Thoughtforfood said:
That has nothing to do with "morals." It has to do with sportsmanship, and Flecha showed little to none. Hey, you are judging me from the comfort of your armchair, so you are somehow in a better position? Physician heal thyself.
I presume you ride/rode, race/raced a bike so you remember what it is like.
In a club race someone disappears off the front, you do your turn to try to get them back, and if you can't then you keep on doing swappio because that is the thing to do to maintain some level of respect for yourself with your clubmates. Doesn't stop you from attacking towards the end.
In an open race it is slightly different . So same scenario - someone goes off the front and you try to chase but to no avail, and some gung-ho dude wants to do all the work, then you let him because it is less work for you to do. Eventually he will give up, or not, and you might go back to swappio. Still doesn't stop you from attacking towards the end. You don't necessarily need to be respected by other people from other clubs, you want the prize money, and thinning the bunch out by hook or by crook is one way of doing that.
So to the big boys - most of those guys in PR admitted they were riding for second. So ok looking on the palmares, but not that great. So you ride for your sponsors - which is why pro cycling exists. Hushovd did it, Flecha in a new team did it. Yes wheelsucking does suck, but I am not going to say that I haven't done it because I was knackered, and I wanted to save some strength for the finish. I am a small guy and going into the wind isn't my thing, so I ride to my abilities. If I have nothing to give on the front, I don't give it. I am not about to drag someone to the finish so they jump over the top of me because I am cramping up or I explode, or I never get there because I already bonked 10km ago.
Anyway it may sound a little prosaic - but that's bike racing. If we resigned ourselves to that then this thread would be pretty short. All those guys got to the end in high positions not by mistake or because they were bludgers, because they were the strongest and sometime during that race they individually or collectively dropped the slower weaker riders. It was a fantastic race up to 50km to go then it fizzled out, and everybody did what they needed to get to the end, albeit for second and lower places.
We are all armchair critics (of bike racing and each other) that is why we are on this forum.