Suspect it won’t be huge chunks of time. Porte’s lost mass to make him a better climber but that’ll cost him a bit in the TT. And Aru will likely be better than last year as if he’s got any GC aspirations he’ll have been training hard on the TT bike. Doubt we’ll see a repeat of last years Giro TT where he lost minutes to Uran.

It is 60km…

#mafiosi

Daniel Lloyd ?@daniellloyd1
Suggestion, everyone in top 50 GC EXCEPT Richie Porte swaps wheels with someone from another team. Everyone gets 2 minutes. #saveporte

A tweet doing the rounds, sounds like a great solution

Trivia

Am I remembering wrongly or is there a plaque with Aru’s name on it in the caff at Fort Bill as he won a junior MTB world cup round there a few years back.

the giro really struggles with non italian contenders … wonder if
that had been modolo and aru whether the outcome would have been the
same … not 🙁

really do wish the license commission had backed the uci and
withdrawn the astana license …. ggrrrrrrr

been a great Giro so far, would be a shame to let this daft ruling reduce the number of GC contenders,

its a nice idea, but no one will be swapping wheels this morning

Would be good to see!

Got to ask where the rest of his team were though. Final few k’s of a stage and your GC leader is on his own…?

Also interesting point made over at inrng that maybe the “marginal gains” concept should have covered having your riders know the rule book!

It’s difficult to see on the highlights as most of it was missed but they were dropping back, from pics I’ve seen there were also Sky riders there but in the heat of the moment Clarke was closer. It’s easy to say “where were Sky” but at that point the peloton was full gas, all it takes is a corner taken a bit wrong and you’re moving back, puncture on top and you’re ooot the back very quickly.

Got to ask where the rest of his team were though. Final few k’s of a stage and your GC leader is on his own…?

Depends on which photo. In most of the larger ones you can clearly see the left arm of somebody in sky kit. I would imagine that the Orica guy gave Richie the wheel allowing the other sky rider to keep going and pace him back as best he could.

Interesting one. I can see why it is in the rules but in this case I think it was the wrong decision. He lost time in any case and his team mate will have had to expend a huge amount of energy towing him back so he lost out. The rule needs to be there to stop very strong alliances forming and ending up with what would be super teams of 18 or 27 riders.

Best to decide races on rider ability though rather than technicalities.

Thing is that sort of thing goes on anyway and a wheel change seems pretty trivial. Remember (I think) Tiralongo helping former Astana teammate Contador take the lead of the Vuelta a couple of years back by doing some massive turns to put time into Rodriguez. Much more assistance than a simple wheel swap!

That rule is hardly ever enforced anyway as, by the letter of the rule, it should penalise an entire peloton who wait for anyone who has a mechanical or accident, which happens a fair bit and is praised as a sign of sportsmanship. Just seems a bit silly.

Have Team Sky appealed the ruling?

No appeal permitted. According to race director Mauro Vegni

Rules are rules, and I think rules have to be respected for the credibility of this sport and, in this case, the credibility of the Giro d’Italia

Yeah, right. 👿

Do marginal gains not extend to putting sealant in their tubs or would it completely fubar them? I doubt weight is an issue with the antiquated minimum weight limit for bikes.

Did I imagine it or were BMC doling out bidons to other teams’ riders in the break the other day? Phil Gilbert was passing energy bars around like Willy Wonka. To my mind, that’s giving someone a competitive edge rather than making up for a mechanical. 2 minutes just killed the Giro for Porte and will make the last week a procession for Bertie once Aru either gets popped or loses too much in the ITT.

The rule…

Though I don’t know if the penalty is specified in the rules or at the discretion of the race director.

Race Director..

#unduinfluence

Got to ask where the rest of his team were though

From what I saw they were right there. Several of them paced him back. If you had a very clear knowledge and recall of the rules at the time then the obvious thing to do would be for a team mate to give Richie a wheel and the team mate take the wheel from the Simon Clarke. But in the heat of the moment…

I saw David Millar and Chris Boardman tweet that of course rules are rules but so many rules are openly and routinely ignored by the commissaires.

So Richie, can you tell us what happened out there on the road?
The peloton was going super fast to try and catch the breakaway and get ready for a bunch sprint, and I picked up a front wheel puncture as we were going around a roundabout. I’d gone around it on the left but my team-mates went around the other side. I stopped, and by the time the guys had got back to me Simon (Clarke from Orica GreenEdge) had already stopped and offered me his wheel. It was a spur of the minute thing. Alberto (Contador) summed it up last night – all you are thinking about when something like that happens is ‘how can I make sure I lose the least time possible’. I didn’t even give it a thought that it might be breaking the rules. Everything was happening so quickly and I was just acting on adrenaline.

Read more at http://www.teamsky.com/teamsky/home%20carousel/article/52998#ycil4GcgCOPSdsz3.99

Would be ace if the GC contenders/peleton gave Porte 2 mins today if the racing allowed for it by 10k to go!

Thanks Mrblobby. With all that spare time Porte has in his motorhome, maybe he needs to have a proper read. Got to feel for the fella though. His season has been built around the Giro and thanks to a puncture and a poor decision making after 4+ hours, its looking pretty unlikely.

