HardyWeinberg

They never mentioned that, nor if he fixed it himself while waiting or the team car caught him and gave him another bike. And then later on in the flat it looked like he choked on his pedalling stroke there too.

I dropped a chain on the tandem yesterday going to pick up my daughter from camp, I heroically got it back on, roadside, in time to still get there before they start charging by the minute for late parents.

RJM

Sure there are, the contest between second and third, white jersey and polka dot are awesome. I celebrate that. I don't like the cheating though; it should be called out for what it is.

Laggard

Wait, who got caught cheating? Please link to the story.

RJM

Sky did, 20 second penalty. It was cheating, it isn't allowed.

Brougham

So what exactly is the rule that they broke? That he isn't allowed to eat at all during that period of the race, or is it that someone else provided the food for him?

Barrettscv 

I'm thinking that Tejay might have kept his lead to finish 1st, If he had not had the mechanical issue. He put up one hell of a fight.

simongrant

porte & froome

Leinster

Di2 is of the devil! And God came down and smote Tejay's chain! And lo, the win did go to the Frenchy, and his EPS.

colombo357

Right, because eating an energy gel is such a big deal.

It's one thing for a rider to be stupid and wait until it's too late, completely bonking with no hope of recovery (e.g. Contador a few years ago). It's another thing for a rider to a sense a potential bonk, avert the problem by committing an infraction that he knows is minor, and accepting the minor penalty for the minor infraction.

Is there a rule that states a rider can't stop and ask fans for food? Because Froome could've done that and it probably would've cost him less than 20 seconds. In fact, Porte could've done that and it would've cost Froome nothing.

Chris Horner admitted that he would grab cans of soda from fans on a regularly basis.

Leinster

They're not allowed take on food from others. Normally it's in the last 20km, for today's stage they made it "on the last climb," to allow riders to stock up before the 40+ minute climb to the summit. Froome and Porte obviously didn't take on enough food at the foot of the climb, and Porte went to the car to get more.


There's no guarantee that a fan would have had a sandwich or snickers handy. It would've taken Porte at least 30 seconds or more to get something.

I've seen in a few places that the backmarkers and autobus appreciate it when fans give them a can of coke; it's quick calories and energy, but also if a can is opened in front of you you can be sure it's not spiked with anything.

Leinster

He had the mechanical on the descent, and had caught up with Moser and Riblon before the final climb. He then got caught by Riblon because he bonked on the climb, and Riblon measured his effort better.

cincipeddler

I guess we can now see where people stand, its one thing to defend the doping accusations, and understandable.........but to defend openly flaunting the rules because you were running out of energy is a completely different matter, i guess from now on in we will see riders taking on food wherever they want if they bonk due to over exertion.

Here's me thinking part of the race ettiquete was giving it your all and if thats not enough, falling on your sword.......turns out you can now give it your all and if thats not enough, just break the rules and its fine.

cincipeddler

Wonder why TJs team didn't supply him with more energy gels when he bonked?

Its almost as if they recognise that it is not in keeping with good sportsmanship or something?!?

simongrant

This.....oh and sky arent content with blatant cheating they have to start making up a load of BS about a mechanical with the car

Laggard

You call that cheating? How do you handle all the situations where judges turn their heads? Like when a rider is drafting behind a team car while working his way back to the peloton. You must really blow a gasket then.

Laggard

I'm bummed you have only provided us with 74 of these little nuggets of knowledge over the last 6 years.

cincipeddler

Laggard if you can't see the difference between bonking, one of the biggest pitfalls of any pro-riders career.....and drafting briefly behind a car then im not sure i can help you.

Caretaker

Some of those 'fans' on the road today were a menace.

Japanese guy with a flag almost took out Porte in the last couple of k, Riblon had to lash out twice and there was a guy with a red flag who seemed to think he was a matador or something.

Great win by Riblon after riding off into that stream on the descent.

RJM

Sounds like you are the one blowing the gasket.

Drafting behind a team car is also cheating. Call it for what it is, man.

Froome did this because he knew he would lose it on the climb and god forbid, lose time to the field. The feeding is a bigger deal though, because the time difference would be bigger. I think the 20 sec. penalty is pretty weak and should be larger. He ought to lose the polka dot jersey too.

alongclimb

20 second penalty is pretty weak. Just look at how much Riblon put on Van Garderen in a much smaller distance than the GC guys had left to cover when TJ was hitting the wall. Sky were obviously willing to break the rules to avoid Froome potentially running into similar issues and being a minute slower across the line.

The officials followed the punishment as dictated in the rulebook though so you can't blame them, but maybe it's something to be revisited in the future however.

gpsblake

20 second penalty this time but I would have told them that if they do again tomorrow, you're DQed.
Oh, did anyone get caught with an underweight bike today? Phil and Paul said they were going to weigh bikes.

colombo357

Of course, but judging by the crowds lined up today, most of whom had been camping there all day to watch the riders pass by twice, I'm sure plenty of them had snacks within arm's reach.

30 seconds, huh? Are you purposely trying to be contrary?

Parson

Laggard, it sounds like you don't know the full story. Apparently the officials were going nuts and telling Porte not to take any food, but he did it anyway. Thus, the officials didn't turn their heads. As a result, your comparison is worthless.

colombo357

Any articles that mention this? Not arguing, just trying to find out more.

Reason I ask is because I can't imagine officials even suspecting that a rider is trying to take on food until the food is already in the rider's hands. It takes all of 3 seconds to hand off an energy gel. So unless one of these officials could read minds, he wasn't in the position to say anything until the deed had already been done. Yes, I know that Froome raised his hand, but even the Eurosport commentators suspected that it was a mechanical issue. The cameras zoomed in on Froome's rear tire.

He could certainly tell Porte to stop taking on any more gels, but by then, he already had a handful of them. What's he going to do, throw em on the ground? I'm sure he stopped there, which is why their penalty was minimized.

Ken Brown

Surprising how many normally good climbers struggled today. Dan Martin, Cadel Evans, Rui Costa and others were 25 min behind, just 5 min ahead of the sprinters. Martin dropped from 10th to 19th.