A Question of Ethics in Competition
Yesterday, Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France (TDF) in a row, as expected. As expected, he established himself as the greatest rider of his generation.
That's not what this post is about.
My question is, "does anything go in competition?"
I raise this question in the wake of a remarkable incident that took place in the Tour de France on Friday during the 18th stage of the race. Lance Armstrong who, by that time, had all but locked up the overall title, went out of his way (and took a completely illogical risk) to prevent someone else, in this case a marginal rider with whom he has an ongoing dispute, from winning that day's stage.
The TDF is a three week endurance test that consists of 20 separate daily races (called stages) over 23 days. The rider with the least amount of aggregate time at the end of the 20 stages wins the TDF. While the ultimate prize is the so-called "Yellow Jersey" symbolizing the winner of the tour, it is also very prestigious to win any of the daily stages. The race starts with 20 teams, each representing a country and sponsored by a corporation, of 9 riders each. In reality, no more than 4 or 5 have a realistic chance to win the Yellow Jersey. The other teams vie instead for daily stage wins and a chance to get some publicity for themselves and their sponsors.
By Friday, Lance Armstrong had amassed a virtually insurmountable lead for the Yellow Jersey. For reasons that are not important here, Friday's stage was the kind where his closest competitors would not have been able to make up ground on Lance. Consequently, Lance and his team would normally have riden a defensive race, with the rest of the pack, taken precautions to avoid injury and been content to let riders who had no chance of winning the overall competition break away from the pack and compete for the stage win.
However, one of the riders attempting to break away was Filippo Simeoni. Lance hates Filippo Simeoni. Simeoni accussed Lance of blood doping, Lance called Simeoni a liar, and Simeoni is suing Lance for libel.
When Lance saw Simeoni try to break away, Lance easily caught up to him and the six other riders in the breakout group. He told two of the other breakout riders that if they didn't drop Simeoni, he (Lance) would stay with the breakout group. This would have caused the main pack of riders (that included Lance's main competitors), to catch up to the breakaway group (because they would not have permitted Lance to gain even more time on them). This, in turn, would have ended the breakout and ruined the chances of the six breakout riders to enjoy their day in the spotlight. So, the six breakout riders persuaded Simeoni to give up his quest for a stage win. Reluctantly, Simeoni dropped back, Lance followed, and the breakout group was able to maintain their breakout for the remainder of the stage.
After the stage, Simeoni called Lance's tactic "a sin".
Was Lance right? Was it appropriate for him to settle a personal score so long as it was within the rules? Or, was he just being mean-spirited and petty?
Yesterday, Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France (TDF) in a row, as expected. As expected, he established himself as the greatest rider of his generation.
That's not what this post is about.
My question is, "does anything go in competition?"
I raise this question in the wake of a remarkable incident that took place in the Tour de France on Friday during the 18th stage of the race. Lance Armstrong who, by that time, had all but locked up the overall title, went out of his way (and took a completely illogical risk) to prevent someone else, in this case a marginal rider with whom he has an ongoing dispute, from winning that day's stage.
The TDF is a three week endurance test that consists of 20 separate daily races (called stages) over 23 days. The rider with the least amount of aggregate time at the end of the 20 stages wins the TDF. While the ultimate prize is the so-called "Yellow Jersey" symbolizing the winner of the tour, it is also very prestigious to win any of the daily stages. The race starts with 20 teams, each representing a country and sponsored by a corporation, of 9 riders each. In reality, no more than 4 or 5 have a realistic chance to win the Yellow Jersey. The other teams vie instead for daily stage wins and a chance to get some publicity for themselves and their sponsors.
By Friday, Lance Armstrong had amassed a virtually insurmountable lead for the Yellow Jersey. For reasons that are not important here, Friday's stage was the kind where his closest competitors would not have been able to make up ground on Lance. Consequently, Lance and his team would normally have riden a defensive race, with the rest of the pack, taken precautions to avoid injury and been content to let riders who had no chance of winning the overall competition break away from the pack and compete for the stage win.
However, one of the riders attempting to break away was Filippo Simeoni. Lance hates Filippo Simeoni. Simeoni accussed Lance of blood doping, Lance called Simeoni a liar, and Simeoni is suing Lance for libel.
When Lance saw Simeoni try to break away, Lance easily caught up to him and the six other riders in the breakout group. He told two of the other breakout riders that if they didn't drop Simeoni, he (Lance) would stay with the breakout group. This would have caused the main pack of riders (that included Lance's main competitors), to catch up to the breakaway group (because they would not have permitted Lance to gain even more time on them). This, in turn, would have ended the breakout and ruined the chances of the six breakout riders to enjoy their day in the spotlight. So, the six breakout riders persuaded Simeoni to give up his quest for a stage win. Reluctantly, Simeoni dropped back, Lance followed, and the breakout group was able to maintain their breakout for the remainder of the stage.
After the stage, Simeoni called Lance's tactic "a sin".
I was surprised by what Armstrong did to me, but he showed the whole world what kind of person he is. I was the victim of a big injustice today. It wasn't possible for Armstrong to let a little rider like me have a chance for a little glory in the Tour de FranceI've been thinking about this for the past couple of days. What Lance did was completely within the rules. What Lance did was completely outside the norm. That he was willing to risk his 6th TDF Yellow Jersey in order to settle a score is hard to imagine.
Was Lance right? Was it appropriate for him to settle a personal score so long as it was within the rules? Or, was he just being mean-spirited and petty?
posted by MoChassid @ 10:19 AM
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