TDF Spoiler

Boardman – never trust a scouser

from twitter;

Begs the question what the **** was he doing in the little ring in the first place?

From Robbie Hunter on twitter:

From a person who rides in the peleton..Contador should have waited,had he waited everybody would have waited..my opinion this was not cool!

Going to be an ace couple of days now, think we'll see Schleck get his revenge myself.

Remind me. Did Schleck wait for Contador when he was held up by the crash on stage three…?

🙄

Andy Shleck has the beating of Bert this time mechanical or not. I think he will ride away from the spaniard over the coming day's.

Alberto obviously felt the need to push home any advantage. He knows Andy has the measure of him. Schleck for the win now I reckon.

I don't really understand the etiquette this road race malarky (or the fact that this 'cheating' seems to vex some on this post more than, say, the numerous riders, team members etc who have been implicated, and in some cases previously banned, for doping offences), but if his chain's dropped off isn't that probably a result either of his riding technique at that point, or because it wasn't set up properly by his mechanics? I.e. it's their own error. Why would a rival wait in that instance? Plus, wasn't Contador responding to a Schleck attack at the time as well?

Its strange isbn't how today makes contador look weak. Its a shame that the damage was done on the descent when the gains weren't really made by Contador.

I do like the way Cintador contests places in stages though. I don't think Indurain ever did that, did Armstrong?

Watching that was a bit like watching that video of the rolling rally car the other day, but in slow motion, and the car is full of ostriches, and every time it rolls another ostrich comes flying out, and as each ostrich hits the ground it starts whooshing like a catherine wheel, and all the orange penguins who are watching the crash come running out with brooms and try and put the ostriches out by hitting them with their brooms, but the brooms just catch fire and the penguins panic and stat rolling around on the ground surrounded by exploding ostriches as the car rolls on and on spewing out ever more ostriches. (thanks to BigDummy)

I don't see an issue with this – if I was racing for €450k, I'd be off.
were the gains made on the descent? the commentary on the TDF webpage talked about Contador opening up 40s on Schleck on the ascent when he dropped his chain

I don't really understand the etiquette this road race malarky

Excellent ignorance is certainly no reason to not form an opinion type away 😉

Boardman's wrong – it's Contador who doesn't run a chain watcher. Saxo fit them to all their machines. Just spent 15 minutes scouring Cyclingnews to make sure I'm right on that as they ran a Tech article on Contador's bike the other day.

Why would a rival wait in that instance?

If you need it explained you'd never understand anyway.

Same reason Ullrich waited for Armstrong

he's so full of shit 😆

Remind me. Did Schleck wait for Contador when he was held up by the crash on stage three…?

Not to mention Contador had a mechanical, too, which didn't seem to slow Shleck and friends down much either.

Why would a rival wait in that instance?

If you need it explained you'd never understand anyway.

Same reason Ullrich waited for Armstrong

Completely different situation. A spectator felled Armstrong not a botched gear shift. Contador didn't attack him either. He carried on at the pace he was already setting at the time to catch him back as he'd been caught napping at the back of the group.

I don't disagree that it wasn't a nice thing to do but he's got 2 other riders to worry about who appear to be getting stronger and they didn't wait either.

It looked to me as though his chain had gone off to the outside of the big ring so a chain saver would have made zero difference. Is Andy running oval Q-Rings? The problem with these is that at certain points in the cycle there is a bigger gap between front mech cage and chain giving a chance for an outboard ship off.

I don't really understand the etiquette this road race malarky

Excellent ignorance is certainly no reason to not form an opinion type away

Not sure I was typing an opinion, merely asking some questions based on observations/reports that I read. Happy to have my ignorance enlightened, which was why i was reading this thread. I get the 'want to be the best rider by beating the other riders fairly' sentiment, and waiting if, for example, your rival has an accident that's outside either their or their team's control (a crash caused by a dog running across the road or something) but a chain coming off on a climb seems to indicate one of the two options I outlined in my previous post doesn't it?

So either a TdF mechanic can't set a bike up properly, or one of the best TdF riders doesn't know how to change gears.

Sometimes a chain will just fall off, even when everything is done right.

