Categories: Defining MomentsNostalgiaTechniqueTradition

Anti-V Moment of the Year: Chaingate

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Xponti says:

Jan 4 2011 at 4:32 pm

@sgt
Why was it OK to attack everyone on the cobbles when The Brother Grimp went down and held everyone up and Motorcus took off with the other Brother and Cadel in tow, as apposed to a Schleckanical and Clentador taking advantage of it.

Not saying one or the other is right or wrong, just posing the question.
sgt says:

Jan 4 2011 at 5:26 pm

@Xponti
In that case, Spartacus was in yellow. Plus it was Stage 3. Plus Andy was the GC contender, so Cancellara was doing his best to get his man through.
frank says:

Jan 4 2011 at 5:57 pm

@sgt, @Xponti
Spartacus wasn't in Yellow (that was Stage 2), but the difference, fundamentally, was that Grimpelder was not in Yellow, either. The bigger question is why didn't they wait for Chav, but the answer to that question is (1) he was already out of contention when the mechanicals happened, and (2) he wasn't a realistic threat to the overall. But it's a good question, fo'schizzle.

@Xponti
Schleckanical added to the Lexicon. Nice one.
sgt says:

Jan 4 2011 at 7:22 pm

@frank
Right you are. My bad. I think we can all agree, however, that The V was served in heapin' helpin's that day.
Xponti says:

Jan 5 2011 at 5:00 pm

@frank Can't claim the Schlecanical, that was our Club Pres Pete who came up with that one. Feel free to use the following.

Cancellara - coming from the word cancel and the swiss position of remaining neutral, this now means to cancel all the fun out of an event by neutralising it. - El Presidente Pete

CONTABRAT: "It's me who is weaker, it's not him who was better" - Alberto Contador on beating Andy Schleck by 39s in 2010 versus 4:11min in 2009 - PaulO

Crydel - To cry and moan when you have yet another bad tour - Sickman

Schlecklled - when you stack riding over an uneven surface causing an end to your day! - Rob

The TylerNol - To fall and break a bone, maybe a wrist, and at the sight of any hills decide that your injury means you miss the next three weeks of riding. - Xponti
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 6 2011 at 1:26 pm

frank :
It's interesting how conversations slip away from the topic. I'm biased towards Grimplette since he's my boy and I think Bertie's a douche, but rereading the article today, there's, there's no reference made to who was right or wrong; it just asserts that it was the moment in the year with most Anti-V. From there, we all read into it what we wanted. After being gone a few days, it's fascinating. Re-reading the thread.
What's also fascinating is that I could have sworn that someone else brought up the war analogy before I did, but I can't seem to locate it anymore. Maybe I made it up. Who knows.
In any case, I was really curious to see what @Buck Rogers' response would be to the Geneva Convention, knowing you'd been involved in the fighting in the Middle East.
Now knowing that you were with the Special Forces, I would have maybe held my tongue a bit more. I probably have a red dot floating around on my forehead as I type this. Oh, and thanks, by the way, for being willing to sacrifice what you did for the rest of us. Whereas I have strong opinions that I spew from behind a computer screen, you were willing to risk your life for your beliefs and I have tremendous respect for that. Thanks.
Back to the analogy, though, my understanding (by "understanding", I mean "gleaned without doing any actual "research") is that the Geneva Convention dictated not a way to fight a war - that's what grand strategy, strategy, and tactics are for - but for how to treat soldiers and prisoners (don't shoot unarmed prisoners, etc). People don't always follow it, but it defines a code of conduct. I was simply trying to if soldiers can do it, I would think sportsman - whose stakes are considerably lower than the soldier's - can, which goes back to the fluffy dogs and cars thing. But it goes without saying that I don't understand what I'm talking about here. (BTW, what happened with the case Rumsfeld made to state the Geneva Convention didn't apply to Al Qaeda because they are terrorists and not soldiers?)

Frank: Sorry about the late reply, I've been changing jobs at work and not able to get my daily dose of the"V" website lately! Yeah, I have a very interesting job as I am a surgeon in the Green Berets assigned to a Special Forces Battalion. I have seen some really crazy things but I can honestly say that I have never seen any of my guys break the Geneva Convention rules. You are right that the GC rules are about what can and cannot be done in the laws of war, but not about how you go about the strategy. But, I also must say that it is VERY hard to play by these rules after you have seen a friend of yours have their head sawed off in an orange jumpsuit on video. To make a poor analogy, it is like racing clean and knowing that everyone else is doping as no one in the Middle East is abiding by the GC code except the coalition troops.

For what it's worth, I still think that AC was okay and Schleck screwed himself! :)
frank says:

Jan 6 2011 at 10:29 pm

Misery loves company: Chaingate voted CyclingNews Moment of the Year.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chain-gate-voted-cyclingnews-biggest-moment-of-the-year
Oli Brooke-White says:

Jan 7 2011 at 3:23 am

It was definitely a big moment!
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 7 2011 at 10:06 am

@frank

I was looking around the website and could not find a link to what you guys had selected as the V Moment of the year. You mention that it was an unanimous decision among the "Heads of State" here but I cannot find it. I personally preferred (and voted for) The strade stage in the Giro with Cuddles driving it home but also just LOVE Ian Stannard's post-race interview after KBK. Just curious as to what you guys called the V moment of the year! Thanks.
Marko says:

Jan 7 2011 at 10:34 am

@Buck Rogers
http://www.velominati.com/racing/v-ride-of-the-year-strada-bianchi/

You're a smart man @Buck Rogers.