Controversy in the Tour de France

Once again, there is controversy surrounding the Tour de France. However, this time it has nothing to do with failed drugs tests – strangely this seems to have been taken far more seriously than that. This is a breach of cycling etiquette. It is strange how this appears to be such a major issue, but should it really be.

As the group including the majority of the leading contenders in the Général Classement – Andy Schleck, Alberto Contador, Samuel Sánchez and Denis Menchov – approached the top of the Port de Bales, the final climb of the day, the controversial moment occurred. The yellow jersey of Andy Schleck suddenly launched himself into an attack, momentarily catching Alberto Contador and his rivals napping. He opened up a gap of around 20m before they responded. However, as he attacked, the chain came off the gear mechanism. Alberto Contador went past him and attacked on up the slope, followed by Sánchez and Menchov. At its maximum, the gap between Schleck and Contador up the slope was 40 seconds, but by the top, Schleck had closed to only 12 seconds. However, by the end of the descent, Contador had stretched the lead to 39 seconds, taking the Maillot Jeune by a mere 8 seconds.

So where does the controversy come into it? There is a general unwritten rule in cycling that you do not attack the Maillot Jeune wearer if he suffers a mechanical problem. In the words of Robbie Hunter, a former stage winner in the Tour de France, “in the peleton, if yellow has a problem, you wait, especially if it’s a person who can win the Tour. That’s how we race.” So, therein lies the controversy. Alberto Contador should not have attacked up the final stretch of the Port de Bales, and should have waited for Andy Schleck. However, how much can we really blame the reigning champion?

Some people have argued that Contador had no intentions of attacking until he saw the mechanical problem of Andy Schleck, then took advantage of his misfortune. Schleck himself certainly believes that, saying “my stomach is full of anger.” The local French crowd certainly agreed with the Luxembourger, booing Alberto Contador on the podium. Proponents of this theory will argue that this shows that Contador was seriously worried about Andy Schleck in the Général Classement. He saw his chance to give himself a better chance of wrapping up the Tour, and took it. This is linked with the argument that Schleck did indeed make up a lot of time on the final climb after the mechanical problem.

Supporters of Contador may point to the fact that as Schleck made up so much time, maybe Contador was not giving it 100% up the final section of the climb. It cannot be denied that he was driving hard on the descent with Sánchez and Menchov. However, once Sánchez and Menchov had gone with him on the original attack, he could not sit up and wait for Schleck, giving those two the opportunity to make up significant time. Schleck was able to sort the problem relatively quickly, but had it taken 2 or 3 minutes to solve, Sánchez and Menchov could have closed, almost to the point of taking the yellow jersey. Contador could not take that risk.

However, despite Andy Schleck’s anger about how Contador has retaken the jersey, it is interesting to look at the early stages in this year’s Tour. In Stage 2, the peleton had to slow up to wait for Andy Schleck after he suffered a problem. Schleck’s teammate, Fabian Cancellara, and Alberto Contador himself were the two men that drove the decision to wait. Maybe Contador had felt that he had already waited for Schleck once, that he shouldn’t have to wait every time.

The even more interesting stage is Stage 3, when Andy Schleck opened up a 1’13 gap on Alberto Contador. The reason that he was able to open up this gap was that Alberto Contador got held up behind the crash that took Andy Schleck’s elder brother, Frank, out of the race. Immediately after the crash, Schleck and Cancellara attacked, upping the pace, whilst Contador and the other favourites were all stuck behind the crash. By the same arguments, surely Andy Schleck should have waited there. In the words of Irish cyclist, Nicholas Roche, it may have been “classy to wait, but nobody waited for Contador on Stage 3, when he rode for 30km was a buckled rear wheel.”
The whole incident could have been prevented in the first place had Andy Schleck opted to use a 50g chainguard. However, Schleck made the choice to minimise weight by not employing this, and so it could be argued that Schleck should take some blame for this decision.

Contador has lost a lot of popularity with the fans, but many teammates and other cyclists are beginning to take a different view – that it is just one of those things that happens. It seems to depend how exactly you view the sport and the cycling etiquette. You don’t see the situation in Formula 1, where if a car has a mechanical problem, the leaders stop and wait for him to fix the problem and catch up. It is a strange concept, and whilst it is nice to see the race determined by who is the better rider, rather than mechanical problems, the true champions are determined to win at all costs. It is why great champions are often not the most popular.

It has the potential to make the next two stages, involving the legendary Col de Tourmalet, very interesting. Andy Schleck must go on the attack to try and distance Alberto Contador. If Contador is vulnerable in the mountains this year, Schleck has the ability to attack him repeatedly, and pull away. And if this is the case, he will prove himself to be the best this year. He has not given up hope yet – “The race is not finished and I want to take my revenge. I can end it like a champion.”

Tour de France 2010

As we pass the half-way mark of the Tour de France, the battle for the coveted Maillot Jeune, the yellow jersey, is down to only two men – Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. Ahead of the tour, it was expected to be between these two, and as the other contenders have fallen away through the punishing Alps, so it has developed. There was to be no fairytale ending for Lance Armstrong, no British challenge from Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky, Cadel Evans fell away in the Alps, and no other rider has come through to challenge for the victory.


Following his announcement that this would be his final Tour de France, attention on the 7-time winner Lance Armstrong was even more intense than usual. His exceptional performance in the Prologue, where he finished fourth ahead of Alberto Contador, suggested that maybe there was still a final push left in him. However, following Stage 8 up to Morzine-Avoriaz, he admitted defeat in his attempt. Having fallen twice, he was unable to hang on to the leaders as they stepped up the pace up the mountain, and he is now over 17 minutes adrift of the yellow jersey.


Having come from nowhere last year to finish 4th, Bradley Wiggins was hoping to mount a major challenge this year. