Quote:
Originally posted by johnny:
about the sportsmanship among the riders, it's a beautiful thing of course, but i don't really understand it. I think it's a little naive to be honest. From what i understand from some interviews, a lot of the guys don't even like Armstrong, some even openly throw mud at each other in the press. There's a lot of rivalry in the sport (which is good of course) but some go beyond that.
So if the man in the yellow jersey goes down, due to his own fault, why shouldn't there be taken advantage of ? It's all part of the game if you ask me. When someone who's NOT wearing yellow goes down, do they also wait for him ? I don't think so.
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Well Jan wasn't wearing yellow when Lance stopped when he had a flat tyre (I think?). The peloton always slows down when people stop to relieve themselves. At the time as well, Jan and co couldn't have known it was his own fault (if indeed it was - I don't think it was). That's a good point about the 'side' of the road Donut. On that very stage there were pictures of the leading guys going over the summit and being engulfed by the crowd. You could barely see the riders the people were closing in so much.
I think it's a matter of perspective. Some people feel that to win is everything. And I definitely think that is a driving force. But some people feel that to win with honour is better. There's a lot of talk in cricket for instance, that the modern day players should go back to the old way of walking when they think they're out, instead of waiting for the umpire and hoping he didn't hear or notice or have a good enough view of the play. They are going by the idea that winning is the most important thing, and besides, everyone gets poor decisions and lucky breaks so it all evens out. So too could you argue that everyone in the tour has fallen or had a problem with their machine and it would all even out for their opponents to seize on the advantage whenever it happens. But the way they do it, it all evens out as well, because everyone observes the protocol of waiting while they recover, but they can do it with honour, and when you win, you know it was because you were the best, not because your opponent had a flat tyre. Naive to be sportsmanlike while playing sport? When else?
Btw I just wanted to ask that if people are going to mention stuff that's happened in the tour could you put a spoiler tag on it? We don't get the tour live here (and it would be the middle of the night anyway), so I watch the highlights show which is on about 12 hours after the stage has ended. I like to not know the result when I watch it [img]smile.gif[/img]