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news
Geraint Thomas Giro d'Italia 2017 Stage 9 crash (Eurosport still).JPGVideo: "It shouldn't happen" - Geraint Thomas on crash that has wrecked his Giro d'Italia hopes
Geraint Thomas says the crash towards the end of today’s Stage 9 that saw him plummet from second to 17th in the overall standings at the 100th Giro d’Italia was “ridiculous” and "shouldn’t happen."
The overall contenders and their key support riders were racing for position ahead of the climb of the Blockhaus, the group spread out across the road, when a rider in front of Thomas hit a police motorcycle that was parked at the roadside.
NO!!
Most of @TeamSky, including @GeraintThomas86, are taken out by a police motorbike #Giro100 pic.twitter.com/iPJg7iXo4K
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 14, 2017
Thomas and Team Sky co-leader Mikel Landa were among the riders to come down, as was Orica-Scott’s Adam Yates and Wilco Kelderman of Sunweb – the latter already confirmed as having had to abandon the race.
Following the stage, Thomas – showing remarkable composure, given the circumstances – said: “That’s ridiculous, that shouldn’t happen.
“We were all racing for the bottom of the climb then next thing I know, someone in front of me hits the motorbike and you go down.
“My shoulder, it popped out as well,” added the Welsh rider.
“I felt good but then I crashed and that was it, race over. It’s really disappointing.”
"It's ridiculous, it shouldn't happen!"@GeraintThomas86 furious after being wiped out by a police bike #Giro100 pic.twitter.com/ld5QD6aBnA
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 14, 2017
“The motorbike shouldn’t have been there, frankly, I think we all see that,” said Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford after the stage.
“I’m sure the guy who was riding the motorbike sees that too and I’m not sure he’ll be feeling too great.
“But I do think we need to go back and have a look at it and ask the question, ‘Why did it happen?’ – but we fight on.”
"We fight on"@TeamSky chief Dave Brailsford on the crash that wiped out his team #Giro100 pic.twitter.com/8qiZDYJslW
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 14, 2017
Thomas lies 5 minutes 14 seconds behind new race leader and today's stage winner, Movistar's Nairo Quintana. Yates is one position ahead of Thomas on GC, but is now 4 minutes 49 seconds behind the Colombian.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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32 comments
shame that Thomas crashed - was looking forward to seeing him taking on Quintana up the Blockhaus - and on the podium
^^
LOLZ - best put down of the week right there, pew pew!
Personally the crash has ruined the whole race for me, I was excited about both Thomas and Yates to see if they'd podium. Now it's basically Nario's to loose, he was so formidable yesterday I can't see anyone touching him on that form..knowing that he's good for three weeks of a GT, maybe next week it'll be 'close' and maybe Tom Domoulin will take the jersey tomorrow for a few days.. but has Tom even finshed a three week tour?
Alternately, it'll be a close race between people whose names I can't pronounce, either way it's now ruined for me.
Is this a spoof Sky fanboy troll post? Where to begin;
Maybe he was on secondment from Essex Police
Fair enough if the bike had a reason to be stopped at the side of the road (evidence doesn't seem to suggest it) but as with any obstacle especially in an area where the riding will likely be extremely fast, he should have been making riders aware that he was there, he's got sirens and lights on the bike, and I'm pretty sure he'd have a whistle, a few seconds of effort from him could have prevented the whole thing.
It's a real shame as it could have been a really interesting race this year.
If you want to win a grand tour you have to not crash into things, that's always been the way and there will always be loads of things to crash into whether or not that particular bike was there. It's not up to Movistar to stop and let Sky catch up, just like it wasn't up to Nibali to stop and let Kruijswijk catch up when he crashed last year. For Sky it's a combo of bad luck, not riding on the front, and the questionable strategy of having both your GC guys riding on each others wheel.
Still not sure I understand how Kelderman managed to clip that inanimate object, there was loads of room to his right. Some suggestion he was correcting as his team mate in front had to drift left to account for similar movement from Bahrain Merida rider.
