Originally Posted by flythebike
If you hook somebody as Bettini did hook Cooke, that is cause for relegation. Bettini started sprinting from about 250 meters out and Cooke was already running at him and his wheel was overlapped when Bettini swevered. Then he swerved again. It is normal to touch someones hip to let him know you're there, that is probably what Cooke was doing. But then Bettini swerved some more and Cooke fell. When he started sprinting he was in the middle of the road near the line...just as a point of reference. I'm not saying he has to follow that line perfectly, but such a radical and dangerous swerve was in my opinion calculated to thwart another riders progress. Bettini is a longtime and savvy pro and he knew exactly what he was doing.
Once you commit to pass somebody you can't back off and switch lines and still win. Going right would have taken him over the crown of the road and would have given Bettini the easier line. If you notice, the road fell away to the left, so you're fighting less gravity that way. Bettini would know that, and try and force someone to pass on the right. If Cooke made a mistake (besides taking his hands off the bars), perhaps it was not to yell "ON YER LEFT." But then that would have given his position away and may not have helped him at all either.
I understand the rules about regular and irregular sprinting. Bettini sprinted irregularly and was relegated for it.
Don't know about you but I'm racing (both days) this weekend and plan to hold my line in the sprint!
flythebike can you please stop harping on about the fact that you think Bettini fouled Cooke.. this is the at least the 5th time i'm saying I AGREE WITH YOU... are you completely daft or something??
our only difference is that I do not think in anyway that Bettini is responsible for Cooke going down. Cooke went down because of his own bad riding... loss of concentration whatever it was, but it had nothing to do with Bettini... how can a rider leave you a metre of road and then you blame him for crashing you... sorry if you can't keep you bike upright and you have a metre of road in front of you there is something wrong with you... so I guess Cooke crashes evertime he goes down a bike path then?
once you commit to passing someone? why do you commit to passing somone through a metre wide hole when there is 15-20 metres on the other side of the road?? Cooke messed up, how can you not see that??
and you obviously don't know anything about sprinting, good luck this weekend. anyone knows that the first thing you do if you lead out the sprint is to go to one side of the road... instantly you eliminate half your competition.. you don't want people coming at you from both sides... you only have one side to watch if they are coming around you. no one, including Cooke would EVER lead out a sprint from the center of the road.. if you don't know that, then you know NOTHING about sprinting.. look at any sprint in the pro peleton and see how many riders lead out from the center of the road... NONE!!.. because it's stupid!! The more I read from you, the more i'm realizing that i'm having a conversation with a cat 5 racer who has no clue what they are talking about... "on your left"?? no one would ever yell something like that... he might yell "on your right" to try to mess with Bettini... what you think Bettini is going to then get out of the way once he knows Cooke is on the left, but I think even you figured out that would be a pretty dumb move...
Cooke had a 50-50 chance of choosing sides and he chose wrong, then to compound it he lost his concentration while lifting his hands off his bars and fell... what does that have to do with Bettini? it's just bad judgement and bad riding by Cooke...
look at it this way if Cook was smart, when Bettini 'swerved' from the center of the road to the barrier he should have said to himself... hmmm... you know what i'm not going to go to that side, because i'm going to be boxed in if i do that (no sh*t sherlock!!) and kept right, went around him on the right. like i said we're not talking rocket science here.. as it is their wheels weren't overlapping that much he shoud have just eased up a little and still tried to go on the right... with his speed he might have made it too. and even if he ended up second he would have put in his protest and would have been given the stage... crashing 100m from the line they're not going to give you the stage. he's stupid he f**ked it up... as it is he he ended up with NOTHHING except bruises. if he would have sprinted intelligently he wouldn't have been boxed-in and wouldn't have crashed either and would have won the stage... even if he placed second on the road.
I don't want to get into a pissing contest with you about racing experience... but just to set the record straight, I've just recently started racing again but, I have 10 years of racing experience, starting as junior, and three of those years as a Sr 1 and have ridden in 4 National championships and numberous international races.. i know a little bit about racing.
anyway i'm done.. if you can't understand that, you're never going to get it, and remember to yell out your position in sprints and ride down the center of the road on the painted white lines... i'm sure you'll get really far in racing... NOT!
