cat0020

Goes to show that it's not the bike, real pro can ride anything:

Injured Rider Crushes Pro Road Race on Fan's Old (1980) Stumpjumper

echappist

title is misleading. This was at a domestic race, not the Giro.
@TMonk or @globecanvas, could you two change the title

mike868y

and move it to the 217 while you're at it

globecanvas

Renamed the thread. I think it's OK in the 33 though (given that 33ers are more likely to care about/race in the Gila than the Giro).

gsteinb

We need a good old pissing contest to get the 33 page views and posts up. Have at it.

Lance would beat you on a single speed Schwinn.

TMonk

The Tour of the Gila is a big time domestic race. We had a lot of presence in the 1/2 race. Whats wrong with it here?

TMonk

..This is kinda a cool story though.

Doge

This is a UCI 2.2 race. The switch is against UCI rules best I know. Maybe in a 2.2 they don't enforce it - or didn't know.
the bike did matter as he was much slower, but made the time cut.

I was chatting with the Technical Director at Livermore where he was testing out his radios in the feed zone.

himespau 

Pretty impressive that he could climb in his road shoes on those pedals. My first thought was that if yo pressed hard enough you might get the metal teeth to bite into the smooth sole, but I'm not actually sure how well that'd work.

tetonrider

he had been stopped for a while before this happens.

the finish of stage 1 at the gila is weird....no cars for the last 6-7 miles, so support is pretty non-existent. the UCI regs are strict (a buddy in a break could not get a water bottle from another team due to UCI regs, and his team's car was MIA), but i guess they let this slide.

a friend of mine was one of the riders who hit the dog who was off-leash and ran into the road mid-way through stage 1. several riders went down and the dog was killed. he said the worst part was seeing the little girl whose dog it was. stupid parents.

Doge

Bummer about the dog. This is typical of selective enforcement by region. Some people are highly offended someone would break the rules. And unless an official OK'ed it first, or I got it wrong for a UCI 2.2, - it was a violation and he should have been DQ'd. Drives me nuts some countries peel electrical tape off of bikes, and others allow this obvious advantage. His choice within the rules was to run with his bike - like I saw a rider do at Redlands when they refused a spectator's offer of a bike.

himespau 

How does electric tape provide an advantage?

bikemig 

I use my 1988 stumpy to go to work; never realized it could do double duty as an ace road racing bike:

topflightpro

Doge, I think you need to start considering the letter of the rule vs. the spirit of the rule. Yes, some officials are sticklers for the rules, but some officials are willing to accept that the there are situations in which enforcing the rules as written ultimately has a detrimental impact on the competition at hand.

Yes, this rider technically broke the rules, but did he gain any competitive advantage by doing so? Not really. I think the officials used good judgment.

And as long as there is a human element to the officiating, and some are willing and capable of adapting to situations at hand, there will be variation and inconsistency in the interpretation and application of the rules.

TMonk

nicely put topflight.

gsteinb

when does your son leave for the academy?

Doge

He reports June 30, 7:30 AM USAFA, CO.
When he/we leave - not sure yet. May do some racing/may not. May be running - in boots. Maybe he should race in boots.
Right now entered to do Tulsa Tough, but focus is a bit off now, understandably.

gsteinb

If you want to helicopter parent the military those posts will need to go in foo or P&R, depending on content.

tetonrider

i get what you're saying, but the dude had a broken bike, there is no support along this particular road, and he was doing it to complete the stage, not gain an advantage.

officials have leeway when officiating, which is often a good thing but occasionally annoying to some.

Doge

If it is military it is not about bike racing, so no posting about it here. I do generally post about racing when posting in the racing forum.

asgelle

So what do you say to the rider at the same race who had to rush to the start line in the TT at the last second almost missing his start because the official made him adjust his bars because the shift lever was a few millimeters too high?

tetonrider

TBH, i think all rules at the TT should be strictly enforced for bikes or none of them enforced at all (separate conversation).

to your specific example, i'd say that the bike measurement rules have been published for years and that riders could have checked their bikes against the jig for an hour+ prior to their start. the UCI made those rules because (they believe) there are advantages they want to eliminate. i happen to disagree with that, but it is what it is.

in the earlier example, someone's bike broke mid-stage and he was trying to finish.

if our hypothetical TT rider broke their bike mid-stage and grabbed one from a spectator that had extensions a few mm too high (i think you mean too long?), and the officials happened to measure at the end of the race, i hope they'd let it slide. the guy lost more time than he gained and was not doing it to cheat the system.

that's my take.

i'm sure you can invent a situation that is even more of a gray area; bike measurements pre-TT start are not it. i've had to put my bike in jigs for years and was subject to the morphology exemption, and i realize that even the 'objective' measurement is a joke.

Doge

The issue is that a rule was made by UCI and it was broken. My kid had a motorcycle crash in front of him (see pictures thread) and had to wait 2-3 min for a team car/bike last week. Rules are applied un-equally. But the OP story, cute as it is, was that a rule was broken and the rider gained a huge advantage by breaking it over waiting or running.
I don't blame the guy mentioned in the OP - just that it is a classic example of "rule breaking" that is allowed, vs that that is often not. I think the Redlands guy had more class. I think any pro knows they are not to take bikes from spectators in a UCI race - but maybe not.

Still it is very confusing for the cyclist know which rules to follow. I think he should have been DQ'd. Based on his quote, I think he thought that too.

@1:03 there is a guy I mentioned at Redlands that chose to follow the rules and not take a bike.

gsteinb

Tough ****?

The idea that a guy, in what should be a feel good story, should have been DQed in a sport with wild PR issues is demonstrative of people so ponderously out of touch to border on comical. Get a grip. For christ's sake.

tetonrider

i dunno. i was commenting on the guy who borrowed a stump jumper at the gila. i think it was an example of a good use of an official's latitude. can't comment on all others.

i'm sorry rules are applied unfairly to your boy.