“Now I’m really angry. I will ride on the Tourmalet until I fall from my bike and give everything to this race.
“I felt really good but what counted at the end of the day is the time that you have when you arrive at the finish and I was so far back even with what I did on the descent.
“I promised my brother this morning that I wouldn’t take any risk on the downhill but I think I went down pretty fast… for me, let me put it that way. I didn’t want to lose too much time.
“Things happen, and everything happens for a reason. People can say what they want but they also have realize that Alberto was one of the guys who waited for me in Spa and that was really a great sign of fair play. Chapeau! Today was a different story, a different scenario but the Tour is not finished.

elliptic – Member
Remind me. Did Schleck wait for Contador when he was held up by the crash on stage three…?

But neither of them were wearing the yellow jersey at the time. Traditionally the race leader is not attacked when in trouble, considered bad form.

Well thank god they don't have silly rules in mtb racing…

"I dropped my chain"… "now please wait for me to put it back on" please is this a real rule in road racing??………

Bizarre he didn't even appear to be changing gear at the time or recently.

http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/1111

Well thank god they don't have silly rules in mtb racing…

"I dropped my chain"… "now please wait for me to put it back on" please is this a real rule in road racing??………

No it's the same type of rule as not talking about who's on what pop…

But neither of them were wearing the yellow jersey at the time.

Fair enough, yes.

Should be a stage to remember tomorrow 🙂

Did he hit a bump and that did it?

The only comment I would make is that even I can get my chain back on by downshifting and soft pedalling.

Looks like he tried, but it doesn't always work.

cripedwheel you dont attack the race leader for crash/failure /mechanical etc you just dont that is it. Contador can hardly claim he was unaware of the mechanical or the rule hence the strong feeling ..he should have sat up and allowed him to catch up them attempted to rip his legs aprt so the best , not the luckiest, athlete wins.
Makes no real sense in a competition but thems the [unwritten ]rules. Like many sports stop for an injured player etc

Wouldn't have happened if he was on a singlespeed.

Many years ago in the Milk Race a young pro launched an attack when the race leader stoppeed for a pee a couple of riders went after him and pointed out the fact that it's bad form to do such a thing and forced him to wait.So in this instance Contador is out of orderit's just not the done thing to attack due to a mechanical or a call of nature

Those of you who don't get this are obviously not into road racing or the unwritten codes that exist within the peloton

are obviously not into road racing or the unwritten codes that exist within the peloton

or just think they're daft rules

like I said you don't get it

Poor form that was. Even as a casual observer I could see the dickishness of the move by Contador. How to put a 'u' in his name without getting banned.

Should be a stage to remember tomorrow

Should be boring as **** tomorrow.

60km to the finish after the last climb, GC boys are going to let a break go then eye each other up.

Schleck attacked and Contador went with him.
If you watch the video closely you can see that at the moment the chain comes off Contador is looking backwards to see who is behind him so he never actually saw why Schleck slowed. He just continued with his counter attack and the next time he had chance to look back Schleck was nowhere to be seen.

I don't think I 'get it' either. It's a race, no? From what I wsaw, Contador went to follow Schleck, then when Andy suddenly slowed, Contador seemed to sit up for a few seconds, then get back on the gas. As everyone else seemed to be doing. Schleck seemed to make a hash of putting his chain back on, and Contador didn't look behind him to see where he was. Maybe he was just unaware that Schleck had stopped, and just carried on racing, as you'd expect a person to do. I don't see the problem really. Unlucky for Schleck, but that's racing, no?

If you need it explained you'd never understand anyway

see I was right.

anyone see the world cup game when some team or other passed back to the goal keeper following an injury and nearly scored bloody funny keeper conceded a corner which the other team passed back to him again, he caught it that time.

And Sanchez and Menchov also attacked at the same time as Contador and no-one has criticised them yet. Schleck lost about 20 seconds on the remaining climb but also lost another 20 seconds on the descent. Saxo-Banks tactics were a bit awry as Schleck was out on his own after his team had bust themselves splitting the peloton, whereas Contador had at least one rider with him. Schleck probably regrets being defensive yesterday.

I doubt menchov or sanchez would have gone if contador hadnt. I expect Spartacus to go postal with a sword tomorrow!!!

So, if Contador falls off/has a mechanical in the TT, and loses time to Schleck, will people consider Schleck deserving of hate for not allowing Contador to make his time back up on the final stage?

What if it had been Contador who'd had the mechanical? Would Schleck have waited for him?

The sprints seem to contain a lot of elbowing and headbutting, surely that's not in the 'unwritten' rules?

Listening to the booing of the crowd as Contador stood in yellow said it all. Go Andy…

Judging by the amount of booing at the presentation, it looks like contador's tdf win this year won't be the most popular.
Still Shimano must be pleased that they don't sponsor Saxobank 🙂