Road was plenty wide and inanimate object could have been further on to verge but there was plenty of room across road. Stage had been run at a blistering pace and Movistar were driving it. No one person to blame - which doesn't mean it should have happened but means pointing finger at one person a bit ... well, pointless. Sky pissed off but gracious (even if Thomas was never going to win this Giro or indeed any grand tour - this delusion should stop and he should be encouraged/allowed to target classics), Orica not so much. Does run risk of making rest of the Giro interesting only for stage results. On other hand, maybe Desmoulins and Pinot will knock it out of the park in the TT or Quintana will have a crash of his own and we'll have an enthralling race.
It's bad form for the Peleton to not have neutralised the race to allow them to catch up.
Dear Team Sky
We did not forget Vuelta a Espana 2012, stage 4.
kind regards,
Movistar.
cc @Alejandro Valverde
To be fair to the rider who hit the police bike, they had just gone through a right hand turn, hence the peloton was on the left hand side of the road. They had just entered the straight after the turn, so the rider would have been a) looking at the arse of the person in front, and b) looking at the group to his right to guage space. He certainly wouldn't have been expecting a motobike to be in the way.
There was room for the police bike to be more to the left of the road. Other side of the white line. You're basically putting an obstacle on a racetrack. And there was a marshall the other day standing in the middle of the road. No clue how that didn't end in a pileup.
Rider safety just isn't taken that seriously. They talk a lot about it, but the same problems keep happening every month.
Motorbikes and grand tours have had numerous issues in recent years. The UCI need to fix this recurring problem rather than look at how to deal with the consequences. The race is much poorer as a result of this and it would not surprise me if it got worse. Enough a Sky riders were affected that it would not surprise me if they simply withdrew the team.
So the organisers can fine you for getting a bidon late but all we hear/ see about this effectively is an 'oh well'. I'd like to see teams such as BMC and SKY effected by riders being ridden over/taken out by organisers negligence, sue them for the losses in rider earning sponsorship etc
if a doper can get 100s of thou for a slightly dodgy test then surely G et al are owed a shed load for this? If organisers lost 6/7 figure sums for such incidents they would not reoccur and ultimately lives would be saved
organisers knew for sure it was going to be flat out at that point so needed to have everything cleared out or marked by marshals and whistles. They have control of the bikes so it's their fault and they need to recompense the victims, in the cases of Yates and Thomas that is a lot
I don't get it. Shouldn't they stop the race for this so it's fair? Start when everyone is ready.
Blaming the police rider when it's clearly the fault of those crashing into him, are they fucking blind? What if it had being protecting a downed rider, what if it was the medical car, a lampost, tree or rock at the side of the road?? Nope, screw that shit I'll just ride into that static object.
posters blaming the police motorcyclist here need to get their shit together and actually understand how things work.
Whilst i'm really sorry for those taken out, their ire should be directed at the amateur nodders ( Ag2r-La Mondiale) that didn't bother looking/couldn't manage to ride wide of a large static object that was as clear as a fucking bell to see.
Hang on, hang on, let me understand where you are on this:
- when it's a rider going into something big, obvious and fairly static like a police bike, then causing a crash.... it's the rider's fault for being an amateur.
- when it's Owain Doull going into something big, obvious and very static like a crash barrier, causing a crash, and then deflecting by saying Marcel Kittel's disc brake ate his shoe.... mistakes happen, how dare we call him on it, and disc brakes are evil. That was about the size of your response to that incident, yes?
Hello, Mrs Doull.
Comprehension clearly not your strong point is it. read again, I was defending Doull over why he thought the logical reason for the cut in the shoe was a disc and that calling him out ove it and the fear of what damage a disc might do was unfair. I never mentioned the crash itself IIRC.
