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Redant not happy

Jeff Jones,
August 8, 2005, 00:00,
April 20, 2009, 23:05
First Edition Cycling News for August 8, 2005

Hendrik Redant (Davitamon-Lotto director) wasn't happy about what happened either, as he said in an...

Hendrik Redant (Davitamon-Lotto director) wasn't happy about what happened either, as he said in an interview with Belgian TV show Sportweekend. "We can't say that the break wouldn't have been brought back, but now they didn't even get the chance to stay away. But what can we do, to complain about the decision of a UCI commissaire is virtually impossible; they are almighty in this situation, their decision is law. It wouldn't serve anything to put in a complaint.

"It's always possible to make a mistake and take the wrong road. It's simply a blooper. In principle everyone who knows the parcours a bit should have known it was to the left and not the right, but look, this stuff happens. In fact it's a UCI rule that if a rider doesn't follow the parcours, he's taken out of the race. But of course they couldn't do that today; take 170 riders out.

"To punish the three leaders was wrong though; they had been out there in the front all day. And they weren't the ones who took the wrong road, they had nothing to do with it. It wasn't about the classement either - none of the guys in front were a danger to GC; but it was still about a stage win. If you see how the peloton rode the last 50km it might have been possible for them to keep a couple of minutes.

"You see, when there's a railway closure right after a front group; it is never so that the break is stopped; sometimes you get gaps close to ten minutes then! That's a fait de course also. That's how they should have treated it today.

"Bart Dockx had that happening to him before in Niedersachsen this season; the railway passage closed twice in front of him while he was having a lead of 11 minutes; they didn't stop the peloton there. Bart lost 10 min of his lead waiting for the train to pass. Two kilometres later, the peloton took him back.

"Ah well, what's done is done."