All Porte can hope for is an on the road alliance between Etixx (I think Greg Henderson isn’t an Aru fan 😯 ), Orica and Sky, perhaps persuade Vaughters too, against Astana

Henderson’s at Lotto Soudal who aren’t a team of climbers really (Jurgen VdB excepted). Porte’s promised to go on the attack which I think will only wear Astana down enough for Contador to retain pink all the way to Milan.

Very much enjoying the wildly xenophobic and partisan ranting

Does seem somewhat inconsistent to penalise Porte while citing the letter of the law when the railway crossing incident at Paris-Roubaix had/has potentially much more grave consequences and went without any similar application of the relevant laws (race regs and criminal laws).

The idea doing the rounds on twitter is that the top GC riders all swap front wheels early on in the race to receive a 2min penalty.

I am interested to see what happens – the peloton is getting more vocal in recent years, objecting to decisions made by race organizers when they consider them wrong.

Very much enjoying the wildly xenophobic and partisan ranting

I’ve not really seen any (well almost!) comments that warrant this sort of response. Mostly just frustration and disappointment that a seemingly inncouous event has potentially ruled out a GC contender to the detriment of the race. Was equally disappointed at the prospect of Contadors injury potentially eliminating him.

Unless your comment is directed at Giro race officials 😉

Very much enjoying the wildly xenophobic and partisan ranting

I think partisan is allowed; this is STW not the BBC. As above though, not seen any xenophobia. There’s a long established tradition of the Giro organisers being “creative” in order to hamstring non-Italians.

There’s a lot of that going around, seems like an English speaker isn’t aloud to support an English speaker when a decision goes against him ‘cos xenophobzzz, for me (although I’m a massive Porte fan) this isn’t the case at all, I’m disappointment the race has been decided by a puncture and a commissaire. I was equally (maybe even more) frothy about last years Giro.

Does seem somewhat inconsistent to penalise Porte while citing the letter of the law when the railway crossing incident at Paris-Roubaix had/has potentially much more grave consequences and went without any similar application of the relevant laws (race regs and criminal laws).

Do you really think that other races should follow the example set by P-R ? Plus, even if they had tried to identify the riders, by then the race was over

The idea doing the rounds on twitter is that the top GC riders all swap front wheels early on in the race to receive a 2min penalty.

Would love to see how Vino, Aru and everyone one else at Astana react to that suggestion !

Do you really think that other races should follow the example set by P-R ? Plus, even if they had tried to identify the riders, by then the race was over

I’d expect ’em to show discretion, let’s use PR and last years Giro and as an example, clear rule breaking in PR and a massive safety issue, nothing done, nada, brushed under the carpet. Last years Giro was a complete cluster **** with red flags that weren’t red flags but we’re but weren’t, nothing done, race decided. Then we look at this, the rule is clear as is it’s intent but Porte wasn’t trying to gain an advantage, he was just doing his best to limit a disadvantage. The UCI could have just fined him and allowed the time he lost to stand. But na, let’s go balls deep and **** him!

As others have said, Italians in the Giro are allowed to get away with a lot more than non Italians.
Its not jumping forward, go to 6:13
[video]https://youtu.be/Ul2-SS7Z9s0?t=6m13s[/video]

While Cav was pissed off with being deliberately blocked twice (you’re not allowed to move from your line in a sprint), he said the main issue was if the roles were reversed and he was doing the blocking, he would’ve been relegated.

I’m no oil painting but that Aru’s hard to look at isn’t he. 2 minutes for that. Minimum.

Do you really think that other races should follow the example set by P-R ? Plus, even if they had tried to identify the riders, by then the race was over

yeah you’re right, no one could possibly have figured out who the guy dodging the barrier in the French National Champs kit was at the time….

monkeyfudger +1

Lightman, love the video. Comedy weaving there.

How’s about this for a bit of casual xenophobia.

There’s been 9 stages (not including TTT) and five have been won by someone in the break. Apart from Inxausti, all have been Italians or Italian teams. When you look at the sprint teams esp. Orica and Lotto Soudal making no inroads on the break of 4 or 5 riders, you can only conclude that the dedicated sprint teams aren’t up to the job or the breakaways are stronger than in other years. I can only conclude that this years Giro is ‘unusual’ to say the least. 🙁

In unrelated news:

Cycling news link

Nah, it’s just Sky holding back until week 3 which is making everyone else look good.

years. I can only conclude that this years Giro is ‘unusual’ to say the least.

Nothing controversial about today’s winner either 😆

Nothing controversial about today’s winner either

What? Being in the break, holding off a speeding peleton and then attacking the break? Oh yeah, on a super smooth racetrack. Nothing to see here.

He’s probably referring to the 2yr ban he served when he was 19..

Quite enjoyed today’s stAge. No theatre. No drama, just a slog in the rain.

Nice to Gilbert get a win.

GC. Meh. Let’s hope the time trial shakes things up a bit. Could be tough on Contador and his shoulder but I suspect he’ll do fine.