Lance's shortcut.

[joseph999]

Is it legal to take a shortcut through the fields a la cyclocross?

[ccrider]

He also lost time and position during the incident so it's not like the shortcut helped him in any way other than avoiding a crash.

[mdemling]

Good point. Yes, "consideration" was the wrong word - I think the possibility of penalizing him is ludicrous.

[mybenito]

What a queer and biased way of reasoning!
Let me recount it differently.

Beloki and Armstrong were ahead of the group, they were faster, perhaps both taking too many risks.
Beloki paid duty and Armstrong was lucky not to, and lucky he could avoid the crash. Also skillful to decide to go into the field.
Lucky not to find a ditch, not to run into an electric wire keeping cattle on the pasture, lucky not to ... [fill in].

At that point he decided he might try a different course, though the rule would have required him to climb up back to the road.
He was skillful to choose an appropriate, not too steep, sloping line.
Lucky to find it doable.
Lucky again to find a narrow ditch to bridge with a jump.

Was he unlucky?
Not at all.

Did he benefit from his maneuvers instead of regaining the exit point?
Of course yes.

So, some benevolent penalty would have been more appropriate without hurting His Majesty's feelings a bit.

[TTucker]

Poor Eric the Moron killed himself (allegedly).

[mybenito]

Since that is what you are
I won't argue any longer.

[pipermcgrupp]

Somebody posted in another thread that in motorcycle racing, they can make you take an extra lap if they determine you cut the course excessively.

By analogy with this, Armstrong should have to go around France twice.

[groverrocks]

I'd say that sounds pretty accurate....

[mdemling]

[...]
That's because he looked to his right before stepping on to the road, i.e., no need to ever look behind him. I'm not getting it with all this
"near collision" talk while he got back on the road - I thought the completely unobtrusive way he did it was the most skillfull part of the whole episode, and probably contributed to the judges showing him a little consideration.

[Zeeker]

What, Guerini is er.. well connected?