Travesty at Paris-Roubaix
It was a bad, bad day for the Discovery boys at the 2006 edition of Paris-Roubaix. Probably the biggest hit was Hincapie’s freak accident when his steerer tube somehow managed to snap, removing his handlebars and sending him to the ground. The poor guy gets dealt a fracture somewhere in his shoulder and leaves this evidence behind for Trek to mull over (you know someone is getting sacked over this one…):
If that wasn’t bad enough, UCI officials totally shaft Hoste, Van Petegem, and Gusev who crossed the line in second, third, and fourth. Yes, they did cross a train crossing when the barriers were down. Fine. If you are going to DQ them, then the next chasing trio of Boonen, Ballan, and Flecha have to be DQ’d for the same damn thing. Whether or not the train had passed or not is completely irrelevant since there is no provision for riders to make that call. I guess it pays to be the world champ because it gets you special treatment from UCI. Even Boonen is saying that he still feels that he finished fifth, not second.
GG to the course designer to send the race through a train crossing with 10k to go.
Don't let Krusty's death get you down, boy. People die all the time, just like that. Why, you could wake up dead tomorrow! Well, good night.
So many train tacks in Europe they can’t be avoided. Officials should have made the three riders stop for the amount of time that they should have waited at the crossing. Paris-Roubaix is just as much a lottery as it is a bike race (just ask Hincapie) and those guys gambled on the crossing: the barrier was down, the three must have known that there could be a possible outcome of riding around the train barriers
Comment by [SIN]Sanders — May 30, 2006 @ 2:00 am