The big season review: The curious sides of cycling

Cycling: The fascination of cycling lives through the excitement, the physical performance and the tactical decisions. Although the industry has become increasingly professional over the last few decades, strange things do happen every now and then. Sometimes they're embarrassing, often funny, but always entertaining. The following anecdotes may still be told in a few years' time. Cycling was so strange in 2016.

Did Arnaud Demare let himself be pulled by the car?

The first curiosity of the season happened on March 19 at the one-day classic Milan-San Remo. To be more precise, we still don't know to this day whether anything strange actually happened. The accused deny all allegations. Among other things, the two Italians Matteo Tosatto and Eros Capecchi want to have seen that the later winner Arnaud Demare was pulled up the Cipressa by his escort vehicle. Demare fell in the closing stages and was suddenly back in the first group. The Frenchman then won the later sprint. The FDJ team denies all allegations to this day. There were no consequences, because there is neither video nor image material.

If you celebrate too early, your opponents will punish you

On June 26th the German road bike championship was held in Erfurt. André Greipel secured the title ahead of Max Walscheid and Marcel Kittel. The final sprint wasn't funny, but it was exciting. But there was something to laugh about one lap before the finish. Several laps had to be completed on the final course. However, one person miscounted: Martin Gluth, actually a student and XC mountain biker, celebrated too early. The pace in the field was so high that he assumed it had to be the final sprint. But he was wrong, because there was still one more lap to complete. A lap later he was no longer the first to cross the finish line. Gluth was 73. But at least he could celebrate once. Besides, that's nothing to be ashamed of, because it's happened to the best too. Erik Zabel celebrated too early at Milan-San Remo in 2004 and Oscar Freire flitted past. By the way, there is also cheering too late: Simon Clark was very happy about his second place in 2015 on the 4th stage of the Giro d'Italia. Little did he know that someone had already crossed the finish line before him.

If a bow is flown...

The event on the 7th stage of this year's Tour de France was less funny. At least for the tour organizers and especially Adam Yates. He eluded the peloton a few kilometers from the finish and was on his way to gain a few seconds. The stage win was already taken, but Yates was fighting for valuable seconds in the fight for the white jersey and the general classification. Suddenly the TV picture switches and we see the bow with the devil's rag lying slumped on the street. What the heck is Adam Yates' wheel doing on the arch? And what happened here anyway? Only the footage of an escort motorcycle then shows the viewers the whole incident. Luckily, Yates survived the fall unscathed and completed an impressive Tour de France. The organizers didn't get off that well, because something like this shouldn't actually happen at the most important bike race in the world. But it was to get worse a few days later...

Duathlon up Mont Ventoux

With the faux pass of the collapsing arch, the files Cycling curious but not yet closed for the Tour de France. On the 12th stage, the route led the field up to Mont Ventoux. An exciting fight for the yellow jersey was expected, even if the route had to be shortened slightly due to strong winds. What the spectators then got offered was a spectacle of a different kind. And of all things on the French national holiday. Shortly before the summit, a support bike came to an abrupt halt, causing Richie Porte, Bauke Mollema and Chris Froome to fall. While Mollema and Porte were able to continue the race on their bikes, Froome's work equipment broke. The man in yellow then jogged up the mountain. At the end of the day, however, his jogging skills were of no value as the jury took down the time before the incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEx2T6YDb58

Cursed, boxed & disqualified

Nacer Bouhanni can now safely be called the bad boy of cycling. It was not the first time that the Frenchman was conspicuous this season. The season actually started for him as a bad luck bird. At Milan-San Remo he was in a promising position when the chain fell off with 200 meters to go. He only finished fourth and of all people his nemesis Arnaud Demare won the race. After crossing the finish line, he angrily threw his bike around. In his stage win at the Dauphiné a few weeks later, he paid tribute to the late Muhammad Ali with a boxer's cheer. He seems to have enjoyed these movements so much that he got into a fight at the hotel a few days later. He broke his hand and missed the Tour de France. A few weeks later he was the center of attention again. He won the Hamburg Cyclassics, but was subsequently disqualified. Once again for being unsportsmanlike in the sprint. So there's always something going on at Bouhanni.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM5rAKCFG0A

Can someone please give me the water?

In the run-up to the Road World Championships in Doha, there was criticism of the staging and the organization from many quarters. Nevertheless, the world championship was held in the desert. The Germans have big plans with Greipel, Kittel, Degenkolb and Martin. And then it was all over early on. The field was divided by a wind relay and there was no merger. All Germans were represented at the back - except for John Degenkolb. But due to a breakdown, he too flew back into the group that had been left behind. There the air was out and the train left. Degenkolb was very annoyed about this. But he was probably also annoyed because of the entire season. This began for him with the devastating fall in the training camp, followed by a Tour de France out of shape. The World Cup was the last straw in the truest sense of the word: Degenkolb grabbed his drinking bottle and splashed Jens Debusschere in the face with it. During the running race. Maybe he just wanted to do something good for him with a shower in this heat. But he was probably just angry with the Belgian team because they were interfering with the lead work and were therefore able to keep Tom Boonen's back free in the leading group. Either way, we shouldn't open a barrel about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ7eN8bSYSI

Peter Sagan also cuts a fine figure as an actor

Of course, there can't be an article about the curious part of cycling without Peter Sagan. After all, the Slovak is the shrillest figure in this sport. He has released videos on his YouTube channel throughout the year. There you can see him parody films. Just take a look for yourself...

cycling: The big season review: The curious sides of cycling