Cycling – Tour de France lacks fair play
By Andrew Hill
We don’t know yet how this edition of the Tour de France will end, but we know of two episodes that would not be forgotten easily, and unfortunately those events are not something to be proud of, since they exemplify a lack of sportsmanship or fair play, however you want to call it…Yes, you are right, we are talking about the incidents involving Mark Renshaw in stage 11, and Alberto Contador in Stage 15, which have tarnished the event.
Now lets go ahead and reminisce what happened: in the last meters to the finish line Renshaw was riding real tight to Julian Dean, and suddenly started to hit him with his head, to suspiciously close the way to Tyler Farrar. His teammate Mark Cavendish from HTC Columbia benefited from this maneuver to finish the race in first place.
This behavior was very dangerous for everyone, since a big collision between the competitors could have had occurred, causing serious damage to them. Putting the safety of others in jeopardy has no justification, like Cavendish is trying to do, stating that: “Julian’s elbow was hooked over Mark’s and Mark used his head to get away. He gave everybody a bit of space”. His appreciation could be right for him, the question is: would he have declared the same thing if he had been in Dean’s shoes?
More than a loose chain
The mechanical problem suffered by Andy Schelck involved more than a loose chain, since the Tour’s fair play tradition was lost for a few seconds as well by Contador, who took advantage of the until then leader of the competition, and wears now the yellow jersey with an eight second advantage over the Luxemburgish.
Lance Armstrong did let the issue pass without bringing up two old incidents where he was involved: “in 2003 I felt down and the rest waited for me, and in 2001 I waited for Ullrich when he felt down”. The seven times champion of the Tour thinks that Contador’s actions where not correct, that he should have waited.
Contador has expressed how uncomfortable he is with the situation since he has: “a good relationship with Andy and want it to continue like that”. As a fact he apologized with Schelck during the next stage after the incident, and hugged him after the end of the race.
The Luxemburgish avoided making this issue bigger than what it already is for the media and fans, and said that it is hard to tell if it was fair play or not. He feels strong and thinks that he will have his revenge, since the Tour is not over yet. Still he is disappointed with the way how he lost, but feels motivated for what’s next. He thinks that the Spaniard should be nervous since there is a difference now: “I am not the one who will get chased anymore; I’m the one who chases”.
Contador wasn’t the only one
All of this issue falls on Contador because he is the only one with serious chances to win the Tour, but he wasn’t the only that didn’t practice a fair game, Samuel Sanchez and Dennis Menchov were involved in this incident too.
About the Author
Andrew Hill is a high-ranking writer on cycling news for the sports betting industry. Feel free to reprint this article in its whole on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.
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