Boonen, Ballan, and Flecha should be disqualified too. Note in the picture below that the train crossing barrier is still not up. What's the UCI safety ruling in this regard? And, was the train driver a Swiss dude? I understand this is partially the result of the race speed. They got to the train crossing sooner than anticipated.
Now THAT is a really good point. At that point he was only 40 seconds ahead of the chase group. The guards came down as they approached meaning that the lights would only have had to be on for 30 seconds which sounds about right for a high speed train line.
Now THAT is a really good point. At that point he was only 40 seconds ahead of the chase group. The guards came down as they approached meaning that the lights would only have had to be on for 30 seconds which sounds about right for a high speed train line.
a local french newspaper (La Voix du Nord) did the following investigation: they went to the point of the incident today and timed the average time between the first announcement of a train (sound signal, at this point in time it is obliged by law to stop) and the actual arrival of a train. In total they observed 9 trains. Result: average time 36 seconds; variation: only 3 seconds;
Cancellara had according to the GPS indicated by the french TV at the point of crossing the railway 31 seconds advantage on the Hoste group.
Conclusion: at the time Cancellara was crossing the railway most probably the sound signal was active (someone can calculate this probability?) and thereby Cancellare vioalted the road code and should be disqualified.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
"annelies" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Tom Kunich said:
Now THAT is a really good point. At that point he was only 40 seconds ahead of the chase group. The guards came down as they approached meaning that the lights would only have had to be on for 30 seconds which sounds about right for a high speed train line.
a local french newspaper (La Voix du Nord) did the following investigation: they went to the point of the incident today and timed the average time between the first announcement of a train (sound signal, at this point in time it is obliged by law to stop) and the actual arrival of a train. In total they observed 9 trains. Result: average time 36 seconds; variation: only 3 seconds;
Cancellara had according to the GPS indicated by the french TV at the point of crossing the railway 31 seconds advantage on the Hoste group.
Conclusion: at the time Cancellara was crossing the railway most probably the sound signal was active (someone can calculate this probability?) and thereby Cancellare vioalted the road code and should be disqualified.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
Cancellara had according to the GPS indicated by the french TV at the point of crossing the railway 31 seconds advantage on the Hoste group.
I checked my recording and the gap was bigger. 36 seconds before the train crossed the road, Cancellara was at least 100 meters - I would guess rather 200 meters up the road. I almost missed the incident as a commercial break ended exactly then, 36 seconds before the train crossing...
Quoted message said:
Conclusion: at the time Cancellara was crossing the railway most probably the sound signal was active (someone can calculate this probability?) and thereby Cancellare vioalted the road code and should be disqualified.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
Back when France had riders capable of winning TdF, I can remember the jokes about the A.S.O having trains parked in various places around the courses, just for this purpose, in case a Frenchman got away... :-) But I can't remember any particular incident, though.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
Back when France had riders capable of winning TdF, I can remember the jokes about the A.S.O having trains parked in various places around the courses, just for this purpose, in case a Frenchman got away... :-) But I can't remember any particular incident, though.
In the Tour of Spain, in 1985, the day Delgado took 5 minutes on Robert Millar to win the GC, the Scot complained his group was stopped by a train barrier by a train never crossed.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
Back when France had riders capable of winning TdF, I can remember the jokes about the A.S.O having trains parked in various places around the courses, just for this purpose, in case a Frenchman got away... :-) But I can't remember any particular incident, though.
In the Tour of Spain, in 1985, the day Delgado took 5 minutes on Robert Millar to win the GC, the Scot complained his group was stopped by a train barrier by a train never crossed.
Of course this is riduculous....as I stated earlier, I disagree with the disqualifcation.
Back when France had riders capable of winning TdF, I can remember the jokes about the A.S.O having trains parked in various places around the courses, just for this purpose, in case a Frenchman got away... :-) But I can't remember any particular incident, though.
In the Tour of Spain, in 1985, the day Delgado took 5 minutes on Robert Millar to win the GC, the Scot complained his group was stopped by a train barrier by a train never crossed.
In the Tour of Spain, in 1985, the day Delgado took 5 minutes on Robert Millar to win the GC, the Scot complained his group was stopped by a train barrier by a train never crossed.
Boonen, Ballan, and Flecha should be disqualified too. Note in the picture below that the train crossing barrier is still not up. What's the UCI safety ruling in this regard? And, was the train driver a Swiss dude? I understand this is partially the result of the race speed. They got to the train crossing sooner than anticipated.
Boonen, Ballan and Flecha derived no meaningful advantage from crossing at this point before the barrier went up (Maybe they got an extra 5 secs, but the group behind them was much further back). The commissaires have the option not to penalize if no advantage is gained (I hate to bring up retired racers, but remember when LANCE cut the course after Beloki crashed, and the commissaires issued no penalty because he didn't gain an advantage?) Hoste, van Petegem, and Gussev did derive a meaningful advantage from their crossing. It's still kind of chickenshit to penalize them, but there is a difference.
[LANCE cutting course] Not to put too fine a point on it but they didn't forgive him for "gaining no advantage" but from being otherwise disadvantaged.
Normally I dislike the figure of speech "Not to put too fine a point on it," because it's a passive aggressive way of saying you're correcting something irrelevant while pretending you're not nitpicking. But with you, Tom, I like it because it's a useful signal that you're even more full of BS than usual.
Lance Armstrong's improvised cross country manoeuvre to avoid the fallen Joseba Beloki in today's stage 9 did not earn him a penalty from the race jury. Despite "not completing the entire course", Armstrong's cutting out of a section of road did not give him any advantage over his competitors.