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Rider Protest at the Giro
Last Post 08/17/2009 08:03 PM by Steve Jones. 4 Replies.
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buttsbrian

Posts:14

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05/18/2009 08:59 PM
Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with the fact that the riders refused to race in the Milan stage of the Giro? ProTour riders are paid to race bicycles, riding bicycles is dangerous, I didn't realize riders could just stop a bicycle race becasue they're afraid of crashing.
steve

Posts:125

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05/18/2009 10:31 PM

It was a bit weak...it was the 100th anniversary of the race - you would think someone would have seen the course before hand.  The organizers could have towed the cars that were sitting on the course though, or at least put a guy with a flag and a whistle there like they do for traffic islands.

sj
buttsbrian

Posts:14

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06/01/2009 11:54 PM
I bet Menchov wanted to ride.
Nosleep

Posts:82

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08/17/2009 01:57 AM
It was the right thing for the peloton to do, especially after Pedro Horrillo almost fucking died the day before. The protest was never just about the Milan circuit race, it was about safety conditions for the whole of the Giro. And I look at it a different way - if these professional riders thought everything was just too dangerous, I tend to respect that opinion. It's not the first time the peloton has done this, and it won't be the last. Cycling is already a dangerous sport, as you mention, so if a group of world-class riders thinks a particular course of group of courses isn't safe enough, I'm not gonna say I know better than them.

The Milan circuit race didn't suffer much, anyway. It would have been just like the Champs-Elysees stage in the Tour de France - a couple of meaningless breakaways, then a field sprint won by Mark Cavendish. Or is it redundant now to say "a field sprint won by Mark Cavendish" ?
steve

Posts:125

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08/17/2009 08:03 PM
Like I said, I think stray cars on the course might have helped fuel the protest - Zomegnan said it was similar to Gent Wevelgem and Amstel Gold - races which typically don't stay together...could have been a big mess, but we'll never know!

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1379/Zomegnan-let-common-sense-prevail.aspx

Cavendish is almost unbeatable, but it would have been nice to see it play out and was a shame to have happened on the 100th anniversary.
sj
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