[Closed] Bouhanni and the latest sprint controversy

Uh, he's off balance because he's launched his weight sideways into the other rider!

Professional sprinters need to win otherwise their contract doesn't get renewed. Part of this is intimidation so others give you space. Sprinting is a dangerous game and gets more dangerous if people can't stick to their line in the closing metres and move into a space which is occupied by another rider.

Plenty of the armchair critics are riders and former riders

If you aren't sprinting in road or track races you won't have experienced the danger that riders who do what he did are. Just riding along and going off balance isn't the same

No idea as I haven't seen it, but professional riders are competitive people and will do whatever they can to help them win - I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but I am saying that if the rider can grab any advantage for their gain then they will (as can be seen by the amount of riders who get caught doping)...
Heat of the moment stuff, yeah, perhaps...they are all fired up having put in a huge effort, been pushing really hard and the adrenalin and whatever else is still kicking about, they wont be thinking with a clear head.
Not condoning it, just saying that it isn't really guaranteed that everyone is a gentleman/lady (or whatever the accepted terminology is nowadays - sportsperson? challenger? competitor?) when they compete to be first.

Bouhanni has plenty of form for violence and aggressive behaviour on and off the bike - not entirely sure why he's still in the peloton

So do all the arm chair critics screaming that someone has ‘deliberately’ pushed a competitor into the barriers not see this also? I just can’t bring myself to believe that professional riders are deliberately forcing one another into the barriers during sprints.

Anyone else?

Looked like a deliberate block to me - younger sprinter (Stewart) coming past and older guy puts him into the barriers. Sprint hierarchy prob more relevant to Bouhanni than the DQ given he wasn't winning the sprint, hopefully Stewart gets the chance to set him straight on that in the future.

Admittedly it's easier coming to that conclusion with Bouhanni. If it was van der Poel we'd all prob be marvelling at the robust defence of his line. vdP wouldn't be sprinting for third, though.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1376186339155193862

Looks deliberate to me. As UCI has set a precedent they need to apply a 9 month ban. Otherwise they are acting on the outcomes of dangerous actions, rather than the actions themselves.

from the video it doesn't look 'deliberate' to me, as in "I'm going to put him in the barriers" - the lead out has just hit the wall, the Cofidis rider is going and Bouhanni makes a split second decision to follow and Stewart happens to be occupying the space he goes for.

Now - not saying it's right, you need the awareness and accept that sometimes you got boxed in and it's tough, but there isn't the thinking time, it's instinct, and as noted above, if you have a bit of a reputation for having pointy elbows then just maybe that reputation means the gaps do open a bit more.

Totally in the wrong and to blame, but not deliberate in the worst sense.

Looks deliberate to me.
I’ve had similar happen and I was a woeful sprinter. I don’t think it was malicious, just Bouhani closing the door on the other sprinter while trying to get on someone’s wheel. It happens. There was a bit of shoulder bumping by those two leading up to this, Bouhani absolutely knew Stewart was. In my view Bouhani was trying to come over and squeeze Stewart making him brake and giving Bouhani the wheel in front to follow. He made a mess of it, lost balance and ended up leaning too heavily into Stewart.
I don’t think it’s ban worthy but it’s a DQ.

the world is changing. Sprinters just won't be able to do stuff like this in the future. That's the crux of this. It's not about whether you think it's 'okay' or 'not really okay'. Sprinters just won't be able to do this at all from now on.

Anyway, this is just a direct result of the Groenewegen/Jakobsen crash, which nailed riding like this for good.

Bit early to be talking about a new era of sprinting Reggie, when he did this two days ago (ie did not GAF about any cruxes) and got a DQ.
If he gets a ban then yes that will point to real change, as a few years back it would be just chalked up to argy bargy, sprinters having the IQ of a steak bake etc.

Can they not put lanes 200m out and you have to stay in it?
Ps I know nothing about cycle racing.

Looks deliberate to me.

I suspect it is reckless rather than deliberate in that - "I am going to block this guy and don't care if he goes into the barriers"

Can they not put lanes 200m out and you have to stay in it?

This has been mooted at a very high level but was quickly discounted as basically unworkable - it would restrict sprint finishes to 8 riders max and create a pre-sprint to the cutoff point.
Plus it would change the fundamentals of sprinting to suit the long drawn-out style suiting a particular type of rider like WvA. 'Freestylers' such as Caleb Ewan or Sagan who pop up in the last 5m would have no chance.

Bru-ha has form.
The UCI once again failed to act for the long term good of bike racing by punishing the outcome not the act.

It's kind of funny that he is trying so hard to ram the other rider that he has to stop pedalling, messing up his own sprint. Egregious. Who knows what video some of you are watching!

It was planned if you watch it in slow-mo, he stops turning the pedals just to balnce himself for the push. As previously said probably the most violent rider in the peleton.

I think the UCI (or whoever) would be right to push for a ban, for the reasons given above. The riders themselves won't change unless there's a decent, consistent punishment. Certainly Bouhanni rides likes he couldn't GAF, from what I've seen.

