DaveLeeNC

Just a general comment. If this weather event had happened today (Sat) on Stage 20 instead of happening on Stage 19, this could have been REALLY/REALLY ugly. I don't see how they could have handled things in the same manner on Sat. vs. Friday. In some ways we are 'half way there' (a historically short mountain stage), but at least the rules of the competition are hopefully going to be unchanged throughout the entire stage.

dave

ps. I don't like the way this was handled but I don't have a better idea. So I am fine with what they did, even if I don't like it.

DiabloScott

If Prudhomme had decided at km50 that the race had to end at km90 and got the communication out to all parties, that would've been acceptable and understandable. They could've had a stage winner and everything.

But he decided at km100* that the race was over at km90 and that makes GC time meaningless and it shouldn't have been included.


*more or less.

Lemond1985

With hindsight, it was a terribly unfair way to judge the race. To do something this sloppy and capricious, when there the most technical rules in the race about a million other things, that are designed to go overboard in ensuring the race is absolutely fair, makes a mockery of the entire Tour de France, IMO, and brings it to the level of reality TV, professional wrestling, a rigged political election, or something very different than a legitimate sporting event where the best rider wins.

I will have a very tough time taking the sport very seriously after this incident. I bet not even Bernal feels as though he won the race fair and square, this result is not really fair to anyone, and in my opinion deserves an "asterisk" next to it with a footnote explaining how the winner was determined.

Caretaker

Well he didn't have that option so it's irrelevant. The decision to take the times from the top of the Iseran was the fairest one under the circumstances.

merlinextraligh

Unfair to whom?

The way it played out Saturday, it's pretty clear, the alterations didn't change the winner or the podium. Bernal was the strongest rider. Thomas couldn't, and wouldn't attack Bernal. And no one from Bora or Lotto had the gas to attack Bernal/Thomas.

The only significant change from shortening the Stages was keeping Aliphillipe in the top 5. Had both stages been run as scheduled, highly likely Aliphillipe would have lost more time, possibly out of the top 10.

So the only one who could reasonably *****, Aliphillipe, actually benefited from the change.