Of all people, a Velominatus knows that our sport is a civilized one; it is steeped in tradition and etiquette and rife with unwritten rules. High on the list of unwritten rules are those that outline acceptable behavior when various hardships befall the leader of a Grand Tour. One of the reasons such rules exist is due to the brutally difficult nature of our sport; in the context of stage races where crashes and mechanical incidents are a part of daily life and can have a major impact on the competitive landscape, such conventions and agreements form a foundation in the quest to find the winner of the events through athletic, tactical, and strategic superiority while minimizing the impact that misfortune may have on the final outcome. The Golden Rule in this case is that riders are never to attack the race leader when they suffer a crash or mechanical incident.
At the Giro d’Italia, on Stage 7 over the Strada Bianchi, the race leader Vincenzo Nibali crashed and was left to struggle behind. The question was raised then, why did the leaders not wait for Nibali, the fallen Maglia Rosa, to rejoin before continuing to race? One reason might be that Nibali wasn’t considered a legitimate threat to take the final win. Another reason was that the race was on in full force and as such there were too many riders already attacking at the moment of the crash. Justified or not, the sportsmanlike thing to do would be to wait. They didn’t, and in the end it had little impact on the result (the winner, Ivan Basso, was also held up in the crash), but a small bit of our accepted etiquette died with the decision to continue on.
Today at the Tour de France, we saw a similar situation where the Brother Grimpeur the Younger distanced rival Alberto Contador before a mechanical eventually saw him lose his Yellow Jersey. Schleck had to stop to right his dropped chain, and while he did so, Contodor came by him and pushed his advantage home, all the way to the finish. In the end, Schleck lies a few seconds behind Bertie, and in truth the 30 second lead he had before the incident was likely not enough to win the Tour. Indeed, little has changed in the reality we face in the coming days: Andy must attack Contador if he is to win this year’s Tour.
One thing that has changed, however, is that Contador has proven something I have long suspected: he is a rider whose ambition to win is greater than his sense of sportsmanship. Marko has written in these archives about the A.C. Enigma and his ambivalence towards this rider. Bertie has given us little reason to love him, aside from his blistering accelerations up the steepest grades in the mountains. He has also given us little reason to hate him, for we know little about him. For me, the greatest riders are those who perhaps do not win often, but they lose with class and dignity, and they fight. Riders who display dignity and respect for the sport and fellow athletes in the midst of dishing out huge helpings of Rule #5 is what endears a rider to this particular heart. Jan Ullrich is the prime example of this; his sportsmanship on the slopes of Luz Ardiden in the face of an opportunity to win the 2003 Tour is unmatched. Even after spending year after year being beaten by Armstrong into second place; he still had the overriding sense of sportsmanship to wait and resist pushing home the advantage when Armstrong crashed.
In our sport, a champion is one who holds the unwritten rules of conduct in higher regard than a trophy. These are the athletes who understand that the very manner in which they set about achieving their results will be woven into the fabric of their career and weigh more heavily than the golden trophies of their victories.
At the end of the day, little has been decided in the outcome of the Tour. The one thing that has been determined is that Alberto Contodor is not a true champion, for he would rather win another Tour de France than show his fellow colleagues (not to mention the fans of this sport) the opportunity to discover who is the strongest through head-to-head competition. Alberto Contodor has shown his true colors as a great rider for whom winning is more important than sportsmanship.
Tomorrow will dawn with a renewed opportunity for Andy Schleck to also show his true colors. Will he protect his second place and race conservatively into Paris, or will he rise up to fight and try to win the Tour despite today’s setback? I have a feeling that we are about to be treated to the latter. I certainly hope so.
Alberto Contador did not need to wait today. But he should have, for ours is a civilized sport, and we, fellow cyclists, are not animals.
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This is not the same as the Ulrich/Pharmstrong events.
Andy didn't crashed, he just mishandled his bike and droped his chain, it was not a "mechanical" because the bike was fully operative, it was just operator's error.
And also, when Chavanel was in Yellow on the Pavés and he suffered 2 flats, nobody wait for him.... and guess whose team profited of the situation to recover the yellow Jersey then ?
Also at the same stage, Bertie had a mechanical, he broke an spoke and had to ride Kms on an untrue wheel... nobody wait for him too and for that reason he lost the 30 seconds that made Andy the race leader later on.
AC just recovered those 30 seconds today.
The race is even again.
I don't know how it is for others, but I know that when I attack in a race, I don't see much except the road right in front of me. I don't pay much attention to the other riders that I'm passing.
If you watch the footage, it's clear that Contador was on the attack well before the chain actually dropped. I'm inclined to believe Contador when he says he was quite a ways ahead before he actually found out about Andy's mechanical. What he did in spite of having found out, however, is where the unsportsmanlike conduct lies: The fact that after he found out, he continued his attack in spite of it.
