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The Roar

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Vuelta riders punching above their weight

Gianluca Brambilla was disqualified from the Vuelta after getting in a mid-stage fight with Ivan Rovny (Team Sky)
Expert
10th September, 2014
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This week’s award for punching above one’s weight goes to… La Vuelta a Espana cyclists. I say this because they appear to punch each other quite readily, and as for weight? Well, they don’t have much.

Philip Deignan said that when he upset Joaquim Rodríguez, Rodriguez punched him. The mid-stage bout allegedly split the Irishman’s lip.

In another stage, two blokes went the biff in the breakaway, live on TV. Both were subsequently thrown out, live on TV.

Upon hearing of his removal, Gianluca Brambilla flew into an enraged fit of theatrical contrition. He blew kisses and performed a creepy love-heart sign to the live TV cameras with his hands as he rode swerving and flailing about the road.

I’m not yet sure which of these actions damages the sport’s image more. The insult, or the pitiful hand-sign apology.

It would have been a pretty adorable tantrum, if it were from a seven-year-old. But for adults, the punching and the whining is all just very ugly and sad. It makes these people look like they are amateur, disrespectful, righteous, immature, self-centred and spoilt. This is obviously not entirely true, they’re not amateurs.

In Rodriguez’s case apparently his director made him go and apologise in person, therefore making everything apparently OK.

There is an opinion among many athletes that such disputes are to be ‘left on the road’, that after the fact they are to be forgiven and forgotten. I never really bought that. I always assumed I should have to own my actions. So far I’ve never punched anyone.

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What these Vuelta incidents shine a light on, is the ever-present smoulder of conflict and friction in the peloton, and how poorly some riders deal with it.

Bicycle racing comes with an inherent belligerence. There are about 200 guys in a race, and only about two or three of them can fit into that hallowed ‘ideal position’.

When riders talk about ‘positioning’ themselves, what they are actually describing is bashing and barging their way through a desperate cluster of human bodies hurtling precariously at high speed.

There are times when the advantage to gain from positioning doesn’t outweigh the benefits of ‘helping each other out’. At those times everyone basically gets along.

Then there is the final five kilometres of a sprint stage, or the run into an important climb or crosswind. At those points the decision-making process is a lot more simple. Riders are limited only by the risk of crashing. Yielding is losing. Safety is an obstacle.

Of course there is that thing everyone talks about, etiquette. When I was a kid I liked the idea, it sounded like camaraderie. When I was a teenager, I realised the adult riders just used etiquette as a way to bully the inexperienced ones.

Etiquette is tyranny, but respect, that is currency.

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Mutual respect is the only thing saving any peloton from gnarly catastrophe. Grand Tour level riders are shockingly good at avoiding crashes. It takes serious misadventure or flagrant disregard to actually bring them unstuck. Of course, it still happens.

In the lower levels of racing like the Australian National Road Series and the UCI Asia circuit the idea of respect never really caught on. The craziest, filthiest, most antagonistic riders generally perform better. In a race where everyone takes risk, caution is the fatal weakness.

In the Tour de France this year we saw an unusually high crash rate. Now at La Vuelta we’re watching grumpy brats blatantly punch (more accurately, slap) each other over petty on-the-bike tiffs.

Perhaps we are seeing the culture at the top of the sport go the same way it has gone in the lower ranks. Maybe pro bike riders just don’t have much respect for each other. Or maybe some just have no respect for themselves.

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