It is a telling sign of the state of our sport that picking the Anit-V moment of the year was a more difficult task than picking the V Ride of the Year. Best ride of the year? Clean, unanimous vote among The Keepers on that one. Low point of the year? Dissention in the ranks as email traffic filled our inboxes to overflowing.
Veino in Liege. Piti continuing to rack up wins even as his suspension was imminent. The defiance of the Spanish Cycling Federation. The UCI’s thinly veiled “fight” against doping, as long as I’m naming governing bodies. The Landis Allegations. The Cavendish/Haussler crash in the Tour de Suisse. The neutralization of Stage 2 of the Tour. The threat of the rider protest prior Stage 3. FedEx’s expulsion for irregular sprinting. Bjarne Riis’ constant complaining about the mass exodus from his team. The Motorcus Myth. Alberto Contador’s positive test for Clenbuterol.
Which brings me to my nomination of the lowest moment of the season: Chaingate. The incident was more than a moment of poor sportsmanship, but marked a new phase in Cycling’s steady departure from the great traditions of our sport. Not to mention that the Grimplette’s chain needs a stern talking to. There is no higher honor for a chain than to get jammed onto the big ring while carrying the Maillot Jaune away from the bunch on its way up some fabled climb in the Tour de France. The fact that it cocked it up is inexcusable. Into the trash heap with you, Chain. But I digress.
There was a time when the sport was headed by great personalities who recognized they were but a chapter of a great epic that spanned generations. They understood that one of the things that distinguish cycling from other sports is the rich history and time-honored traditions; Cycling’s icons – the Great Races, the Cobbles, the Mountains, the Jerseys – are made up of much more than any one athlete and are to be respected as such. Their actions are the mortar between the stones of our sport and form a foundation for later generations. Coppi, Bobet, Merckx, de Vlaeminck, Zoetemelk, Hinault, Fignon – these were riders with personality and strength of character, who understood their place.
Like small fluffy dogs chasing a passing car, Chaingate marked the moment when the top riders of our sport forgot their place in the misguided notion that the time gained at the finish is the stick by which we measure their greatness when in fact it is how they get there: with no one else in the picture.
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@Oli Brooke-White
A fantasy is not how I would describe it. However, I may be looking on the situation through rose colored lenses. I admit that, however I do not see where I have steered wrong.
What is the difference between a puncture, a crash, or chainsuck? Maybe Buck Rogers could weigh in here as he seems to think there is a difference. I thought the idea was to ride your adversary into the ground based on your physical abilities, not beat him by a stroke of misfortune regardless of the reason for the misfortune. Am I wrong in assuming just because some dumbass can't shift he shouldn't be afforded the same respect as the guy with balls bigger than his brains who rides of the road for lack of braking? Have I been misinterpreting the rules of the peloton all this time? The Horror!
@Jay
That is precisely why cycling is not NASCAR. It is precisely that.
As I said in July, ours is a civilized sport, and we are not animals.
The difference, and it's critical, is that Shleck was attacking. The peloton weren't riding along together. As soon as a rider (yep, even one in Yellow) throws down all bets are off, and it has always been that way.
If they'd all been riding along together and Shleck's bad shift had happened then Contador attacked I would say it was breaking the code, but to expect a rider to slow down when he's already responding hard out to an attack from his main opposition is utterly ludicrous.
This post has it right. It makes me think that the posters affronted by Contador's temerity in doing exactly what he should are perhaps simply Shleck fanboys, blind to the odd double standards.
Actually, rereading that it sounds terrible and I would edit it if I could. Sorry for making it sound like I was getting personal.
@pakrat, @Oli Brooke-White
Any fan is naturally biased and if the roles were reversed I'm the first to admit that I would feel differently about it - but that doesn't mean I would be right to feel that way. Being biased is one of the most lovely bits about being a fan. If we think we're being objective when we talk about bike racing, we should all walk away and go do something else. A lot of it is knowledge, experience, insight - but loads of it is passion, and I, for one, wouldn't have it any other way.
All that said, I think @Pakrat has it right here with his war analogy. Even in war, when everyone is attacking everyone else, there is a code of conduct. For the Germans fighting on the European fronts, they knew if they were captured by troops on the Western Front (Europe), they would be afforded basic things like food and air. If captured by the Russians, it was a completely different story. It's also what brought about bits like the Geneva Convention, which defines basic rights that all soldiers have - and there is no special clause for soldiers who were on the attack vs. on the defense.
It's the basic difference between civility and barbarianism.
@TwiggyTN
I didn't realize he was using a 38T; very cool nerddata. Love it. Keep it coming.
@Oli Brooke-White
Nonesense. Great conversation, and great points. Wrong, but great. (If I was willing to type emoticons, I would make one of those smiley things, but emoticons are not nearly Rule 5 enough.)
A war analogy? Really? I rest my case...
Sorry, not to sound like an ass, and truly not trying to get personal, but please spare me the war analogies. I have fought with the US Special Forces for one tour in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq, and have been personally shot at and mortored more times than I care to remember. While it sounds all romantic and makes for great analogies from afar, if you have ever "been there and done that" you would not even begin to think that they compare in anyway. And as for being fair in war, some one has been romanticising that as well. As we always would say, "If you ever find yourdelf in a fair fight, you have done something wrong!" And from what I have personally seen of Al Queda, they wholeheartedly agree.
But, like Frank says, GREAT conversation!
I agree with you on this one Frank: Throwing in a NASCAR analogy is almost as bad as posting pictures of FABIO!!! :)