Sportsmanship left behind on the Tour | Thebigtip

When Alberto Contador sleeps on the activities of the last stage of the Tour de France, he may well regret his decision to attack while main rival Andy Schleck was fixing his chain. At least let us hope he does or it could be remembered as one of the more unsporting decisions in modern professional sport.

In a world where we have supposedly lost our innocence, where individuals care only for themselves and whether they get to the top or not, sport still Is, in its most basic form, ignorant of these facts; it usurps the hustle and bustle of the “got to get paid” cultural fantasy that has swamped societies during this epoch. People see it as pure, an image of the way things are supposed to be. At the entry level of any sport it is always about participation, fun and making friends; there are reasons why rules are in place in sports like tennis, gymnastics and even football to curb the over-zealous parent or coach who systematically kill this ideal.

When drug cheats are caught they are ostracized from the sporting world, a continued suspicion forever hangs over them for the simple fear that they may further degrade the sport that fans and participants hold dear. We applaud those who not only play by the rules but go out of their way to uphold the etiquette of sports which have been built up over decades, even centuries. Now Contador cannot be labeled anywhere near a drug cheat for his performance in the final climb yesterday but he certainly does not qualify for any applause.

Precedence is set not just in cycling but all sports. The lasting image of the 2005 Ashes cricket series is not of English captain Michael Vaughan holding the famous urn aloft, but it is of Andrew Flintoff offering his sincere condolences to Brett Lee. The image of despairing Lee on his haunches in disbelief, Flintoff with a hand on the shoulder, arm outstretched for a hand shake is one of the best in sport. What makes it one of the classiest displays of sportsmanship is the fact that it was Flintoff’s first thought, not to celebrate with his teammates but to show his respect for a fellow competitor.

Another example entered in Australian sporting folk lore is from the 1950’s when John Landy and Ron Clarke competed in the national athletic championships. Clarke is tripped accidently from behind, Landy sees the incident and he literally stops his race, runs back to Clarke and pulls him up and they continue the race. It was respect for what is right, respect for his rival and knowledge of etiquette that made Landy do this. The moment has been replayed over and over again, not because we laugh or denegrate the runners, but because we like the values that this move holds.

The argument cannot even be made in favour of Contador that the Landy-Clarke incident was over 50 years ago and society has changed so much that this sort of behavior is now quaint and irrelevant. Nor can it be argued that cycling is a different sport to cricket and athletics. For the answers to both of these points lie in the etiquette of cycling itself. Constantly the peloton slows if the yellow jersey or a racer considered a winning chance has to take a rest stop or crashes or has a mechanical issue. The Spaniard has done this already this Tour. Once they catch up its race on again. Ironically it was Andy Schleck who was critical of the Peloton for not slowing when Lance Armstrong crashed in an earlier stage. And it is Armstrong who was involved in a famous incident very similar to the Landy-Clarke episode just a few years previous to this Tour.