Logically, what he did makes sense, and like Ligget and Hesjedal said: That's racing. Andy needs to put some extra Rule 5 in his bottles and take the jersey back. You didn't see anybody wait for Lance when he crashed this year, and Andy already got his break on the Cobbles when Faboo organized a the neutralization of the stage.
On the whole, I've been disappointed with the sportsmanship in this Tour. This generation of racers has no respect.
@Omar
Yes, if you look righ the video, Andi has the problem and slows down, AC comes from behind and passes him, and when Andi stops with his chain problem, AC is away and don't look back so he couldn't know what was going on.
A droped chain could be set back in 3 seconds. why Andi took so long to do it ?
@Salsa_Lover
All good points, except I think it's clear from the video (above) that the mechanical wasn't his error; he's out of the saddle and something happens that causes the back wheel to pop up entirely. After that, he sits down and tries to use the front shifter to right the chain, and that's where it looks like he's trying to shift. I don't know what happened, but it does appear it's a fluke of some kind.
Chavanel had a bunch of flats on the Pave, but I think that the stones dictate another atmosphere altogether; they're so hard to rider over, you can't hear anything in the radio and slowing down is a very hard thing to do over a terrain that requires speed in order to pass safely. That said, though, it's tough to see the Maillot Jaune be lost that way for sure. Of course, Bertie's mech with the spokes on the stones is a tough one, too, but I don't think he lost much time there as he finished a few seconds behind Veino's group, which was the one he was already riding in - that, and he wasn't in the jersey, of course. I liked seeing the Pave in the Tour, but in retrospect, I suppose all this points to the notion that having such a stage in the Tour doesn't really make sense. You don't want to see differences in time made on such routes. Grand Tours are three week races, not classics.
All that said, it's a good point that they're even now, and that's a fair point in a sense; neither rider has proven dominant over the other, with each taking 10 seconds on an uphill finish.
With that in mind, I wait for tomorrows stage with renewed anticipation.
Chain drops - crowd falls to a hush
But Bertie decides he should rush
So though now he'll look very
Much like a canary
To me he's just become "Thrush"
Most of you have probably seen the video of the guy that is rolling to the finish line with a nice lead and wrecks himself as he does his victory salute while the guy in second comes cruising by as the former leader tries to remount his bike. To me the guy in second should have stopped at the line and let the "winner" cross the line and claim his rightful victory. To me it would be a hollow victory knowing that I was thoroughly beaten and yet won because of a comical misfortune.
Back in the 90's Gary Ellis dominated the national AA Pro BMX scene. Then came Christophe Leveque - a French pro that was smooth and stylish. Leveque tore up the pro ranks and was a shoe-in for the ABA #1 pro plate. The only problem was that the ABA had a rule that a foreigner could not be the AMERICAN Bicycle Association #1 Pro. At the Grand Nantionals Leveque won all his motos and mains and finished the year with more point than Ellis. They called Ellis down to award him the #1 plate and the keys to the new Jeep. Right then and there Ellis had the chance to go down in (BMX) history as the greatest/classiest pro of all time. He could have called Christophe from the stands and handed him the keys and the plate and said "You earned this, I didn't." But Ellis didn't do that. He kept the Jeep and ran the #1 plate all next year. He missed out on what a true champion is. By the way, the next year the ABA changed the rules to allow for foreigners to win the #1 pro title and two years later Leveque won the title two years in a row.
this isn't about Contador respecting Andy Schleck, it's about him showing respect to the Maillot Jaune and 100years+ of Tour tradition, history and unwritten rules (wouldn't it all be much simpler if they were all Velominati?).. particularly in this tour, in this mountain range, in this year. When he wins, like we knew he would, his win will be diminished and this will be his legacy. He didn't need to do this. But Frank - like you, I await Tourmalet 1 "Assassins!" and Tourmalet 2 "The Return!" with great anticipation.
Cyclops... Love your BMX story... reminds me of that Ryder Cup when the American holed out on the 17th "to win", and the entire US team + wives stormed the green... before the Euro had even been allowed to try and putt his 30footer to level... the classy thing would have been to say "My bad, I'll give you a gimme... let's call this evens, and I'll beat you on the last hole... let's go to it" instead, the US guys all settled down, the Euro fluffed his putt, and the US victory was diminished... and that golfer (I can't even remember his name) missed the chance to be known as the greatest sportsman whoever lived.
I'm also hoping my t-shirt arrives for Thursday, as am hosting a Pau-Tourmalet BBQ, and it would rock.
After many years of playing top level football, I came to believe in the soccer gods. A bad call was always righted by subsequent play, the deserving team invariably won, etc. I believe there are also cycling gods, and they are frowning this evening. Grimpeur will come back flying tomorrow. Whether or not he wins the Tour, I hope some element of justice is served.
Conti acknowledges the incident, explains and apologyzes
the link was removed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOJLuePexs