Sportsmanship?

   Monday’s exciting stage three of the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) featured constant attacks on a long uphill finish, many by Alberto Contador, who has just returned to racing after his doping suspension. Although I’m not a fan of Contador, I recognize how much his aggressive style of racing adds to the sport of cycling. I was most encouraged to see Contador waste a lot of energy as his repeated jumps were matched by the top contenders like Joaquin Rodriguez, Chris Froome and my personal favorite, Alejandro Valverde. After a very tight finishline victory (photo left), Valverde took the overall race leadership, but he didn’t hold onto it very long.

   With about 35 kilometers left in yesterday’s stage four, Valverde and a handful of his Movistar teammates were caught up in a crash while rolling through a flat section marked by crosswinds. Froome’s team Sky immediately picked up the pace, made it extremely difficult for Valverde to return to the peloton and dropped him back to ninth place at the finish, 36 seconds back. I understand the desire to put pressure on opponents who are tiring and attacking to gain some time – that’s what bicycle racing is all about. However, this simply was not the case, taking advantage of the race leader when he just had some bad luck. The British Eurosport commentators took the stance that it was part of the “racing action”, but they seem to have become cheerleaders lately for the Sky team, which is dominated by U.K. riders, so I won’t put a lot of weight behind their opinions.

 

   I immediately thought of the old unwritten cycling code of honor to not attack opponents when they crash. During the 2001 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong waited for his rival Jan Ulrich to climb back onto his bike after he had misjudged a turn and went down an embankment. Armstrong’s refusal to take advantage of the misfortune of an opponent paid off two years later when his handlebar was caught on the handbag strap of a roadside fan and Ulrich waited for him to recover (photo right). Yes, I know that it is somewhat strange to point out issues of fairness during a period when all of cycling’s top competitors may have been using some sort of performance enhancing drugs, but most of us now just see this as their bizarre form of a level playing field.

   In the modern world of sport, where “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” has become the norm, it always seemed cycling at least clung to this one important act of sportsmanship. Unfortunately it seems this law of the peloton has gone out the window, and I’ll be the first to admit that the Movistar team may only have themselves to blame. At this year’s Paris-Nice, Levi Leipheimer crashed while chasing on a decent and Movistar turned up the pace, effectively knocking him out of the race and putting Valverde on the podium. During stage three of the Tour of Switzerland, most of the Movistar team was separated from the trailing peloton at a lowered railroad crossing gate and continued to push on. Some heated arguments began at the front, and eventually the race director stepped in to hold up the leaders.

   Teams will often brush off these incidents, claiming that they “Didn’t realize what was going on” or “Weren’t aware so-and-so crashed”, but in these days of race radio and TV coverage everywhere, that is just a ridiculous excuse! I hate the idea of a mechanical flaw or careless accident determining the winner of important races, but with the amount of money and prestige now involved in major cycling events, perhaps the unwritten code has been permanently broken.

 

   Much of my distaste for Alberto Contador stems from his 2010 Tour de France win, which came mostly on the strength of the time he gained when Andy Schleck had a chain/derailleur issue (photo left). The fact that the victory was eventually awarded to Schleck because of Contador’s doping allegations only helps somewhat to erase memories of the lame video Alberto released at the time, apologizing for taking advantage of his rival’s misfortune.

   Media discussion has raged on about circumstances during races and fair play among cyclists in their pursuit of victory. Unfortunately much that I’ve seen written involves “taking revenge” or “getting even in the next race”. What is this, the World Wrestling Federation? Next thing you know it, we’ll have fiery team directors posturing in front of the camera, talking about how their team is going to wipe the tarmac with their rivals!