With so many points of view on the Theo Bos vs Daryl Impey incident I figured that someone had to settle it once and for all. It certainly looked intentional, but too many things didn’t add up. Why would Theo throw Impey right in front of himself? Is Theo that much of a nutbar to do something that ridiculously dangerous? Would it even be possible to manhandle someone like that while going 50-60km/hr on a bike?
I got thinking about it, and I don’t know how plausible it really is to be able the throw a man off a bike like that. I can’t say that I’ve ever tried it before, but without any leverage, the gyroscopic effect of those wheels and forward motion, and a 60-70kg man on the the bike with both hands on the bars, I’m thinking that it would be tough for a rider to be thrown off his bike in the fashion that Theo Bos appeared to have done.
This morning I went out with the helmetcam and fellow tipster, Tymmsy, to find out. Back in my college days I used to competitively compete in dwarf throwing, so if anyone had a chance at replicating the Bos – Impey incident, it was me. Don’t try this at home boys and girls.
After this experiment I’m certain there’s no way in hell that it’s possible for one man to throw another off his bike like this. Especially when the rider being thrown has two hands on the bars and you only have one. If anything, the rider who is doing the throwing will likely crash. The only thing that happened is that I got thrown backwards and Tymmsy darted forwards. There was no way I could sway his direction so that he would come in front of me. There’s a great slow-mo video of the whole incident here. It doesn’t necessarily answer anything, but I think I’ve sufficiently cleared this myth up as BUSTED. Was Theo at fault? Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean that he did it intentionally.
I am in the process of registering the domain name www.IbelieveTheo.com where I’ll set up a fund to prove his innocence. With IbelieveTyler.com recently being shut down there will be a flood of charity coming in.
TIP: If you want to throw someone off his bike you just grab his bars and twist. Theo surely knows this. Not that I’d ever advocate anything that would involve injuring a fellow rider. Ice hockey is a different story though ;-)
{ 18 comments }
You know, a lot of people have said the first reaction would always be to brake. Perhaps Bos is still a track rider at heart & has a different first reaction!
I believe Theo. I just don’t think he would intentially do this. Especially not to the yellow jersey wearer who is always going to be in the spot light. Plus you would just have to be a right jerk to do this.
But, just a tiny little doubt…it looks from the video that Theo puts outs his arm up to push and find space as he is up against the barriers, then grabs hold of Impey’s jersey once he realises he’s falling. Watch the slow mo link Wade posted above.
That will definately bring a man down. Still not intentinal, but negligent perhaps?
Or perhaps!!! In a mad split second of anger, he thought “F*ck You Imp boy, I am the BOSS (have you not heard of me?)…and if I’m going down I am going to bring you with me HOO HA HA!!”
Grabs hold of jersey. Imp Boy eats cement. Boss plays Mr. Nice, and afterwards offers to have Impey’s Tooth framed and put on “The Boss Wall of Honour”, and Impey need not give him his first born on this occasion, because The Boss is a nice guy
Maybe not…
I still think that Theo intentionally threw Impey in the heat of the moment. I’m sure Theo is a lot stronger than you are
This doesn’t debunk anything. First, increase the speed to full sprint 55 kph. Second, grab his jersey at the shoulder and don’t let go until he is sideways. Trying to push him isn’t going to do anything.
it was definitely intentional!
increasing the speed to 55km/hr make the rider even more stable and thus more difficult to throw off. I agree – there’s no way that this could be done by even a track sprinter.
The similar crash I’ve seen was during a crit at glenvale one summer. The rider on the right hand side went down in a similar fashion to Impey and took down the equiv of Theo. No hand action and both riders had hands on bars.
The Theo rider ended up crashing out the Impey rider by putting a pedal into the rear wheel. Caused Impey to come left across Theo in a similar manner.
So Theo was forced away from the snaking barriers into Impey, at the same time as reaching out to give him clearance from Impey; pedal collected rear wheel and both go down.
Looks intentional; but I reckon Theo is guilty of one thing, taking his hand off the bars in the last 600metres.
I agree – Theo’s fault, but unintentional and not malicious.
I am The Boss
The Boss Will crush thee, on thy puny Beach road for mentionig thy name in this nancy boy webpage.
I am flying in from my castle to do the “LA DI DA” North Road ride, and leave you in my wake, missing a tooth on the side of your smelly road.
I will hunt down helmet cam nancy O2 boy and eat his toes for supper.
PS – I had a HR of 83 when I crashed and was cruising, I would have won by millions of the miles.
My take on it is that Bos was being forced into the barrier so he grabs Impey’s jersey and pushes him forwards (note Impey’s jersey pulls up at the waist) to create room next to him so he can move right. Impey is slightly behind Bos at that point and since Bos’s right arm is up, Impey’s bars are able to hook behind Bos’s, so as he is pushed he steers violently to the left giving the appearance of being pulled down.
Big Blouse Wade!. You didn’t crash.
Try it again, but this time ride along a narrow path and do anything you can to prevent yourself falling off the edge. Now push each other around bit until the person on the left loses balance and it about to fall over the edge. In desperation, change your gentle push into a grab of the other rider’s jersey and haul them towards you as hard as you can to bring you back into line. Make sure they’re slightly in front of you then watch their bars interlock with yours (or run over their front front tyre, or bump their brakes – not sure exactly what happened there).
So that’s my theory. A lean and jersey-grab is fairly easy to do while riding with one hand too. I’d be happy to help you re-test, and long as I’m the guy on the left who gets to do the riding over the other body.
Jim..
Remember track days 25 years ago, rare but not uncommon to have a gun rider put his hand on your hip to either a) let you know it was his wheel and f*k off, b) keep you out of the way, c) very rarely manage to push you up slightly. It would not and could not knock you off, and was usually done just to stop someone chopping out either because you wanted the wheel or there would be nowhere to go if they kept coming down.
So, I reckon Bos is a trackie still, he might have done this to just try to keep room given the barriers, the fall was not intentional. Not sure if there is a breach of UCI rules in there.
yes that has confirmed it for me – racing incident nothing more to it.. the end.
It seems clear to me that the push changed to a grab somewhat like Jim (#11) described. It looks like Bos’ back end must have got into the barriers as he starts decelerating rapidly while still grabbing Impey’s jersey. This pulls Impey into the barriers. It’s not clear to me Impey falls at all without the grab.
This video is invalid because in the video he grabs him by the pockets and falls down with him.
I also believe Bos is innocent because if he really wanted to make him crash he would of pushed him away or grab the bars or something. What kind of person would want to bring themselves down just to make another rider crash going 55 km/h. But I donno, maybe Bos is insane.
I just came across the aerial video of this when waiting for L-B-L to start – on the Planet Armstrong show. It sure looks liemBos grabbed Impeys left shoulder jersey and dragged him down. Surely if a track rider of Bo’s experience would put both hands back on the bars and brake or move rather that hang on to anpother riders’ jersey ?
what theo did was really bad….. impey could have died…
My View Theo was trying to move up no room clipped the railing came in on top of impey put his hand out and tried to push impey forward out of his way and in doing so came across the back of impey bike
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