been hit by one.

First he said he'd been run over by a car, with his bike lying on top of him. This supposedly fractured the bike (which was lying on top of him remember) into "5 pieces" without doing him any injury. This story was nonsensical on the face of it, as it's just physically impossible.

Then the story was that the car had run over his leg. Again, doing him no real injury. Uh-huh.

Last I heard, he'd supposedly lost control and veered into the path of a passing car, which clipped his rear wheel. Now we're getting somewhere - at least it's believable.

The armchair Merckx's are just plain harsh. Next time I ride 110 miles in crappy weather, wreck twice, and then (virtually) complete what has been described as the toughest climb in the grand tours, I'll decide whether Millar has a legit complaint or not.

The real wimps are the riders like, er, Rumsas's mother in law.

BTW, I think vehicles should give cyclists ample right of way, especially on a descent. DQ the frickin' motorcycle!

Michael Barry crashed on a descent, then had an official race motorcycle sit on top of his chest (http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?s=&postid=117418), and still went on (http://www.bike.com/features/images/vuelta/fullsize/2002-9-15_4.jpg) to finish the stage. (http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20020914/capt.1032025618.spain_canada_cycling_xdd101.jpg)

He crashed with two others, Jan Hruska and Dario Gadeo. Gadeo had a few bruised ribs and trouble breathing, but finished the stage and went on to race the next day. Hruska broke four bones in his arm and finished the stage.

Oh, they also had two more category climbs to get over before the stage was through.

Crash? If you can, you get up and keep riding. If you can't, wait for the ambulance. Don't cry about it.

Originally posted by fore
Michael Barry crashed on a descent, then had an official race motorcycle sit on top of his chest (http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?s=&postid=117418), and still went on (http://www.bike.com/features/images/vuelta/fullsize/2002-9-15_4.jpg) to finish the stage. (http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20020914/capt.1032025618.spain_canada_cycling_xdd101.jpg)

Crash? If you can, you get up and keep riding. If you can't, wait for the ambulance. Don't cry about it.

Damn! That's some ugly stuff! But, you know, as that reporter (Ron Borne?) said, pro cyclists aren't really athletes.

Gee, they could make the course even more unsafe, have a few riders die next time, and get a good chance of being televised as an extreme sport and raking in some big advertising revenue!

It sounds like a pity that more people didn't join the protest.

Maybe I just don't understand... but... if they really need that many motorcycles and cars riding around... why do they have to surround every rider within 5 feet? And I often see a vehicle honking the horn at the peleton because it wants to joyride back and forth ahead and behind the peleton for no apparent reason. Do they really need to have 10 motorcycles surrounding the leader? By the closecalls (and worse) I've seen in this race so far... it just seems wrong.

What an idiot, I was going to say a$$hole, but today I will stick to idiot. Why do you ask? Get this. In order to access photos (or anything else of interest) of David Millar on his website, www.itsmillartime.com, you need to be a paying member !! About $15 a year. He should call his site, www.itpayingtime.com, at least he will be honest. There is a hell of lot of good, free sites about better riders than this greedy fool.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Originally posted by Inkwolf
It sounds like a pity that more people didn't join the protest.

its a pity that they aren't a bunch of crybabys as well?

listen. nobody's forcing them to go out there and race. if they don't want to do it they can find a new career just as well as any of us can. i'm sure everyone here has had to do things while working that they didn't want to, this is no exception.

everyone in the race knew ahead of time that the angrilu was included this year, so they knew what they were getting themselves into.

There are some pictures here (http://www.grahamwatson.com/2002/vuelta/vuelta5/vuelta5.htm).