Tour of Turkey 2024 Stage 3 Highlights: Fair Play or Foul? The Sprint Decision 

That's exactly what came to my mind as well... Philipsen had some very questionable ones as well and was never penalized.

No one is denying that jasper some rediculous wins that he should of been relegated

Thank you! EXACTLY what I was saying. You're NOT going to relegate Lil PP-sen, then you shouldn't relegate Van Poppel. Grmay and friends have a LOT more to complain about!

Loose???

@@53gloweThe older this double-t cobblestones pavement is, the more it wobbles. Besides that, due to it's joints, it has far less fiction compared with regular tar pavement. A security issue for every sprint...

No. Look at the 2:52 point of this video. There was a straight of about 100 metres at the finish. Within that distance van Poppel went from blocking anyone coming past on his right to blocking anyone coming past on his left. I've seen worse infringements go unpunished but this one is right.

its the tour of turky what did you expect. they have a bent or a downhill finish in almost all their stages.

I'd suggest to organisers to make it even narrower

just keep your line. there was no reason relative to this course to deviate from the right to left barrier. you're running the risk of cookie cutter similar courses for every race which is uninteresting.

Pro cycling continues to shoot itself in the foot. That finish was asking for trouble. Perhaps that's what the TV wants for a story

Jup!

racers know how to handle that. first to the bend wins.

Poppels movement to the left was quite gradual I don't think it caused any risk

So your argument is that because he wasn’t watching the road curve, it was fine to run riders off the road? Funny because everyone else said it was ok because he was taking the shortest way around the curve on purpose because that is the fastest line.

I can see where you are coming from, but at the same time Poppel doesn't really deviate from his line. He just picked a really bad line, because he almost hit the right side barrier at the start of his sprint and then over corrected. I think judgement should depend on the exact wording of the rule. If it states that the rider has to stay on his line until limited by the boundaries then that is exactly what van Poppel did. If it states, that the rider has to pick a line that is the shortest route towards the finish then van Poppel should have stayed towards the right and be dq'd

@@ForeverDayGreen maybe not malicious, but definitely "irregular". And yes, the ruling reads "the lane". So it's not a straight line from the sprint, more like a track lane in running races. Similar to the markings in the velodrome.

@@tychoMX in that case he should be DQ'd. Maybe organizers should start to actually paint temporary lanes in the last 500m to help enforce this rule and make it easier for riders. On a bendy finish with irregular pavement like today its just way to easy to lose your lane apparently. After all van Poppel wasn't the only one to do it.

100% agree, the curve was done by the time he really shifted across. He rolled the dice, might have gotten away with it another day, but on this day the Comms called his bluff. Relegation was correct IMO.

​@@ForeverDayGreen lol over-corrected? That's laughable! How can you "over-correct" so much as to move from the right side barrier to the left side barrier?! Ridiculous!

That is the correct ruling. People are confusing direct path with line with lane. It's the last one that's in the rules. Once the sprint is lauched you are required to keep your relative position on the road.

that not the rules.

he did hold his line, coming out of the turn he went straight from the apex to the finish line. that finish was just too close after the turn

@@sexyhemch that is the rules. In fact, the ruling says specifically "lane". Not even line, lane.

are the lanes drawn out in this corner?

If you start your sprint 5 meters from the barrier and end it 50cm from it, you know you are in the wrong. End of discussion

i remember sagan pushing people who coming near him while sprinting that fast( he had to). definitely not for faint of heart and very risky business. that’s why strict no moving policy like we have in formula 1 car races during breaking is required here. no one should move side ways while sprinting. of course tiny movement will be there but that’s it, not more

Le Tour commissaries are a joke for sure. Race organizers need to pick one interpretation of sprint deviation and apply it evenly and consistently. Either a straight line/lane is straight on the road, or it is a straight line out of the apex to the finish. Not one way for Philipsen and another way for Van Poppel

very good decision from the stewards, van poppel cut him of completely, very naughty

@@sam.83 he doesnt have rear view mirrors, he is going for his premeditated line

@@sam.83 In this typ of a U-turn-like finish the line of Van Poppel is the fastes.

The rule is actually clear: 2.3.036 Riders shall be strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others. Unfortunately Van Poppel did not hold is relative position on the road (his lane) and moved from the right side of the road over to the left and in doing so risked a collision with Lonardi. Would Lonardi have been able to pass him? Maybe not, but Van Poppel needed to hold his relative position on the road.

So you can just crash people if there is a bend in the road, seems fair.

​@tjtennisicmroll2k who crashed?

Abdoujaparov approves - smiling with the gaps between his teeth. :)

I think the relegation was fair, but this isn't a road for a mass sprint either, way to dangerous looking at the kind of road and corner in the last 300 meters. Organisation look in the mirror...

well do not put a turn in a sprint

I don't know the rules, Lonardi would have won it seems to me, but van Poppel most likely didn't block him purposefully...

Absolutely wrong decision. Van Poppel was in front of the Polti Kometa driver and held his line. It was clear that Van Poppel would hold his line, so the Polti Kometa driver should not have pushed past on the outside of the bend. Absolutely wrong decision by the jury.

There's a big difference between choosing a line and swerving over the whole road...

@@franciss2529 I understand that and if you watch the ending of the NASCAR race at Talladega last weekend, you will see the lead car swerving high and low to block the others, ultimately to get tapped from behind and booted off the track on the last lap. And I simply don't see that here, I see the big horses at full gallop with the line in view and one of them putting on the show the fans want to see, who's the strongest and craftiest of them all. But flopping is a big part of ball sports and cyclists do their bit with the waving arm and pointed finger at the bully who blocked them and it is all fun, I suppose, sprinter drama and another day in the life of the peloton. 😀

sorry, you're wrong. The guy in front is allowed to pick his LANE. Not his line. It's not semantics, that is to ensure riders keep their relative positions on the road and not chop/barge into guys coming on the sides. That is the actual text in the rule. LANE. Which is not always the straight line or the shortest/most direct path. And this is also only after "launching", so you're allowed to change lanes when following wheels.

@@tychoMX Thanks for your reply and I'm okay with your view on the outcome, just that to me it looked like hard, clean racing with instincts kicking in and sure, he impeded the line of the complainer, but he didn't drive him into the barrier. He only did just enough to win, but that was evidently too much and no worries, another day tomorrow.

@@robbchastain3036 apples and oranges. It's a bit different when the amount of protection you have is less than 1mm of lycra. Not saying that car racing at hundreds of miles per hour isn't dangerous, but you're more likely to escape unscathed with a big metal box and hefty helmet around you than in cycling where if you come down in a sprint, you'll be going to the hospital. Plus I'd imagine a nudge between cars is more likely to be escapable from than overlapping a wheel, where you're almost definitely going to crash at sprinting speeds.

​@@josephsong8911 no legs of the barriers sticking out.

@@josephsong8911 they don't stick out. There's a nice advertisement bannier covering everything, at an angle. Nothing to be afraid of. But I'm sure Lonardi sticking his arm up in protest helped a lot.

@@josephsong8911 that's a completely useless comparison.

sorry, but there's absolutely no "validly closing the door". At all. The rules read "should not deviate from the lane". So by definition once the sprint is launched, the rider in the front is expected to keep its relative position to the road. He started almost in the complete opposite side of the road.