[Archived] Tour De France Drama

[iamarover]

The Tour de France is the world's greatest test for an athlete. Forget the rest. Mountains, sprints, death defying (sometimes not defying) descents, cojones, speed, stamina...and not a little cunning. Schleck yesterday slipped a gear in the Pyrenees and Contador was pillioried for jumping all over him and onto taking the Yellow? Well the only time I've lost my chain is on a hill selecting too big a gear. So why is Contador slagged for taking advantage of a mistake? A puncture? Well he should have been gored off the mountain by a Spanish bull...but a chain slip? That Schleck is a Duchy. Any Rover cyclists out there?

[Paul]

I'd agree, generally losing the chain is a rider error though it could also be poor mechanising. I was surprised by how long it took him to put it back on, 40 seconds or so is my sort of standard.

[Flopsy]

He panicked and didn't seat it properly on the cog the first time

[Eddie]

Was he too busy injecting himself?

[Flopsy]

Ha.

[only2garners]

Just back from a week in SW France, partly to see the tour. In the end the only stage we got to was the finish of last Tuesday's stage to Pau. We had plans to get up the Tourmalet on Thursday but we had to leave our house at 4.30 am to get up there and at the time it was pouring down with thunder and lightning and a forecast not to stop until late in the day. We could not face 10 hours high on a mountain in a storm with no proper wet weather gear so we settled for the French TV coverage instead. The two highlights of that were Laurent Fignon screaming "Attention - moutons sur la rue!!" and the post race interview with Sarkozy, Armstrong, Contador and Schleck with the first speaking in French, the second in English and the third in Spanish and all of them pretending to understand each other.

On the race I'm amazed that no one seems to be mentioning that Contador's 39 second lead is exactly the time Schleck lost with his chain problems on Monday. I'm inclined to agree with others above that it was Schleck's fault, but certainly wasn't the view of the locals in Pau - Contador was roundly booed on the podium on Tuesday.

[Billy Castell]

So Schleck's chain slipped, allowing Contador to snatch victory at the death? Tough luck I say. You don't see F1 teams letting someone with a dying car win, or Gabresallasie pulling over to let a Kenyan regain the lead after falling behind due to a tightening hamstring. It's just bad luck if that is what happened.

[Baz]

So Schleck's chain slipped, allowing Contador to snatch victory at the death? Tough luck I say. You don't see F1 teams letting someone with a dying car win, or Gabresallasie pulling over to let a Kenyan regain the lead after falling behind due to a tightening hamstring. It's just bad luck if that is what happened.

I think the point is that there are gentlemans agreements in cycling and that many people feel Contador didnt do the gentlemanly thing. What you descibe as bad luck, I would see as an issue, and could lead to the end of sportsmanship, which surely is a bad thing?

[Billy Castell]

Sorry, but whilst I agree that would be gentlemanly, galant etc., the yellow jersey was at stake. It's not as if Contodor kicked Schleck off his bike Road Rash style. Anyway, its all double stadards on chivalry, since there have been so many drugs cheats over the years. Not very sporting that.

[Shevchenko]

There is also the matter of Cancellara´s efforts to stop the peloton on one of the early stages when Andy lost a lot of time due to crashes. And Andy´s very poor prologue, where he gave up a lot of time to Alberto.

[Redrose49er]

Just back from the last stage on the Champs, an incredible experiance highlighted by a magnificent sprint from (non points winner!?!) Cav

[jodrell]

Not the sharpest knife in the kitchen

Marcato blunder costs stage victory

[speeeeeeedie]

I couldn't find another topic so am sticking it here.

Recently Lance Armstrong, arguably the sport's greatest ever, was stripped of his Tour wins over doping allegations. Last week the USADA report on him came out; http://sports.yahoo....can-sports.html

Now Nike, and his charity Livestrong, have dropped him too. I wonder if he will come out after this and admit that he cheated?

I heard a radio pundit say the other day that if Bradley Wiggins rode in 2000 he would have come about 40th. Armstrong still had oodles of talent, did the drugs make him that much better? You'd have to assume that everyone he was competing against at the time were also juiced up too.

[Paul]

I doubt he will admit to his cheating. One of the most disappointing aspects is Armstrong probably was a great rider without drugs but we will never know.

[broadsword]

A great rider perhaps, but an arrogant aggressive asshole? Definitely.

don't know if I still have a yellow band somewhere, but if I do, it's going to get burned.

[jim mk2]

Cycling is a sport in disgrace. Armstrong has caused it long-term damage and it is not surprising that people are questioning the achievements of Britain's cyclists at the Olympics. Cycling's governing body needs to clean up its act.

[Paul]

That isn't really a true picture of the sport as it stands today. Where are questions being raised about Britain's Olympic cyclists?

[T4E]

I posted similar on Twitter earlier before I realised this topic was here so apologies to anyone rolling their eyes at me repeating myself....

However....is this really such a big deal? Yes he cheated and lots of people rightly feel let down....but it's ony a sport. The guy founded a cancer charity that has raised over $470m for its cause (according to the Livestrong website), is he really such a bad guy? Bearing in mind the doping was mostly before he launched the charity and raised the money. Surely doing that more recently is far more important than cheating in a bike race?

[jim mk2]

Samuel is an arrogant so-and-so but he's correct on this one.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2217685/Lance-Armstrong-cheating-means-Britains-cycling-boom-feels-rotten--Martin-Samuel.html

[T4E]

Btw - if everyone was taking drugs surely that means Armstrong was still the best?

[speeeeeeedie]

T4E, I see what you are saying. However, that charity was founded upon a lie, and although lots were doping, Armstrong was much better at it. He knew when to do it, what to do, how much, and how often. Without all this he would have still been up there.

He still cheated. It matters not to me if the rest of them did too. If all footballers dive Suarez-like does it make it right for those watching?

I hope he gets the book thrown at him. He has enough money and influence though that it won't happen. Just don't expect him to holiday in France as they would love to nab him.

[T4E]

T4E, I see what you are saying. However, that charity was founded upon a lie, and although lots were doping, Armstrong was much better at it. He knew when to do it, what to do, how much, and how often. Without all this he would have still been up there.

Without his doping, and as a result his winning, his charity would not have been as successful or raised such an incredible sum of money. He's in the wrong for cheating - but he turned a fairly bad thing in to a really really good thing. Regardless of whether its built on a lie, it's an amazing achievement to raise so much money.

I just think the good he's done majorly outweighs the bad.

[Baz]

There are strong rumours suggesting Nike knew and actively tried to buy off the authorities. I dont think we've seen the end of this yet. I feel sorry for the clean guy(s) who actually won the tours but have never had the glory.

[broadsword]

I did read somewhere that his charity hasn't made anywhere near the amount of donations as people might think. Don't know if there's any truth in that.

He broke the rules, if not to gain an unfair advantage then to ensure he didn't fall behind the other cheats. He has then serially lied about what he did. It also appears he intimidated and manipulated people, using them as pawns to get what he wanted. He even texted a team-mate's wife while he was away, asking her if she was alone. How creepy.

We shouldn't just sweep it under the carpet. He lied, he cheated, a lot of other people did it, but not as well as him. So as far as the sporting arena is concerned, yes it does matter, it taints sport. If people cheat and aren't punished then what is the point of sport.

You can't just wipe that away because of his charity work.

[T4E]

I'm not suggesting we wipe away what he's done, just that some context is required and the good (which he did recently) outweighs the bad (which he did a long time ago).

If you have a link about the charity not donating as much as they claim I'd be very interested to read it.