It's a Gift?

So racing in 2021, has gotten off to a flying start with plenty to talk about even before La Primavera. A combination of exciting young riders and the underlying feeling that any race could be the last for a while, as Coronavirus still looms large in the background, means there is no thought given to "racing for training" or easing yourself back in. Many riders were victims through no fault of their own, being out of contract at the end of the compressed 2020 session and had very few opportunities to actually put themselves in the shop window. Teams folding, merging and less sponsorship money all around means that many have been going right from the gun this year in case the worst happens and things grind to a halt. Hopefully this isn't as inevitable as Richie Porte crashing out of a race but it will shape races for the near future.

However among the many talking points, an old carnard raised its head over the last two days of Paris-Nice. On the Saturday, Gino Mader looked to be heading for the win after being last man standing (or at least pedalling) from the break, only for Roglic to catch and pass him so close to the line, he could almost smell the fresh paint. This then lead to debates as to whether Roglic should have "gifted" Mader the win and an appeal back to some golden era where the unwritten rules were respected. Except those folk who insisted that Roglic should have let Mader stick his arms up in celebration rather than frustration would be hard-pushed to exactly identify when this fabled period actually was. Tales of the past- Merckx, Bobet, Gaul, Anquetil all the way back to Garin highlight the chicanery and out-and-out cheating that was de rigeur. Armstrong "gifting" Pantani the Ventoux stage in the 2000 TdF only acted to infuriate them both- Pantani because he felt patronised, Armstrong because he felt El Pirata wouldn't kiss his backside in gratitude. That isn't to say it hasn't happened in the past, but normally it is when a GC contender and stage-hunter work together and stay away.

It is also worth noting that this was Paris-Nice, a race that has been won by only a few seconds on many occasions. One tyre change could be the difference between wearing Yellow on the last podium and trying to look on the brightside that at least you don't have to wait about for the ceremony so you can get away home a lot quicker. Those extra seconds initially looked like a useful buffer on the Sunday when Roglic became a vicitm of the curse of Gary Imlach, who had been saying on the ITV 4 highlights since stage 2 that the Slovenian's victory was more or less assured. He came off just before the cameras were rolling and looked battered. It later turned out one of his injuries had been a dislocated shoulder, which he had popped back in before continuing. It doesn't take a genius to work out that these injuries probably had a role to play in the next, also unseen, crash. So followed a long, lonely but ultimatley futile chase back, that resulted in a somewhat sheepish-looking Schachmann on the podium top step instead.

Inevitably this lead to the usual graceful social media posts about "karma biting Rolgic", as one poster on the INRNG blog put it, for not allowing Mader to win the previous day. It would of course have be interesting to see what these same posters would have written if it had been Porte or Geoghan Hart who had been in his place. Yet again a lot of folk were trying to inject soccer triablism and exceptionalism into cycling fandom, basically saying that Roglic deserved the pain he suffered simply because he did his job the previous day- which was to try and win the race.  A bit like sunlit uplands of the 1950s or the glory of the British Empire, these appeals to a time that only exists in the minds of the hard-of-thinking (unfortunately all too common), this mythology can only undermine the reality that is the present. Don't get me wrong, there are some traditions and sportsmanship that exists in cycling that I like to see- the handshakes in the breakaway just before it is swallowed up by the peloton, or the previously mentioned example where a GC rider allows a breakaway companion to take a stage. However to wish and celebrate actual phyiscal harm to one of the most talented riders in years because of some misplaced identification with a notion that never really existed is low, and more in keeping with the sort of soccer supporter who feels justified in assaulting someone else for the crime of liking a different team. Saying all of this I do have a question- are any bookies taking bets on Roglic wearing yellow into Paris on the 18th July and still mananging to lose it before the 3km to go banner?