Originally Posted by 2Rodies
Walt if you read Thunders original post he doesn't necessarily disagree with you. He saying that Boonens move preceded his mechanical failure. Yes Boonen had a pedal break but he made an 'aggressive' move before his pedal broke not because of.
Yes, I understand what he is saying, even though he has backtracked from originally calling the existence of a mechanical problem a "specious claim".
But I'm saying that the evidence points to Boonen's move coinciding with his pedal break/drivetrain problem.
Unlike some other riders, Boonen doesn't have a history for tactics like switching sides of the road in the middle of a sprint. Granted, this was early in his career, but he still doesn't show those types of inclinations. Take his sprint in 05 MSR. He could have quite possible have bullied his way to the front if he had ridden a bit more aggressively, but he is not a McEwen/Baffi/Abdoujaparov type sprinter.
I think the facts suggest that Boonen's mechanical led to his veering. The other riders all just kept their mouths shut even though a couple got beat up pretty bad in the ensuing crash, no one was relegated, Kirsipuu was silent, and you know they wouldn't have been quiet if Boonen had been riding recklessly. The officials certainly aren't going to pick favorites when judging reckless riding, especially when there is a crash. Ask Paolo Bettini, and he wasn't even riding recklessly.
Anyway, none of this is worth calling names over.