As I've mentioned, it's July and the Tour de France is on. To say I'm addicted to the Tour is an understatement. I watch / read everything I can about it. This year's Tour is particularly interesting in that there have been MAJOR wrecks almost daily that have taken out several major contenders including Bradley Wiggins and Chris Horner. In fact, many announcers / reporters have changed the name from the Tour de France to the Tour de Crash.
Yesterday's stage was no exception to the carnage as Alexander Vinokourov, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and David Zabriskie all suffered Tour-ending injuries during a high-speed crash on a decent. Of course, in reference to the title, the wrecks are NOT the reason I love cycling. No, I love this sport because of what happened AFTER the wreck.
You see, prior to this crash, the peloton was chasing down a group of 5 riders (called the breakaway). One of these riders - Thomas Voeckler - was only a 1.5 minutes behind the current Tour leader - Thor Hushovd - for the overall race lead. So if he finished 1.5 + minutes ahead of Thor, he would be the new leader of the Tour. This is important - remember this.
When the wreck happened, not only did two of the main contenders (Vinokourov and Van Den Broeck) have to abandon the Tour, but several others either fell or got caught up in the ensuing mess and got left behind the peloton. Plus, several of the injured riders' teammates stayed behind with their team leaders to pace them back to the peloton (a practice common in cycling). The result being a split in the main peloton with main contenders in both groups.
Now here is the best part - due to the extent of the wreck and that several of the race favorites were involved, the riders in the main peloton, including the current leader Thor Hushovd, decided to slow the peloton down until the extent of the injuries could be assessed and the lagging riders could catch up. That's right. Rather than taking advantage of their competitors' bad luck and charging full-ahead, the peloton slowed down! Remember - there is a breakaway ahead with a rider who would almost definitely take the Tour lead by this action. But Thor Hushovd was right there in the front row of the peloton, taking control and slowing it down knowing his race lead was slipping away. And it did. Thor lost the Yellow Jersey yesterday.
So let me ask you - in what other sport do athletes not take advantage of their rival's misfortune? Crashes are a part of the sport. They happen all of the time. Why not take advantage? Because that's just not the right thing to do. The riders (with the exception of last year's winner Alberto Contador) believe the Tour shouldn't be decided by another riders' misfortune. And while the peloton can't wait for every rider every time, when the Tour is on the line, history has shown the riders will wait. And that's what I love.
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