Wow.
+1
new one on me - “double leg puncture” - nice
Well that looked grim! 6.5 hours of mental and physical torture
3 most painful things I saw today, in reverse order.
- Trentin’s face at the medal ceremony
- Watching MvdP explode and just drop like his bike was broken when it was his legs/soul
- Teo GH’s post race interview. Just let him go, interviewer, ffs.
3 Likes
Geez, I watched the highlights last night, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a top rider pop to that extent. Yes, domestiques burying themselves to failure on a climb in support of their leader but not the top guys. Guess he’s still got a bit to learn and 6 hours in those conditions is a relatively new thing for him.
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A few photos from the Women’s race on Saturday: https://www.strava.com/athletes/103489/posts/6585889
I see the UCI have released the full footage to support Eekhoff’s DQ. It is pretty blatant, 2+ mins on the bumper of the team car but the enforcement of that rule is such a grey area.
His statement is pretty dignified to be honest but he does make the point that every puncture or crash could be game over if they enforce it to the letter and then the UCI mention 30 seconds as being Ok which just clouds it even more.
Link above to the footage, I must have picked the other bits from a variety of sites covering different aspects of the story.
They should have made a quicker decision and DQ’d him before the end of the race so not to spoil the actual winners moment.
Given his age and experience, the blame lies at the DS for the Dutch team. The guy was following the advice/instruction from the guy in the car. You do that in those situations.
The DS guts fined 200 Francs and the athlete has a day of diappointment etched in his memory for life.
Yorkshire well and truly sold to the foreign cycling public 
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or he went to engage the motor for an attack up the climb, and not only did it fail to engage it also introduced extra resistance killing his forward effort…
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One of the BBC commentators did say something about his motor blowing. I’m sure it was an innocent comment but could have had some truth to it 
When he finally catches up to the back of the main line of cars, it makes you realise how much speed advantage he was gaining. He came up behind the main field like it was stood still!
If he was smart, he would have dived onto the back of some of the other team cars that came past in the footage. The UCI always seem to see that more favourably than drafting your own.
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The David Millar / Ned Boulting podcast is a good listen to understand the DQ affair and why it was more frustration than anything else.
I learnt something - ASO have motorbike referees out in the peloton for their big races. So you get immediate warnings for drafting infringements etc.