Demare found a gap and took it so he can get a little draft off the rider up front hoping to sling shot off to finish. During a bunch sprint, no gap are to be left in front of you period. If so, rider will take that wheel. Its all about fighting for that wheel and hang on to it. Demare did nothing wrong. Even if you are sucking wheel, tight, riders will bump and elbow to intimidate you and bump you off that wheel for themselves. I have been in more then a few of those, but this is at a club racing level, so most of the guys are gentleman sprinters because they have to go back to work come Monday and no team contract to be signed like Sagan or Cav. The rubbing elbows, pushing and definitely intimidation from throwing the bike around getting close to handle bars are practice. One touch of the bars or cross a front wheel at that speed, you ARE going down. This one is all about French riders doing well in their home tour.

I thought demare WAS in the wrong. THAT move was VERY dangerous as you could see.
if you do anything to impeded the progress of another rider you should be disqualified....at the least. unfortunately sagan overshadowed what demare did.


if you watch from the front the entire group was drifting to their right. cav had an opening at the time he went for it but as the group moved right even sagan was being pushed right.
unfortunately cav got the raw end of the deal as he ran out of room.

it was extremely excessive and wrong to remove segan.

I thought I had the left side blocked enough, only enough room for someone stupid like me to go there so I thought. I was wrong. someone else did. the temptation to squeeze him out was there but I did not, got second.

I agree Demare being dangerous but he had a gap between the first and the second rider, so any one racing will fight for the gap especially that close to the finish and be in second place is the ideal position. The second rider should have closed the gap and I see that he had to weave to avoid Demare crossing his front wheel which would have cause a huge pile up. That's bunch sprint.

then there's this guy who's all over the road at the end of a race and riders give his lots of room. The Tashkent Terror https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGUcWnX-RdI

No disqualification

I think it is in the rules, anyone that impedes the progress of another rider is disqualified.
he clearly did that.

damare, never heard of him but then I have not been following racing as much since I stopped.

he is French, no? that would explain why they did nothing.

not saying you cant be all over the road but then if it is considered dangerous.....
the French tend to uphold the rules as they see fit

Good discussion guys...

The point of the video more than anything was to show another rider other than PS who did not keep a straight line in that bunch sprint and was not sent home nor given a penalty.

Double standard?

Probably....

Its French thing They even have a TDF route made for French (or Italian in the Giro)riders to make it a little easier to win or podium.

Stage 9 tomorrow has 7 categorized climbs including 3 HC. It is supposed to be the hardest stage of the tour. And it starts right from the beginning.

Here are the HCs:

a. Col de la Biche – 10.5km average 9% - about 950m/3100’ climb

b. Grand Columbier – 8.5km @ 10% with parts @ 22% - about 850m/2800’ climb

c. Col du Chat – 8.7km @ 10.3% with parts @ 15% - about 900m/2950’ climb to finish

Will be back on NBCSN with 3 time slots:

7 am
Noon
9:30 pm

I'm taking door number 2....noon option. :cool:

Should be an interesting race tomorrow, no doubt.

Crazy stage!!! Ugh...I will leave it at that.

Richie Porte in horrible crash.

Yeah, that was a really bad get off for sure. Really surprised to see Martin able to continue too.

Not sure I agree with Dan Martin holding up the attack when Frome had a malfunction.

Especially when Frome did not hold up the descent when Martin was knocked down by Porte.

Bob Roll cracked me up when talking about the Porte / Martin crash. He said something like... you race in your underwear with a Styrofoam cup on your head. He's a funny dude.

Bob Roll was absolutely correct.

There's no shame in attacking when the yellow jersey has a mechanical issue.

Fabio should have kept going!

Froome is on a mission and will stop at nothing to get another win.

Some of those helping him at the end of that stage were very misguided....

Well well......as of yesterday (have not seen today's stage yet) we have a new maillot jaune wearer.....and the race just got interesting again.

With another ITT at the end, if anyone is to defeat CF...they had better get a pretty good lead between now and then....

Going to watch Stage 13 tonight.....will be interesting to see how Team Astana handles things....

Last week for Le Tour.......and next 3 stages will be in the Alps!

It's gotten more interesting as we have several players who have stepped up their game as Cf has also shown he is mortal at the same time.

Can't wait to see what happens in these mountain stages.....and whether Team Sky will be able to do their job or not!

The Alps! Fantastic stage today!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFG6tDMXkAMFi0C.jpg

Poljanski :eek:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500516151.JPG

ITT today....love the venue...quite spectacular!

Great course and great ITT......