The Hitch said:
Of course it's relevant to sky. The moment kittel calls out a rider based on performance that grants a veil of legitimacy to the whole act of using performances to judge riders. Especially for those who havent condemned his behaviour outright which I notice sky fans have been reluctant to do.
And sky are quite obviously first in line here. Not only are they the defending 1-2 at the tour wiggins froome Porte and rogers are the first 4 people that come into anyone's head when they think of riders whose performances have improved massively over the last few years.
So if it grants a veil of legitimacy to judging riders based on performance you object to it why? I'm really struggling why people are finding what Kittel said so unacceptable when all that happens here is judgements made on the basis of performance, and criticism of omerta.
So a rider speaks out, but it seems the wrong rider saying the wrong things in the wrong place about another wrong rider. There would be no problem if it had been the right rider at the right time about the right team. Which means there is a double standard at play, basically one that runs along the lines of we only like riders to break omerta if we agree with what they're saying.
So Kittel should have called out Sky, despite them not even being at the race. I don't agree with condemnation based on performance alone. In fact generally I'll avoid judging people I don't know based on virtually no facts, but Kittel is a pro-rider, I'm guessing he may know more than me, and is in a far better position to make a judgement on a performance. That said I hope he does know something more to back up what he has done. Perhaps if he was to reveal that we would have a proper break with omerta. But it would still be a small player rather than the names you crave to be brought low.
and racism. Well the only people who ever get accused are small fry from the periphery. Caster semanya, Quintana, the Chinese swimmer, talik makhloufi, as an isolated case it's not racism, but the only people who ever get called out are small fry who can't speak English, neither pure white nor pure black, in sports where far far more suspicious and sucesful athletes are left untouched.
funny that. What a massive coincidence that all these anti doping crusaders so disgusted by these obvious dopers, found nothing suspicious in the people who are running/ swimming/ cycling twice as fast for twice as long to twice as many gold medals and racking up massive sponsorship deals, hero status, and fame in the process.
Or, it's not a coincidence.
I realise you have a particular gripe about bias in media reporting, but I don't know how that is relevant to Kittel's tweet. He's not a journalist or an administrator, he's a fellow rider. He's not part of the system, or the status quo, he's making an albeit knee-jerk but honest reaction to another rider's performance. I'm not sure you can weave it into your caucasian media conspiracy, it's a different source.
As for Sayar, I have no idea either way. Rider on home soil in front of home fans on roads and in conditions he knows very well indeed, seems like a reasonable performance. But on the other hand I want riders speaking out as well. If riders change the sport does.
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