Barley4

From an old recreational rider who has no clue, but enjoys watching the Tour...
-Wow...lots of top names out...when was the last time that happened?
-How do some of those guys keep going after some of those crashes? It hurts to watch. How about some Kevlar in those bike shorts?
-Weather seems worse than usual. How miserable must it be riding in those downpours.
-The bike handling skills avoiding crashes, fast downhills, and in the peloton, are insane.
-Cobbles!
-As always, seeing them ride so fast day after day, especially up mountains, is amazing.
-Scenery, as usual, is cool. W.W. I memorials are sobering..100 years ago, a forgotten war wreaked so much havoc. Inspired me to read up on the war, as I know so little.
-How do those guys filming on the back of motorcycles do it? And why are there so many of them?
-How much fun would it be to try one of those bikes?

Keith99

If you just mean top names out it is a lot more common than one might think. Though usually it is out before the start rather than by crash.

Remember Alberto is on a bit of a comeback of sorts. If he does not win the Vuelta this year and a TDF before retiring it means that if you check the results 20 years from now it would look like just Froome retiring.

Having just the favorite at the start retiring or Yellow Jersey wearer and favorite at the time crashing out is rare, but not remarkable.

Similarly for Cavendish looking back. If he does not bounce back next year he will look like just another sprinter near the end of his career, not the rider made huge from the hype we see today.

I'm not saying that this years crash out od top names is not unusual. I'm just saying it is considerable magnified if compared to other races that are viewed through the lens of history.

DiabloScott

Other contenders that have crashed themselves out of contention:

1. Beloki

Leinster

Luis Ocana, twice.
I think Merckx missed out on 1980 because of a crash?
Rolf Sorensen crashed out while in the yellow jersey, but wasn't really a contender.

peter_d

Seems like the rest of the Tour could be a bit anticlimactic now. Nibali should be a shoe-in as long as he can keep the rubber side down. Too bad; it would have been great to watch him Froome and Contador in the high mountains. The guys who were left at home like Quintana, Wiggins and Cadel Evans must be banging their heads on the wall in frustration.

DiabloScott

OK, I got Ocaña 1971 - actually crashed into Merckx while in yellow. Is there another Ocaña DNF?
Eddy retired in 1978. He missed a Tour or two from crash injuries but didn't start.

1. Ocaña 1971 - Crashed into Merckx
2. Beloki 2003 - Almost took out Lance!
3. Froome 2014
4. Contador 2014


edit - 1972 sort of:

Quote:

Ocana left the race after that stage (14); he had contracted a lung infection after his fall in the seventh stage

brianmcg123

See answers in red.

Andy_K 

2011 strikes me as a recent year with similar crash outs. According to Wikipedia Andreas Klöden, Bradley Wiggins, Alexandre Vinokourov, Janez Brajkovič, Chris Horner and Jurgen Van Den Broeck all crashed out in the first week and a half, while Contador lost major time on a crash.

That resulted in Cadel Evans going on to one of the least exciting wins in recent memory, but the tour still had some great moments that year, like Johnny Hoogerland's gutsy ride to stay in after a TV car knocked him into barbed wire and Thomas Voeckler's spirited defense of the yellow jersey.

spdntrxi

it was bad enough when Froome was gone.. now Bertie too.. I like Nibbles but it's simply not the same anymore.. 2 main guys gone.. Talensky no where.. TJ's a dork, no Wiggo or Quintana.. not even Cvndsh vs Kittel.. It had all the makings to be Epic.

ericy

Actually I think it is the opposite. With the favorites gone, you have a lot of 2nd tier riders who might dream of capturing a place on the podium, and there could be a bit of chaos at the front as these guys jockey for position.

That's the big problem with a really strong climber like Contador - riders rarely attacked him since he could outride all of the others. Which makes for less a less interesting tour.

peter_d

Yes, that could very well be the case, too bad that so many of those guys like Sagan, Van Garderen and Talansky are also hurt. Porte will fancy his chances now too.

Andy_K 

This is what I don't get. So many of the riders seem to have this attitude that they can't outclimb someone so they don't attack and you end up with the top 10-15 guys finishing within 30 seconds or so. Why doesn't the second best guy attack and make the top guy prove his form day after day? Maybe he's not as strong as he looks.

The year that he who must not be named made his comeback attempt it seemed like every mountain stage he and Contador and the Schleck brothers were way out ahead of the rest of the pack. Sure, the Schlecks were just sucking wheel the whole time on their way to second and fourth place, but at least the action was at a challenging pace. That was a fun tour to watch.

Leinster

Did you watch that race via text feed or something? It was one of the best tours there's been in years.

seypat

+1! The God Of Thunder putting the hammer down and winning 2 mountain stages. Both in dramatic fashion.

I don't get the appeal of the GC contenders. They suck wheels for most of the race and then race each other some in the mountains. Usually 3 or 4 minutes behind some breakaway. Boring! Give Nibali some credit. At least he seems to be more of an old school racer.

As for this year's edition, awesome so far.

ericy

I think it is more that riders like Contador will keep up a high enough pace that the other riders don't feel like they have what it takes to put in a credible attack.

Andy_K 

I agree that it was a great tour. In fact, that was part of my point. I'm just saying Cadel's win itself wasn't exciting.