There's already a 'rule' to say you can't deviate from your line once you've pulled the pin on your final sprint for the line, but maybe they'll also bring in something about not deviating towards the barriers to get round someone?

Or just paint a line 1m from the barriers on each side and say, 'cross this line (from the middle of the road) and you are given +5 seconds'?

I'm not sure if it was [b]entirely[/b] deliberate - he sees the guy front left go so jumps across to get onto that wheel sort of not noticing (or not caring) that Stewart is already coming past him on the left. You can see his lead out man flick his elbow indicating that NB has to come around him because at that speed and location, the leadout can't peel off, he just has to keep going and sort of "drift backwards" through the bunch while hoping that no-one else is going to ram into the back wheel. In other words, anyone coming from behind should be able to see and know that the rider will be moving one way or the other to come off the wheel of his leadout and start his sprint.

That said, Nacer Bouhanni has a reputation for that sort of move, he's reckless at the best of times. Sheer luck that the barriers were flush to the road and didn't have sticking out feet. Cynically, I'd say that a rider might assume it was therefore less consequential to push someone else into them...

It’s kind of funny that he is trying so hard to ram the other rider that he has to stop pedalling, messing up his own sprint. Egregious. Who knows what video some of you are watching!

In rough order of events, I see:

1) Bouhanni drifts left, perhaps to cut Stewart off, perhaps just to fill a gap, I'm not arguing that point

2) Bouhanni and Stewart make contact, you can see Bouhanni's handlebars jerk to the right which is where I reckon contact was made and Bouhanni is thrown off balance. Again, his fault

3) Bouhanni pushes Stewart. I'm arguing that at this point, Bouhanni is just off balance rather than deliberately trying to force Stewart into the barriers

4) At THIS point Bouhanni stops pedalling. I don't agree that he had stopped pedalling in order to push Stewart, he's stopped pedalling because he's off balance and has come together with another rider.

I think a couple of the others above get it, I'm not arguing that Bouhanni is innocent in general terms, just that's he's innocent of deliberately and maliciously trying to force someone into the barriers.

Sheer luck that the barriers were flush to the road and didn’t have sticking out feet.

I think they might have changed the design+regulations to ensure this is the case, so not so much sheer luck.

Well Stewart's broke a bone in his hand and now misses De Ronde on Sunday. Bouhanni reminds me of Mario Balotelli. Trouble just seems to follow him around.

@13thfloormonk you might be right in your assessment of motivation (Bouhanni didn’t mean to do it). But that’s neither here nor there because the rules are clear. His sprint was dangerous. But there’s more. It is very rare to see the above sequence of events occur if there isn’t intent.

Seems to get off balance a lot during sprints. Bit pointless arguing whether he intended it or is so incompetent he nearly throws himself off his own bike.

Sorry 13thfloormonk but your interpretation is a stretch

He drifts towards him AKA changes his line during the sprint.

This not being sufficient he then throws his body into the other rider. He seems to expect the other rider to push back, effectively holding him up. As the other rider doesn't push back he nearly falls off and his weight is so far over he can't continue pedalling.

The UCI rules are that once the sprint has started, sprinters must continue straight ahead with minimum deviation. As there’s a significan sideways movement from Bouhanni which also obstructs another rider, a typical sanction would be the demotion to last place.

The UCI rules are that once the sprint has started, sprinters must continue straight ahead with minimum deviation. As there’s a significan sideways movement from Bouhanni which also obstructs another rider, a typical sanction would be the demotion to last place.

Yes, I think everyone agrees on that point. The question is whether he committed a further offence of dangerous riding/unsportsmanlike behaviour which warrants greater punishment.

Looks just like Richmond Park yesterday 😂

Hard to judge unless you are same position. Possibility he wasn’t aware he was there.

I agree with @13thfloormonk that it's not possible to ascertain Bouhanni's motives from the video alone. As said above he's been sanctioned for the obvious breach of rules (deviating from his line) but I believe any further sanctions from the disciplinary commission are yet to be decided.

The UCI is in an odd position here as it's clear that they want to appear to be tackling safety in sprinting, but the rules around this kind of incident are a bit vague. My guess is that they'll make a big deal about a few big cases to try and scare folk into behaving better. I've noticed that Groenewegen and Bouhanni both had reputations of being somewhat assertive in their positioning in the past.

Bouhani's a petulant, nasty little shit

... but I don't think that was deliberate. I've only seen the twitter replay but:
1 He's a raggy sprinter at best
2 He tries to take the wheel to his left
3 I think their feet collide and that unblaances both, esp Bouhani
4 Ban the ****er anyway

I've watched this over and over and.....

Are you sure Bouhanni doesn't touch his lead out mans back wheel to start all this off? Even the tiniest brush at that speed would potentially be catastrophic. You cant see an impact but if you look at the speed differential, that looks entirely possible to me...

I'm not a fan, but in this case I might just about give him the benefit of the doubt?