Sunday, April 09, 2006

controversy controversy

this morning i read the live report of paris roubaix and calculated the fantasy standings based on the provisional results. the title of this post was going to read Jeff Robert - Cycling Savant for his inclusion of Gusev on his squad. The results looked like this...

Jeff 195
Amy 180
Ward 172
Me 135
Eric 125
Taylor 125

but then the commissaires made their decision about the train crossing that occurred in the final kilometers. by dq'inq PVP, Hoste and Gusev it turned those standings upside down so...

Me 175
Amy 155
Ward 150
Jeff 140
Eric 140
Taylor 140


the swingman became Ballan so i won with Amy in 2nd.
Ward was the only person to pick Cancellara which was awesome, i guess he's the Rainman on this race.
Gotta suck thinking you have the podium only to have it taken away, of course i'm speaking to Ward now, not Hoste :D

Makes you wonder what would have happened had Hoste, PVP and Gusev stopped there and regrouped. Would the officials have spotted them 20 seconds or whatever they had.

Oh well, thanks for playing.

9 comments:

Jeff said...

David-
Hadn't even looked at or thought about the results before I talked to you...
Yeah, the DQ's really killed me. Can't believe an event on this magnitude isn't better planned to stop this type of thing from happening...then again, we are dealing with the French...enough said!

Anonymous said...

Could I please get my aditional 10 pts for Wesemann's 6th place finish?

Taylor said...

I thought it was interesting that they didn't tell the guys that they had been DQ'ed until after the race. I mean, they just killed themselves to try and chase down Cance, they sprint for 2nd, and then they are told it was for nothing. Just seems kind of rude.

Randall said...

Here's what should happen under USCF rules:
"3B3. Road Closure. It is forbidden to cross a closed railroad crossing or any other road closure [disqualification]. Should the lead rider(s) be stopped by a temporary road closure, the Chief Referee shall neutralize the race and allow the riders to restart at the same time intervals as their arrival at the closure. Should the lead rider(s) get through before the closure or should circumstances not permit neutralization, the closure shall be considered an unforeseeable incident and no compensation shall be allowed."

David Alexander said...

i thought i read once that happened in a stage of the TdF and the breakaways had to sit there with the pack. Then they were given a minute's lead or whatever they had over the pack. I always imagined that would have been pretty demoralizing for the guys in the break to see the whole peloton sitting there.

i think they need to call this rule both ways, i just watched the tape and Boonen, et al crossed the road closure before it went back up again to pursue Hoste. In essence gaining advantage over the peloton, so they should be dq'd as well, giving Wesemann 2nd place and Ward Webb (probably) the victory.

I'll check on those 10 points Ward, sorry in advance.

David Alexander said...

No Ward, you got your Wesemann points
Cancellara 70
Boonen 50
Wesemann 10
TOTAL 130

Anonymous said...

Okay. Then how about my 20 pts for Flecha's 4th place. I'm just sayin'. Last place is very lonely.

David Alexander said...

Alright Webbrick, your score is now correct i hope. I apologize, i didn't recognize Flecha as Flecha Giannoni and you made the podium.

I'm blaming the sleep dep.

Jeff said...

First,
Kudos to Eric for his "excellent idea", David for doing the legwork, and Webb accounting services for the meticulous audit :)

Still shocked as much by the fact that this situation was allowed to happen as much as the actual handling of it. I think it's hard to sell a train passing as an "unforeseeable incident". After all this isn't some Mom and Pop road race...it's Paris-Roubaix... for this to happen, especially that late in the race at such a crucial point, is inexcusable!
And if "the rule" is "the rule" and is subject to "NO" interpretation...SuperDave is 100% right. Boonen, Ballan and Flecha should all be DQ'ed as well, after the trained passed, they clearly went through the downed arms before they were raised (confirmed via TIVO)..."technically", a violation of the rule.