Astana guy hit the breaks for no reason. Alpecin guy didn’t like it and retaliated with shoulder bump. Both got disqualified.
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Schär was DSQ’d for handing a bidon to a fan, silliest DSQ I’ve heard of. Not like he was throwing gel wraps and bidons into a canyon somewhere in the middle of the alps.
Great race though!
Did you see GVA go past the peloton during the first hour, only to have time to stop and say hi to his wife and kids? Cool move 
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Me too. She’s so fun to watch. To think she went from pepping herself up on the barrier to not fall over on the Patterberg to continuing that effort into a long range attack. Nuts.
Especially when both MVdP and Asgreen did so at the end of the race in the lead up to the sprint. Wildly inconsistent discretion of the rules aka classic UCI behavior.
I don’t recall any in the final 130km (when I started watching) and I don’t think they mentioned any prior to then either.
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That was such a BS decision, especially after so many others in the lead group were filmed throwing bottles to fans.
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That was a great race to watch. I went to bed with 40km to go as it was late here but really enjoyed watching all the peleton jostling for positions leading up to the climbs on those narrow cobblestones.
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Wow…I thought Deceunick had blown it. When Ashreen attacked and MdvP and WvA went with him, Allaphillipe was clearly silent because he didn’t even try to go with the move. And then for Asgreen to work with those guys, I thought for sure he was done.
Absolutely studly race by Asgreen…
And again, I think this is an example of MvdP not having good tactics and trying to bludgeon everyone into submission. He had some many attacks in the last 50k and his move on the last ascent of the Kwaremont was ungodly. But in the end, he paid for it.
It was something to do with being blocked from getting in the break. The Astana rider braked tested the guys behind when he got in front whereupon the Alpecin guy barged him as retaliation. UCI DQ’d both of them. Really good job neither of them gave a spectator their bottles. Full season ban if they had.
I was surprised too, but then I checked and there was actually a “green zone” in the last 2k.
Ah that makes sense. They always tend to chug everything in the last few Kms anyway. The UCI just has to be smart about these green zones. Then there shouldn’t be such a big issue.
Also I think fans who want to collect Bidons would naturally flock to the green zones. So it’s kinda a win win.
As far as I know, littering was forbidden for a while now, but every race I’ve seen Bidons flying into Forests and Ditches never to be recovered. So honestly I think it’s a good rule. Also considering that Pros tend to be looked up to by young riders.
Wow, what a great race it was yesterday! The last 40k was absolut brutal hammering. Can´t understand how it is possible to go so hard…
On Belgian television after the race they mentioned they road tubeless.
Loved that race yesterday. The cobbled classics are always a highlight and this year, even without Paris-Roubaix, we have had a great run of races.
I don’t mind admitting I wrongly thought Asgreen was being way to generous taking turns so close to the finish but he absolutely nailed the sprint. Van Der Poet’s sprint was all over the place. He was chucking the bike around to try and get more power out but his timing seemed off after such a hard race.
I’m glad the UCI are sorting out littering. All teams and riders were clearly reminded of the rules before the race and the rules were enforced. The riders have so many opportunities to drop unwanted items: green zones every 30-40km, into cars, next to soigneurs, in the finish zone.
My preferred tweak to the rule is to say you can never drop wrappers on the road. There is just no need. They won’t all be collected and it looks disgusting. Put them in your pocket. If you’re that bothered by them then hand them to the car.
They (or at least Asgreen) used clinchers according to the team’s Twitter
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Thx for the clarification!!!
Clinchers it is. Now I am an early adopter again 
And this pre-race seems to suggest they were going with clinchers too.
He’s a mean machine ! So happy for him to get the respect now, but i do not really see it as an upset. He was extremely consistent in the lead up to the ronde and also strongest in the E3, what a race he did there also. ( was also runner up in the ronde 19’)
Hope you took my bet on him 
I believe this is in the rules as well. Somebody in Gran Premio Miguel Indurain was DQ’d for throwing a gel wrapper down if I am not mistaken.
The problem is that they weren’t enforced. They were selectively enforced. Tons of bottles were chucked outside of green zones - both Asgreen and MDVP did it in the last 10k - and only one person was kicked out of the race.
I completely agree about the littering, the green zones are a great idea. But - you’ve either got to have the rules for everyone or no one - you can’t just pick out the poor bastard who was riding alone and chucks a bottle and DQ him, that is the ridiculous thing here
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It’s permitted in the finish zone so shouldn’t have been a problem for mvdp and Asgreen.
The nature of bike racing is that 200 riders are refereed by a handful of comms in cars. They won’t see everything. What I want to see is the comms applying the rules when they see them broken.