You should click here to see the sprint today in a very muddy cyclocross. Here is a link to a write up on the race too. I have a very hard time they only relegated Stybar to 4th. Guess that is cyclocross officiating in Belgium. Jan Denuwelaere was lucky he slid across the line to win.
He was very contrite.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13553/Zdenek-Stybar-contrite-and-apologetic-after-wayward-Essen-sprint.aspx
Sometimes competition brings out the “beast” in people, rather than the best.
Stybar would have lost, bad boy, not good! Everybody knows you sprint straight, may the strongest guy win.
Ach…. that was a horrible sprint.
Steve – ” normal” rules of the road are that “irregular” sprinting relegates the rider to the back of the group contesting that sprint. So if it was ten riders, he’d been 10.
Of course, unless it is considered an egregious penalty and then there could be additional sanctions. I think Renshaw was thrown out of the TdF a couple of years ago.
The lesson to Jan is grow a pair and push back. Welcome to the world cup where they play for keeps! Great race!
Dont know how you figure that! Jan won not Stybar. Jan pushing back might have taken them both out. The name of the game is to win. Jan won.
Cross isn’t the tour. Winning isn’t so important as to crash someone, so I’m going to guess this was a mistake due to it being his first race and him being sloppy and tired. With start money exceeding prize money he’ll be more worried about his peers than the officials.
If you watch the sprint you see that Jan will win the sprint by at least a wheel as his speed is greater than Stybar. There is NO WAY he could take his hand off the bar and push back or lean back on Stybar to keep from hitting the barrier…..I dont think he really meant to run Jan into the barriers probably a natural reaction seen from the corner of his eye to try and shut him down but Jan was the faster of the 2 and would have won the race if it had been a clean sprint. I think Jan already has a set of balls or he wouldnt have been contesting the win in the first place.
This wasn’t a World Cup. And I don’t think he would have any leverage to push back anyway. Kind of hard for us to judge sitting here breathing.