cfblakeman said:
So we have two arguments here - 1) should racers wait for the yellow jersey and under what circumstances, and 2) did Contador know the unwritten rule, believe it, accept it, and then thumb his nose at it.
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A man who is willing to win at all costs to his character is not a champion, and he will go down as an asterisk in Tour history for it.
- Schleck rode away from the yellow jersey on the cobbled stage 3 when Chavanel had "mechanical issues."
- Schleck has already benefited by having the peloton wait for him - stage 2 into Spa. Saxo couldn't win the stage so Fabian made like the Unions and brought everything to a grinding halt. Funny how that changed the day after when everyone was still falling off but Saxo was on the front...
- Andy Schleck didn't even stop to see what was going on with his own brother who was laying in the dirt with a broken collar bone, so why he expects someone from a different team to stop to see if his chain is all nice and happy is beyond me.
Using your logic Schleck was a complete as$ sucking scumbag who'd rob his Grandma of her last piece of candy, even before the mountain stages...
My personal take on the matter is that the problem was a self imposed mechanical, probably caused by those crappy monster pulleys on his rear mech further cr@ptaculated by running too many links in his chain. Stuff like this deserves to be treated with the derision it deserves - ie Contador was right to drop him like a rock off the side of a cliff.
... and what is with this believe that there's a mystical unwritten rule that's prevailed through the ages? Freaking newbies come to the sport and see Armstrong and Ulrich show some personal respect for each other and that translates into something bigger.
Some key moments through the ages:
Did Zoetemelk wait for Merckx, who was in yellow, when a fan ran out and punched him in the kidneys whilst climbing the Puy de Dome? No... not in the slightest. Merckx would lose the jersey.
Did Merckx wait to see what happened to Ocana when Merckx misjudged a corner and lead them all offroad, causing Ocana to crash (Ocana was in yellow by something like six minutes having beaten Merckx by almost 10 minutes on a preceding stage). Too add insult to injury, another rider crashed into Ocana just a Merckx was running back to the road to set off again into the distance. Ocana would quit. Merckx would refuse to wear the yellow jersey the day after but this didn't stop him from leaving Ocana in the dirt and skampering off across the mud like Bambi to jump back on his bike to head for the overall lead....
Did anyone wait for Hinault as his gears were skipping again and again as he climbed up the slopes of Superbagneres when LeMond was exacting his revenge for losing time the day before? No... Hinault took it like a man and didn't ***** about it at the finish. LeMond would later attack Hinault (who was still in yellow) in the alps when descending the Izoard whilst the frenchman was having his saddle adjusted.
You were saying about "honor" and the Tour de France... It's a race. The biggest race there is. It's not some freaking liberal "200 steps on the podium and give little Johnny who finishes next to last a medal" race. It's a race that'll make or break you. That Schleck wanted to leave his plots to the last seconds of the days stage which gave him no second chance, it his fault. Things can, and often do, go wrong when the pressure is on and the hammer is being dropped. It's for this same reason that Schleck will fail to crack Contador on the Tourmalet.