Leinster

I'm not Cadel's biggest fan, but the manner of it (coming from behind, fighting it out with the Schlecks in the mountains, chipping away at Voeckler's lead etc) is about as exciting a way to win it as you could have. Combined with his stage win early on in the race.

If it was Contador doing that on his own it would be one thing, as sooner or later he would tire and someone would be able to attack. I think the problem in recent years has been that it's a domestique (Porte last year, Scarponi this year, Levi/Hamilton in the past) who sets that fast pace that discourages attacks, and then the leader (Froome, Nibali, whoever) only has to attack in the last 5km.

Keith99

1972 From a lung infection on stage 14. Likely a complication of a crash on stage 7. Oh and Cyrille Guimard abandonded 10 Kms into Stage 18 while in second place and leading the points competition. Merckx won Yellow and Green that year and gave the final Green jersey to Guimard who he said would have won it otherwise.

I remembered this vaguely because I recently had been looking up Merckx's TDF results to try to figure out the most Jerseys he actually wore in a single TDF. Most I found was 3. It looks that despite winning multiple Green Jerseys he never wore one on the road!

In re looking this up I found that Roger de Vlaeminck left the 1970 Tour after a crash in a stage 7 TT. He was in Third at the time. (Seems that crash elevated Joop Zoetemelk to team leader. Seems things like that happen a lot).

I'm going to point out that the economics of the sport have changed. These guys rode on with injuries that would have caused riders to abandon in today's world.

Almost forgot. The 1950 TDF was missing Fausto Coppi the best rider in the world and of all time at that point because of a crash in the Giro and after Gino Bartali was threatened by a fan with a knife the Italians withdrew. That meant Bartali, the second best rider of the era was gone and so was Fiorenzo Magni who was in Yellow at the time and would have been expected to retain a podium spot.

Andy_K 

Hmmm. That's not the way I remember it. I remember it as him mostly sitting on AS's wheel along with most of the other climbers while neither one of them made any particularly aggressive moves, all the while knowing that he was going to be able to take back a ridiculous margin in the time trial. My memory could be faulty, but I was thinking that there was just one day Schleck attacked and that even then Evans just rode at his chosen pace and waited for Andy to come back, which he did. Voeckler was never really a contender, so "chipping away" at his lead was just a matter of counting stages, though as I said before I did enjoy the effort TV put in trying to hold onto yellow. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure though that it was clear well before the mid-point that if Evans didn't crash he was going to win.

Keith99

And there are several killer stages coming up.

I do not think Astana is a strong enough team to defend the Jersey with the number of riders close. By defend I mean purely defend. I think they will try to pick their chance to attack. If they get it down to just 2 or 3 possible threats then then can just defend (best case is 3 and a bigger gap between 1st and 2nd than between 3rd and 4th. That means those closest have something to lose and will be less likely to attack).

Andy_K 

I just looked up that stage. I guess I have to ammend this to "...which he mostly did."

Leinster

Part of the excitement of the Tour is riders comparing their relative strengths. Cadel knew he wouldn't beat the Schlecks up a mountain, and the Schlecks knew they'd need time on Cadel before the final TT. One of the best stages was Andy's win on the Galibier, when Evans was left to tow the whole lead group up the mountain on his own to try and save the Tour. And the next day he followed Contador up the Galibier again, before they both got reeled in before the foot of Alpe d'Huez. Not to mention leaving Andy behind on the descent into Gap, and winning stage 4 in a solo break.

Like I said, I'm not a big Cadel fan, but he rode a good hard Tour that year and deserved his win.

hueyhoolihan

although i like to watch the GC race. IMO, you are pretty much correct. it's a game of strategy that discourages displays of bravado.

DiabloScott

The category subject is “contenders who crashed out of contention during the Tour”… I think that’s what the OP was asking about.

Guimard was a contender who abandoned, but not because of a crash – some other kind of health problem.
De Vlaeminck is one of my favorite riders, but I don’t think he was ever considered a GC contender. Biggest stage race he ever won was Tirreno-Adriatico.

So if this is the whole list, then it is indeed a rare event that even one contender abandons due to a crash. This year we’ve got two (so far).

1. Ocaña 1971 - Crashed into Merckx while first in GC, Ocaña abandons and Merckx refuses to wear yellow the next day.
2. Ocaña 1972 - Crashed in Stage 7 while in fourth place in GC. Later got lung infection, abandoned after Stage 14.
3. Beloki 2003 – Crashed while in second place behind Armstrong, almost takes Lance! out too.
4. Froome 2014 – multiple broken bones.
5. Contador 2014 – Broken femur.

Andy_K 

Maybe I just don't like stage races.

Here's what I'm saying though -- if Cadel couldn't beat the Schlecks up a mountain, why was there only one day when either of them seriously attacked? And the fact that Evans, as you say, towed "the whole lead group" up the mountain suggests to me that somebody could have gone faster, whether that be Evans himself or one of the other members of the group.

I like heroic efforts on the mountain stages. When there's a group that contains multiple GC contenders and a large smattering of their domestiques it disappoints me. I understand that for many of them that's just good strategy, but I don't care. Thor Hushovd's mountain stage wins have been mentioned and I agree that was awesome, but what in the world were the GC contenders doing those days? On stage 13, at least, they were apparently busy riding in a 53-man group over an HC climb.