Richie Porte's Giro hopes dealt huge blow by 2-minute penalty

If the Peleton is so upset at this decision, and lets face it right or wrong it ruins the spirit. So its simples. the Peleton halts at a certain point, the 11 riders in front of Porte all stop, exchange wheels and push each other off again. 2 minutes penalty all around and were back to where we should be, talking about the race and not the rules ruining a good event.

AlexChief what a lovely idea - as if the major protests over really big issues have done anything. Riders even going to the extent of neutralising stages haven't been able to get organisers to do anything! In any case its nothing to do with the organisers its the UCI officials to blame for this

I would have expected them to know the rules, but the punishment is too harsh for the crime...
If all of the riders feel it is harsh, maybe the other teams could lobby for it to be overturned... If the majority are in favour and publicly say so, it does create a little bad press for the organisers.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong but was this incident even caught on the TV cameras? It wasn't shown in yesterdays highlights.

Seems we have to blame social media for the penalty as if nobody really captured it on video and it wasn't subsequently televised, I'd imagine Porte would've got away with it.

I read somewhere this morning that photos of the offending incident were on social media sites a mere 3 minutes after it happened!

Compared to what happened to Fignon against Moser, for example, this is nothing and if anything it will make it for a better third week.

just wondering, did any other riders puncture? were they effectively penalised because the commissaries refused to allow the convoy through?

The time penalty and fine is one issue, punishing the rider twice... well...

Having said ALL of the the rules should state the convoy must be allowed to go to the 3Km point for all the obvious reasons of fairness

It may feel a bit rough but you should know the rules. The commissaire had to do something and could have DQ'ed them. There was another sky rider there for pete's sake.

Can we ask a certain Mr DB what the marginal gain is from not having your riders aware of the rules?

And before you all throw up in indignation - there are supposed to be professionals - so they should know what they can get away with.

This type of rules interpretation happens down in the cat 3/4 races here so they must know they can get stuck on like this.

So Richie while on one level I feel sorry for you on another I feel you should know your job better and have more loyalty to your team than your countrymen - that sky rider whose shoulder is in the foreground of the one shot could so easily have handed you the wheel and Clark could have ridden you back to your other team mates - stupid is as stupid does

"UCI rule 2.3.012 about the 'Rights and Duties of Riders' is very clear, however:

All riders may render each other such minor services as lending or exchanging food, drink, spanners or accessories.

The lending or exchanging of tubular tyres or bicycles and waiting for a rider who has been dropped or involved in an accident shall be permitted only amongst riders of the same team, The pushing of a rider by another shall in all cases be forbidden, on pain of disqualification."

If that's to be interpreted literally, it means riders are not allowed to stop and attend to another rider injured in an accident — unless they're team mates. So you just ride by while they bleed at the road side. I'm sure that isn't quite what it means, but it's what it says...

Bloody Giro Officials. This was a sporting gesture and should be applauded (and I don't like seeing the Aussies do well, makes us look bad).

HAD IT BEEN ARU, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. The Officials have done this to improve Aru's chances, that is not sporting, that is Italian bollocks, its like going backwards 20 years. The Giro has been devalued because of this.

So if Contador, Porte and Aru agreed on Sunday to push hard together to distance Uran, thats ok? But each of them benefits from another team. What is the difference?

You take a drink towards the end of stage and its not approved then you are fined a few swiss franks. Without that water you could lose lots of time, more than wheel change. Utter crap, I'm livid.

I would like to see all riders swap wheels on todays stage (except Porte) and have everyone docked 2 minutes. Contador, grow a pairs, where is Hinault when you want a figurehead?

The decision to enforce the rule in this case is stupid and it's a real pity for the fans and for the Giro. I really like this race but taking one of the contenders out in such a fashion is bad for the sport and for the other contenders as well. I do not feel sorry for Porte though, what he did in the '13 Tour, breaking the rules by going back to the car and bring food for Froome when it was forbidden in the face of the commissaires was unsportsmanlike. Then he got punished by the rules when he should be thrown out of the tour.
And fair play to Orica (though I'm sure Tinkof and Astana will not agree with me). For some time I have the feeling that Porte will finish there for the next season.

Shame for Porte, but good on Clarke! Kudos

This is indeed an unfortunate happening, but rules are rules. Yeah it's a stupid rule but they can't change anything about that now, but maybe the rule is there for a reason. What if Clarke gave a broken wheel and porte would have crashed out of the Giro, just being the advocate of the devil here.
Anyways maybe we will finnaly see a SKY rider attack! Because if this wouldn't have happened he probably got time on the others in the TT and hung on for dear life on the climbs, that would have been as boring as the time Wiggins won the tour!

Do I lose points for having Ritchie Porte in my fantasy team

This is the same UCI Jury Commissioner that cut Ted King from the TdF for missing the cut-off time by 7secs. He's letter of the law kind of guy...

Unfortunate for Porte and Clarke but this rule is at least clear and much easier to enforce than, for example, alleged biological passport irregularities of a certain young Italian rider (Greg Henderson will be able to testify to that shortly in Turin...)

I hope Contador and Aru are going to be whiter than white in the whole of this, if either of them is seen getting a sticky bottle then it just throws the whole nature of the race. I'm sure I've seen Aru and Contador pushing each other into position on stages, it might not have been uphill but if they're going to be that strict with the rules then they should start looking at all of them.

I feel sorry for Ritchie, he seemed to have been doing everything right, holding on in there with relative ease and keeping his energy for the later stages. He seems to get a lot of bad luck, bronchitis during the first week and now this, certainly makes me less excited about the giro if it's just between the other two.

would serve the authorities right if Sky just cruised rather than riding their nuts off trying to pull the gap back now. Must keep watching though to make sure that all rules are applied equally from now on........................if you're not consistent then you're not credible.

Quote:

Initially, it was unclear why commissaires had blocked the convoy of team cars from going through, which prevented Porte from getting assistance from Sky mechanics

However, it now seems clear why race officials decided to prevent that happening.

This is a point I really don't understand. Is it true that the commissaires actively prevented Porte from getting service from his Team Car?

Was this the reason which caused Porte to accept the wheel from another rider?

What explanation have the commissaires given for this decision?

Even from when it was unfolding on our screens... something about this incident doesn't sit right...

"exchanging food, drink spanners or accessories"

Err - what's a drink spanner and where can I get one???

The ridiculous part is the official giro twitter posting pictures of the wheel change saying why this is ' the best sport in the world' and then penalising him. Crass hypocrisy.

It's following the rules, but there's been plenty of riders at the Giro getting a sticky bottle and caught on camera and that has way less bearing on the GC. This has been a pretty hard fought GC already, let the riders get on with it.

Just had a quick flick through both Porte's and Aru's TT times and although its not an exact science Porte seems to be on average about 45 secs faster per 10k than Aru is.

Lets hope i'm right

The Giro has a history of screwing over non Italian contenders!

What I don't understand is that in the first picture getting the front wheel from Clarke, just out of view on the right hand side there is a Sky rider, facing hime. Why didn't he take a wheel from him? It seams bizarre. The only conclusion I can come to is that they both punctured?

Rules are there, that's fair enough but when was this rule written? Why do they turn a blind eye, by all accounts to rail crossings and not this? I read somewhere it was tacks on the road? So some local rooting for a local lad threw out some tacks for good measure?

I guess we'll never know, perhaps it'll give Porte resolve to go win in the mountains or the TT. That said if he makes it on to the podium and looses by less that, say 2 minutes, then what?

This was a pure act of sportsmanship like I've never seen, really incredible stuff so it's a shame that a real contender has to suffer as badley as this.