7/23/14 12:56 PM

"Majka seemed to be enjoying his chase of the leaders, repeatedly smiling at TV cameras as he passed them. At one point, he made a show of how steep the climb was by grabbing a large antenna mounted on the back of a TV motorbike and pushing off."

I call foul, "made a show"? This is called cheating. One thing when you are spit out and can't turn the pedals over. But this douche did this on a critical climb/grade which the end result was dropping the group he was with which included competitor(s) in the 'DOT' point competition? No fine or relegation, and he isn't even French. ;)

My apology for over using the word douche this week. ;O

Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/news/majka-grabs-stage-17-win-at-tour-de-france_337930#ETwzOs5rQEr2WtZ3.99"

7/23/14 2:19 PM

I did not see the hi jinks so won't comment on that.

Although I would not have been pulling for either rider, I could sure appreciate if Contador and Froome were there to compete. One has to really be into the finer nuances of racing bicycles to resist the urge to take a snooze during this year's edition.
Nibali is simply too much better than the rest.

One of the few thrills was the breakaway by Bauer and Elminger getting caught so close to the line. Otherwise ??? Zzzzzzzzz.

7/23/14 3:45 PM

Yes the race for the top step is a complete non factor, however with the other 2 big guns gone, the race for the other 2 steps has totally opened up with a good 5-6 guys feeling like they have a legitimate shot and if anything the race has been much more explosive and unpredictable then the the last few years with the skybots.

7/23/14 4:08 PM

"f anything the race has been much more explosive and unpredictable then the the last few years with the skybots."

I am with you there...

7/23/14 5:15 PM

If the motorbike was actually moving down the road (I didn't see it myself), yeah that's a free boost, but so are the muscular bottle hand-offs from the team cars, no?

The failed breakaway was the talk of the town on this morning's ride, sounded awesome (I didn't see this, either).

7/23/14 5:29 PM

Guess I'm just having a hard time rooting for 2nd and 3rd.

At least in the 2013 edition, other riders "tried" to attack Froome/Skye. Recall multiple stages where Nairo Quintana went up the road on Froome/Porte, although Froome always pulled himself back up and Valverde was usually unable to go with Froome and could not counterpunch. Contador's team also tried to attack Skye on a couple occasions although AC was noticably low on his form last year... there was also stage 13 where Saxo took advantage of a crosswind/echelons and caught Skye sleeping and desperately worked a TTT to pull back over 1 minute on Froome.

This year, Nibali is so alert and in such command, that there have been almost no attacks on him. I know it's hard out there, but I'm finding that the GC is like watching this year's superbowl. No contest.

7/23/14 7:10 PM

When he pulled on the moto antenna mast Phil & Paul actually commented on it stating that this would be a 20 second time penalty if spotted by the commisaires. Since it was on TV there certainly could have been a judge's decision, but as noted it really was no different (and for quite a bit shorter time) than the standard "sticky bottle" that gets done ALL the time.

7/24/14 5:11 AM

His penalty was 10 seconds, 50 Swiss Francs and minus 5 (sprint) points

7/25/14 9:56 AM

Yeah, saw this today:

Rafal Majka of Poland received only a 50 Swiss franc fine and a 10-second penalty for briefly grabbing onto a motorbike antenna at the foot of Wednesday's final climb.

More of a pull off than allowing the MC to pull him. He used it as a boost and it indeed lifted his speed to help him open the gap. I guess[?] because is was such a short event, like 1-2 seconds it was not as severe a relegation as it could have been. Plus no previous infractions apparently.