But carry on with your wide of the mark bollocks, #MrsDoull'sbitch
"Read again"? Gladly... find me your posts from before you were reincarnated, old bean? Seeing as neither of us can, let me jog your memory: you said you had a massive mancrush on Doull and that the crash was likely the barrier's fault. The thread ended with you saluting my superior debating skills and manliness.
"that calling him out ove it and the fear of what damage a disc might do was unfair". Oh the poor lamb, and you too, being asked to get a bit more sciencey rather than just spout wooowooo bullshit over Kittel's disc maybe bending spacetime and cutting a shoe that was never fucking next to it.
If you think that's unfair, wait til you see what the big wide world's like. You might need to get a helme- sorry: plastic noddy hat.
Watch the incident again & then you'll revise your opinion as your post is so full of inaccuracies you've clearly no idea what you're talking about.
Like for instance? You mean the riders on the left hand side crashing into the motorcycle (contact was actually made) and the subsequent swerving into the rest of the riders to their right.
Please do correct what actually happened.
No but you are.
They werent though.
The police riders are highly trained and know that they are there to ensure the road is free of all obstructions so that the riders can concentrate entirely on racing. They know not to become an obstruction themselves.
Your powers of observation are dire. It was a Sunweb rider that clipped the police outrider but dont let that get int he way of you talking a load of shit.
Oh, i got the team wrong, big deal, the point I made is bang on the money, maybe you and the others blaming the motorbike need to reassess your riding and indeed driving style so you crash less often/less danger to yourself and others.
If you're blaming someone and calling them amateurs then you're losing a fair amount of ground if you got them wrong.. I can really see criminal law working on the same principle (actually, in a lot of cases it does): "Oh we got the guy!! Oh, we got the wrong guy, nevermind, we got someone to stick in jail..."
This was his chance to test himself and for us to see how the transition is coming along. He's been really impressive so far this season. The Tour will be all about Froome so maybe it's best Thomas continues at the Giro to see what time he could make up to see if being a GT contender is an actual reality for him yet.
Basically a data collecting mission for next year.
Anyway, really disappointed with the crash. Ruined the Giro for me. Nothing worse than major contenders getting taken out. Like Contador at the Tour last year. It's just piss.
It's marred what could of been a classic giro, Could of been any of the contenders the reaction would of been the same.
I wouldnt be surprised if Thomas was pulled out of the race to concentrate on the tour instead.
Such a shame. I was really looking forward to the coming few days - this race was shaping up to be a cracker.
The Giro is my favourite race and I'd been waiting for the Blockhaus stage all week to see how Sky and the GC contenders would cope with Quintana - but this incident spoiled the stage, the race - and Adam Yates', Geraint Thomas' and Mikkel Landas' year (unless, of course, you're a Sky hater - which I am not).
The fault lies clearly with the police officer - he was parked on white line when he could have easily parked on the verge.... at this stage of the race it's generally heads down and hang in as the pace picks up - he shouldn't have been on the road at all. Hopefully lessons will be learned.
OP
To be honest I'm not sure your comments make you seem the epitome of intelligence either, just rather embittered unfortunately.
Stones and glass houses etc. etc.
It makes me wonder about the integrity of this website. It clearly goes in for clickbait as shown by the allowing of such pathetic comments above.
Stoopid could have finished his sentence before the word "and" and thus would have given the OP absolutely now where to go with his competely unjustified comment.
Luckily our modern society, which I find disgusting in some ways, allows us to accept such inadequete people. (OP) We feel sorry for them and make allowances for their inability to cope with society, except by being obnoxious, in just the same way that we feel sorry for those lorry drivers who cut us up. We can hope that in time and with care and compassion, the OP will become a happy and socially minded part of our community. Our thoughts are with you.
Thomas is a fighter and will come back from this. As Brian Smith said afterwards you've now got a really annoyed Team Sky to deal with each day. There will be some fireworks and it will be interesting to see what happens.
By all accounts there is some suggestion from some teams that the stage is nullified, I can't see that happening but you never know nowadays.
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