Kazistuta said:
Yeah, that's my point exactly...or exactly not
I get that you see the whole "Cancellara attacking" situation very different from me, but still can't see any real arguments WHY it was ill mannered?
Where's the reasoning in "Fabians sucker punch move"? Had Boonen had a puncture? Was he talking to his DS behind the group? Was he stopped for a wizz? Where the riders strolling along in the supply zone? Oh no....wait...Boonen were getting some air in the middle of the group.... Shame on you, Cancellara!
Sorry for getting sarcastic etc....
As a side note: Fabian C told reporters afterwards that it wasn't a planned attack, he just felt like testing his rivals at that point...and when he got the lead he just had to "roll with it"...
Agreed, FC didn't attack during any of those taboo situations. In fact, there were ample riders proximal who could've, and in hindsight would have been prudent to, respond. It's also fairly likely no one could have done anything about FC's attack, such was its force. He shot through the breakaway who couldn't hold his wheel (turbomoto notwithstanding).
My criticism is more contextual or situational. From the position of a TV viewer, it appeared no one else was in the race but FC and TB, all others being ineffectual or moving obstacles. Perhaps unwisely, TB seemed to acknowledge FC as an equal, a rival. He appeared to communicate with FC in a respectful, covivial, almost jovial way when FC countered his attacks from the front. This is almost certainly unprofessional, possibly disrespectful to the other competitors, and smacks of hubris. It seemed to be the stuff of story, not reality. Herein lies my sympathy to TB: he was a good-natured fool like a character in a story. Someone like the way stories tell us to be (this probably tells us more about the people who write stories than people who compete at sports).
FC wasn't prepared to play this game. He just wanted to win, not be a great guy about it all.
TB was a romantic, FC a doer. TB was Don Quixote, the lovable but doomed fantasist. FC was Kate Croy, the aspiring pragmatist. We might respect her wiles, but we don't like her, unless we wan't to be her.
FC, the pragmatist, attacked with no little panache but with guile also. When he saw his rival removed from the front eating, drinking, drafting, dreaming he took flight like the wings of the dove and took advantage. It was smart, successful and ugly.
I've had enough of smart, successful and ugly. Give me beautiful but doomed.
Arguments without feeling are just sophistry.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to repair to something constructive yet beautiful. I hope the toilet is no longer blocked.