ridiculous conditions

From Cyclingnews: Boonen was not welcome at the Tour as a direct
result of the violation. With the race organiser pumping a message to
athletes performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated, it also
wanted to avoid connection with Boonen's recreational drug incident.

"Publicity wise it was a very meager Tour de France," admitted
Lefevere. "How much that really cost us, I don't know, but it is a
lot."

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

In article
,
Andre wrote:

From Cyclingnews: Boonen was not welcome at the Tour as a direct
result of the violation. With the race organiser pumping a message to
athletes performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated, it also
wanted to avoid connection with Boonen's recreational drug incident.

"Publicity wise it was a very meager Tour de France," admitted
Lefevere. "How much that really cost us, I don't know, but it is a
lot."

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

--
Michael Press

On Aug 6, 2:33*pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article
,





*Andre wrote:
From Cyclingnews: *Boonen was not welcome at the Tour as a direct
result of the violation. With the race organiser pumping a message to
athletes performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated, it also
wanted to avoid connection with Boonen's recreational drug incident.

"Publicity wise it was a very meager Tour de France," admitted
Lefevere. "How much that really cost us, I don't know, but it is a
lot."

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

--
Michael Press- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That could be true.

In article
,
Andre wrote:

On Aug 6, 2:33*pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article
,





*Andre wrote:
From Cyclingnews: *Boonen was not welcome at the Tour as a direct
result of the violation. With the race organiser pumping a message to
athletes performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated, it also
wanted to avoid connection with Boonen's recreational drug incident.

"Publicity wise it was a very meager Tour de France," admitted
Lefevere. "How much that really cost us, I don't know, but it is a
lot."

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

--
Michael Press- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That could be true.

Did I ever tell the story out of school about listening to race radio
during, erm, let's call it a bike race with pros in it?

The commissaires had determined that one member of a three-man break off
the front had bridged to the break by motorpacing an unwitting police
motorcycle (which was friggin' awesome).

The chatter on the radio revolved around how to deal with this,
especially since a major team unrepresented up the road had complained
to the commissaires quite directly (this is all mid-race, of course).

The commissaires concluded, over the radio, that the right thing to do
was to hope the break failed, thus not influencing the course of the
race (?), because if it succeeded, they would have had to penalize the
offending rider.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

"Ryan Cousineau" wrote in message
]...

Did I ever tell the story out of school about listening to race radio
during, erm, let's call it a bike race with pros in it?

The commissaires had determined that one member of a three-man break off
the front had bridged to the break by motorpacing an unwitting police
motorcycle (which was friggin' awesome).

The chatter on the radio revolved around how to deal with this,
especially since a major team unrepresented up the road had complained
to the commissaires quite directly (this is all mid-race, of course).

The commissaires concluded, over the radio, that the right thing to do
was to hope the break failed, thus not influencing the course of the
race (?), because if it succeeded, they would have had to penalize the
offending rider.

I'm relatively certain that the break didn't succeed since you didn't say it
did. Therefore the commissaries managed to control the race by not
controlling the race. That is rather admirable.

On Aug 6, 6:38*pm, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
In article
,



*Andre wrote:
On Aug 6, 2:33*pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article
,

*Andre wrote:
From Cyclingnews: *Boonen was not welcome at the Tour as a direct
result of the violation. With the race organiser pumping a message to
athletes performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated, it also
wanted to avoid connection with Boonen's recreational drug incident..

"Publicity wise it was a very meager Tour de France," admitted
Lefevere. "How much that really cost us, I don't know, but it is a
lot."

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

--
Michael Press- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That could be true.

Did I ever tell the story out of school about listening to race radio
during, erm, let's call it a bike race with pros in it?

The commissaires had determined that one member of a three-man break off
the front had bridged to the break by motorpacing an unwitting police
motorcycle (which was friggin' awesome).

The chatter on the radio revolved around how to deal with this,
especially since a major team unrepresented up the road had complained
to the commissaires quite directly (this is all mid-race, of course).

The commissaires concluded, over the radio, that the right thing to do
was to hope the break failed, thus not influencing the course of the
race (?), because if it succeeded, they would have had to penalize the
offending rider.

I was in a race where a guy solo'd away on a long climb and then
stayed away from a strong chase group by working with a small group
from one of the other races being run concurrently. The officials were
going to relegate him to the back of the chase group but the rider
insisted that they DQ him instead. Said that he deserved it and didn't
know what he was thinking when he cheated.

Bret

On Aug 6, 11:33*am, Michael Press wrote:
*Andre wrote:

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

No kissing the podium girls.

In article ,
"Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:

"Ryan Cousineau" wrote in message
]...

Did I ever tell the story out of school about listening to race radio
during, erm, let's call it a bike race with pros in it?

The commissaires had determined that one member of a three-man break off
the front had bridged to the break by motorpacing an unwitting police
motorcycle (which was friggin' awesome).

The chatter on the radio revolved around how to deal with this,
especially since a major team unrepresented up the road had complained
to the commissaires quite directly (this is all mid-race, of course).

The commissaires concluded, over the radio, that the right thing to do
was to hope the break failed, thus not influencing the course of the
race (?), because if it succeeded, they would have had to penalize the
offending rider.

I'm relatively certain that the break didn't succeed since you didn't say it
did. Therefore the commissaries managed to control the race by not
controlling the race. That is rather admirable.

I am not a commissaire, and I not only greatly appreciate their work in
officiating races, I also am happy to humbly accept their judgment in
practice. Sassing off quasi-volunteer refs in beer-league (or even
semi-pro) racing is a failure of perspective.

That said, hoping for the best is not a very reliable officiating tool.

I could envision several scenarios in which the rider would not earn a
penalty while still greatly influencing the race. How about this: the
rider works in the break, which stays away, but the rider can't keep on
and drops back into the pack.

What now, M. Commissaire en chef?

I thought the most fundamental mistake was that they declined to inform
the rider he was found in violation for his pacing. He should have been
told, by a commis', and if he asked what to do, he should have been told
that he either had to drop back (so as to gain no advantage by his
move), or to accept relegation.

So that guy was out there working, which is fine, but he was helping a
break which didn't have the business of his help. A chasing team was
reasonably incensed.

I mean, this is day-one stuff: you can't motorpace to a decisive
position in a race*. It's a sporting issue, not a safety issue, but it
is nonetheless pretty much a violation of the core concept of cycling.

As it was, everything worked out, but that doesn't mean everything was
done properly.

*well, except in motorpaced racing.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

On Aug 7, 1:33*am, "
wrote:
On Aug 6, 11:33*am, Michael Press wrote:

*Andre wrote:

Lefevere was also critical of the Tour organisers and what he believed
to be a double standard. "Stefan Schumacher won two time trials and
wore the yellow jersey, but he was caught for the same offence [last
year], why was he allowed to ride?" he said. "Ultimately Tom was
allowed to start, but under ridiculous conditions. I remained
discreet, but they went too far," he concluded.

I wonder what "the ridiculous conditions" were.

Promise not to win anything.

No kissing the podium girls.

That would be cruel and unusual punishment, not to mention torture.

Andre

wrote:
No kissing the podium girls.

Andre wrote:
That would be cruel and unusual punishment, not to mention torture.

Isn't that when the podium girls whip you ?