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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I completely agree with this and was just rereading a cyclesport article about the '90 tdf about when Lemond punctured on Stage 17 and Chiapucci accelerated. They interviewed Breukink about it and he said, "Maybe Claudio alreday had it in his mind to attack at that moment, " he says. "It was the last difficult mountain of the race and even though there were still 50 kms to go he was entitled to attack if that was his plan, I guess." And this is in the case of a puncture, not a rider caused mechanical (although not everyone agrees that Schleck was at fault about dropping his chain). And it must not be too straight forward as I just received my 2010 11+ hour WCP 2010 tdf DVD (birthday present!) and Phil and Paul cannot even agree on it (but I would have to side with Paul on that one as he actually raced the pro peloton for many years een though I loe Phil's commentary).
I my mind, if you are attacking and it is part of a predeteremined plan, you are okay to go if something happens behind you. It is definitely more honorable to wait if it is a mechanical where the rider is not at fault (puncture, crash, etc) but if it is the yellow jersey himself who caused the problem, you're free to race as the race does not wait for dumbasses, even if they are in the maillot jaune!
One more quick comment and then I'll shut up or a bit: My nomination for the Anti-V Moment of the Year would be when EVERYONE but Boonen decided to ride for second place at Paris- Roubaix about 30 seconds after Cancellara made his move from ... what was it, like 40 or 50 k's out. What a bunch of pussies! Boonen still wanted to try to catch him but everyone else would not even try! Made me want to cry I was so mad!!!
Buck fully agree with you.
Bunch of pussies rode for third place, because they thought Tomeke was a sure #2.
Even one of them will wear the rainbows this year, oh the dishonour. let's see if he redeems himself and carry it as high as Cadel did.
This is how it goes down:
1. Contador is a pussy for agreeing to Bjarne's suggestion to apologise.
2. Schleck is a pussy for whinging. He is not a champion, especially as he will refuse to accept the '10 win once Bertie is banned.
3. Schleck guilty by association? Best buddie facing a ban, his brother's "trainer" in in jail.
4. 2011 is going to be another difficult year for cycling
is true that andy's jockey wheels made by LEGO?
Nonesense. Much of the venerated classic behavior of past great cyclists is selective memory. For example, Bernard Hinault was a titan among cyclists, yet he broke protocol several times by attacking on the final stage of the tour. Contador responded to the attack and AS had a spell of bad luck, but that is how racing goes.
By the way...what the hell exactly happened to the Schleck gear? I don't know about you guys, but if it happened to me I would never wanted to see SRAM stuff on my bikes ever again!
@Roberto Marques
Chains drop with any make/model, Andy was just unlucky to have it happen right then and there. I'd be more than happy the use the SRAM stuff that was on his bike. :P
Hi folks. First time posting, although i've been reading and enjoying the articles and discussions on this site for 4 or 5 months now. I browse the site frequently on my smartphone and I was prompted to post today because I notice the mobile web page format for the first time. I assume that's new and makes it much easier to browse - thank you.
Fun dicussion on chaingate. For what its worth, I come down on the side of Oli/Buck. I also think AC was an ass for (a) pretending afterwards that he didnt notice, then (b) doing a p.c. apology thing and AS was an ass for whining about the situation.
+1 on the mobile site! Good work!