{"id":2809,"date":"2017-07-05T15:59:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T06:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-07-05\/2809"},"modified":"2017-07-05T15:59:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T06:59:24","slug":"the-sagancavendish-crash-aftermath-irresponsible-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-07-05\/2809","title":{"rendered":"The Sagan\/Cavendish Crash Aftermath: Irresponsible Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<p>Yesterday there was a big crash at the end of Stage Four of the Tour de France, involving Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish.\nSagan was blamed, and then ejected from the rest of the three-week race.<\/p>\n\n<p>My gripe is that half of the news articles I've seen today are just wildly inflammatory, using phrases that make for excellent\nclick bait, but are devoid of fact.<\/p>\n\n<p>First, let's look at what happened. Here's <span class='nobr'>a view<\/span> from the front. Peter Sagan has <span class='nobr'>a green<\/span> helmet and <span class='nobr'>a white<\/span> jersey with rainbow stripes on the\nsleeves. Mark Cavendish has the green bike and is the first to crash:<\/p>\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class='ic' style='border:solid white 1px; padding:5px' width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nZixKg9pNUc?ecver=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n<p>The video includes views from the front and from above.<\/p>\n\n<p>What I saw when I watched it live is the same thing <span class='nobr'>I see<\/span> when <span class='nobr'>I download<\/span> it and carefully inspect it frame by frame: there was\ncontact between the two (likely Sagan's hips and Cavendish's handlebars), upon which Cavendish started to go down. Sagan's elbow\nthen made <span class='nobr'>a seemingly<\/span>-instinctual reaction, jutting out as if to dislodge <span class='nobr'>a fly<\/span> that had landed on it. Anyone actually looking at\nthe video carefully can't possibly refute that the crash was already underway and <span class='nobr'>a foregone<\/span> conclusion <i>before<\/i> there was\nany movement from Sagan's elbow.<\/p>\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class='ic' style='border:solid white 1px; padding:5px' width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DRgJT2IZkUg?ecver=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n<p>Furthermore, it seems clear to me that the arm\/elbow didn't even touch Cavendish.<\/p>\n\n<p>Despite the elbow having nothing to do with it, <span class='nobr'>I do think<\/span> it was Sagan's fault. <span class='nobr'>I believe<\/span> him when he says that he didn't know\nMark was there, but it's his responsibility to know the space is clear before taking it. <span class='nobr'>As much as<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I like<\/span> Peter Sagan (he's my\nfavorite pro cyclist by far), <span class='nobr'>I think<\/span> he was negligent in this case.<\/p>\n\n<p>Anyway, major news outlets are reporting that <span class='QO'>&#8220;<\/span>Sagan elbowed Cavendish<span class='QC'>&#8221;<\/span>, which besides being factually incorrect,\nmakes it sound intentional and malicious. For example, CBS Sports:<\/p>\n\n<p style='padding-left:2em'><a href='http:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/general\/news\/watch-peter-sagan-elbows-mark-cavendish-booted-from-tour-de-france\/'>Cavendish, booted from Tour De France<\/a>\n<br\/>\n\"<i>Sagan's elbow set off <span class='nobr'>a nasty<\/span> crash that left Cavendish bloody and Sagan disqualified<\/i>\"\n<\/p>\n\n<p>How can one trust anything in the article when the headline and the lead are factually incorrect? There are <span class='nobr'>a lot<\/span> of\narticles like this.<\/p>\n\n<p>There's misinformation on both sides. <span class='nobr'>The 2nd video<\/span> embedded just above purports to illustrate that Sagan wasn't at fault,\ntotally ignoring the very-relevant seconds before the video starts. Cavendish was at least partially parallel with Sagan for <span class='nobr'>a\ncouple<\/span> of seconds prior to contact, so he had <span class='nobr'>a right<\/span> to be there. <span class='nobr'>He was holing<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a steady<\/span> line as he accelerated and was in the\nprocess of passing Sagan when Sagan's drift with the bulk of the group brought him into the space that Cavendish already\noccupied.<\/p>\n\n<p>It seems factual that nobody elbowed anyone, and reasonably clear that Sagan was negligent. What's not clear to me is what\nthe punishment should be.<\/p>\n\n<p>I would assume that punishment for this kind of infraction would be spelled out in the rules, applied within the context\nof what has traditionally been allowed and what has traditionally been considered <span class='QO'>&#8220;<\/span>over the line<span class='QC'>&#8221;<\/span>.  Personally, <span class='nobr'>I have little<\/span>\nexperience with this stuff so I'm not in <span class='nobr'>a position<\/span> to say what the punishment should be, but as much as <span class='nobr'>I like<\/span> Peter Sagan,\n<span class='nobr'>I can't<\/span> find myself too upset at his being ejected for <span class='nobr'>a crash<\/span> that ended the season of one of the sport's top talents.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday there was a big crash at the end of Stage Four of the Tour de France, involving Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish. Sagan was blamed, and then ejected from the rest of the three-week race.<\/p> <p>My gripe is that half of the news articles I've seen today are just wildly inflammatory, using phrases that make for excellent click bait, but are devoid of fact.<\/p> <p>First, let's look at what happened. Here's a view from the front. Peter Sagan has a green helmet and a white jersey with rainbow stripes on the sleeves. Mark Cavendish has the green bike and [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}