OrionKhan

That's the way I see it too. In addition to the fact that AC is fortunate to even be in the race.

SouthFLpix

Well, that depends. A guy like Contador is capable of bringing back over a minute in the mountains, but a guy like Ryder Hesjedal losing 1.30 could cost him to miss out on the top 10, and Sammy Sanchez could easily miss out on the podium. Of course, other riders have come back from much bigger deficits, so it's not impossible.

georgegeorge

Not to interrupt - quick question:

Is there any way of listening to the official Tour radio online? This might be a stupid question.

Cheers.

DXchulo

Sanchez was the 2nd Spanish guy I was referring to. You could be right about Ryder. What happened to him? He lost 35 seconds more than Contador/Sanchez.

OrionKhan

Oh, we were referring to the possible appeal of today's race. I still think AC is in the hunt. Losing that much time to Andy Schleck is the biggest problem. If his form is anywhere near where it was at the Giro, he could pull back a 1:30 on anyone. Including A. Schleck. But if his legs are a little dead, he might be in trouble. It will be interesting to see if he loses or gains time tomorrow in the TTT.

OrionKhan

I thought was very interesting lead in to the finish. Fabian seemed very concerned about Gilbert. He even tried to break, away but Gilbert easily reeled him in. For the past couple of seasons, Fabian has been the big dog, but it looks like Gilbert is the dominant single race/stage man now.

Shadco 

So I was wrong AS was in the first group.

Surprised he didn't wait?

SouthFLpix

AS was in the first group, but he was involved in another crash at the 3k mark and rode in with Contador. The officials later gave A. Schleck the same time as the lead group that came in 6 seconds behind Gilbert.

The main debate seems to be that when the AS group crashed, that cost the chase group (Contador's group) another 35 seconds because the crash blocked the road and Contador had to stop once again for a 2nd time. However, because of the '3k rule', AS's group was given the same time as if they had finished with the lead group, and Contador's group just had to absorb those 35 extra seconds from the hold-up of the 2nd crash.

Contador will get no sympathy from the French, especially as Spain has won every Tour since 2006. If he wants to win this one, he's going to have to do it 'the hard way', by dropping everyone in the mountains in much the same way that he did in the Giro.

finale23

Cancellara has been the big dog for the past couple seasons was because the tour started with ITT prologue in which Cancellara absolutely dominated. This year the first stage ends with a category 4 climb, there's little surprise that Cancellara isn't wearing the maillot jaune. It was undoubtedly a remarkable win for Gilbert but it remains to be seen whether he will be contention for the podium in 3 weeks with Evan and AS just seconds behind.

Laggard

Spectator was clearly partly in the road. Enough that a rider had to move out of the way to avoid him.

A spectator should never be in a position that a rider who is in the road is able to hit him. This rider was clearly in the road.

OrionKhan

Gilbert or Fabian won't be near contention for the overall. Didn't mean to imply so if it sounded that way. They're not GC contenders for grand tours, and never will be, due to mountain top finishes. But in for stage wins and one day classic races, they are monsters.

OrionKhan

Plus, the spectator was looking up the road at riders who had ridden past him. Not at the riders coming towards him. Had his back to the rider that hit him. Bad when you're leaning out over the road.

Caretaker

Looks like a woman spectator to me. Astana rider already off balance shoulder swipes spectator causing pileup.

Make up your own mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfWotphjMC0

IMO just one of those things.

edit: She does appear to be standing on the road. Just.

OrionKhan

Man or woman makes no difference. The person should have been paying attention while standing at the edge of the road when the peloton is rolling by.

SunSwingsLow

Thank you for the explanation.

Has this standard been applied before in seperate crash groups, one outside the 3K and one inside? Seems pretty harsh to add an additional 35 seconds onto a crash that is within the 3k to the chase group. Seems to me the fair thing would be to give the chase group the time gap they had at the time of the 3k crash and call it even from there.

thoughts??

OrionKhan

Some of our earlier comments were regarding whether or not teams would appeal. Its weird because the guys that crashed won't lose time but the ones who were chasing will lose more because of their crash. Its a pretty unusual situation. I suspect if there is a ruling in their favor, we won't hear about it until tomorrow morning.

FriendlyFred

I'm having a hard time understanding how AS got his time moved to the same as FS, while AC was placed the additional time back, when the two of them rode in together. It's not computing in my head. If AC really is that far behind AS, AC just lost the tour on the first day out. He's a terrific climber and TT'er, but there's no way he makes up that amount of time.

Creatre

1 minute is nothing in the Tour de France. Lance won multiple times with over a 5 minute gap on 2nd place. It can easily be made up, or lost by the others. There are many, many days left to decide the outcome.

Kind of Blued

The way I see it, if they don't give everybody the same time, stage one, and possibly the final Tour standings, could be a complete sham.

We reward people for crashing now, and punish people for not rolling over their heads as they chase the lead group, so if you're within 3K of the finish and sucking wind, it's best you just flop over. It's called tactics people.

SunSwingsLow

I dont think AC just lost the tour but he will have to have a better performance vs AS than he did last year.

SunSwingsLow

+10

Ive been waiting for the AC haters to say its some kind of justice to the chain dropping incident.

JoelS

Article 20 in the rule book, which roughly says that on a stage not otherwise designated as a mountain stage, riders that crash or have a mechanical inside the last 3km get the same time as the group they were with before the incident.

This is to help keep the sprints safe, and I think it's a good idea.

In today's stage, Contador was held up by a crash with 8km to go, so the rule referenced above doesn't apply. Schleck made it through safely and stayed with the front group. Then Andy was caught up in another crash with about 2km to go, so the rule referenced above does apply. It's not really relevant that Contador caught up to that group due to the crash at 2km.

Hope that helps.

OrionKhan

You are correct in recitation of the rule.

The issue that is relevant is that Contador was held up by the group that crashed at 2km. AC's group was only 35-40 seconds behind the group when it crashed. They then were held up by the crash and lost another 40-45 seconds because of that crash in the road. The group that crashed got their time back, but AC's group lost additional time. I don't think anyone believes that AC's group should be given the time of the winner. And AS's group should get the same time. But should AC's group be penalized another 40-45 seconds because of the crash of AS's group? That's essentially what has happened. Its an unusual situation.

sykerocker 

One thing's for sure: This year's Tour is already more interesting than I expected the entire three weeks to be.

DLBroox

Ok now I get it. I was so confused. So now it seems to me that the guys in AC's group should not be penalized the 45 seconds for the similar reason they will not get the same time as AS's group. If that makes sense...