Originally Posted by markjenn

Impossible to say for sure, but I'd judge one or more of the Leipheimer-group riders would have crashed regardless of the motorbike's role. You can make a case that crashing into the motorbike prevented a worse injury of a rider center-punching the other downed rider, but hard to say. In any event, I don't know what the protocol is for positioning motorbikes to assist and protect riders who are down, but worth examining the tradeoffs - I wouldn't be quick to indict the motorbike rider as he may have been doing EXACTLY as he is trained to do.

The Leipheimer group was taking incredible risks coming down this descent and it was probably 50-50 that there was going to be a crash of some sort. Leipheimer almost crashed at least twice prior to the final wreck. They had no margin for error and when you have no margin, stuff happens. Further, the previous crash that Leipheimer had (that put him behind and in desperation mode) looked to be poor judgment on his part, so I think there is plenty of blame to go around.

- Mark