UKC

Will Ben Swift be awarded the win for yesterday's race ?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-accuse-demare-of-taking-a-tow-from-a...

Almost certainly not, but it would be easy for FDJ and Demarre to quell these rumours by releasing his GPX file. And apparently he did upload it to Strava, only to quickly delete it when he realised he had an embarrassing and incriminating KOM - but not before someone took a screen grab. Surely it's time for basic telemetry - speed, rather than power - to be made publicly available. In fact there's no reason why it shouldn't be available in real time, it's not reveal any (legitimate) secrets that aren't already visible if the cameras are on you.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Interesting....getting a bit of a tow after a crash is the norm though! (Assuming it was after a crash)!

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Oh, that's really poor. There's no way he could have made up the distance and still had enough left. Did he go down in the same crash as Geraint Thomas? - it was game over for him.

Getting a draft from a team car is one thing, especially up hill, but a petrol-engine boost to that extent is too much. I thought they'd drawn the line at hanging onto a medical car while getting medical attention, and the odd sticky-ish bottle for a domestique, but not getting a sprinter (or a GS contender for that matter) back into contention. A strava screenshot would be interesting, as would an explanation of why he deleted something he was proud of.......or not

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Strava files back up and he has admitted drafting but nothing more.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/demare-hits-back-at-milan-san-remo-tow-alle...

Apparently no spikes in the Strava file, so it's not as blatant as Nibbles, just a very dodgy KOM. His claim along the lines of 'if I'd done something wrong I'd have been caught, I wasn't caught so I did nothing wrong' is a reminder of how far cycling still has to go in terms of ethics.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Would his power data not be the clincher?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I'm quite enjoying this return to old fashioned cheating what with motors in bikes and towing on cars. Much more fun than doping controversies.

In reply to Chris the Tall: Did you watch the race live? Late in the race and before the final 20km, that I missed FFS, the commentator mentioned how one rider had waved the TV cameras away whilst he was chasing back. Did you catch that bit? If so, who was it?

In reply to abr1966:

I thought it was only overlooked if the crashee is out the back from everyone and it gets them back with a group.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:


I read somewhere that some riders were disqualified from an early tour or giro because they took the train for part of a stage, that's proper cheating with no messing about.

In reply to gethin_allen:


Yep I hadn't really understood that he is alleged to have had such a sticky bottle for a fast ride up and past other riders!

In reply to Mike Highbury:

I was flying back from the Alps, but don't get to see much live stuff anyway

In reply to gethin_allen:


It's a huge grey area. Drafting in the team cars is generally overlooked - often rival teams will help out, good sportsmanship or a favour that will be returned. The sticky bottle is a bit more blatant, but generally OK as long as you don't take the piss like Nibali did, and speed away from others in the same predicament.

Also don't forget MSR is different to a stage in a grand tour, where you risk elimination through bad luck. The nature of the race is that it frequently comes down to a sprint finish, but in a very select bunch of survivors. The length of the race is a factor, but even more so are the climbs of the Cipressa and Poggio, close to finish. The roulers will try and lose as many of the sprinters as they can, the sprinters will try and stay in the peloton whilst saving energy. Any rider who gets a tow up one of these hills will have a major advantage. On the other hand if you put in a massive effort, you'll greatly reduce your reserves for the finale.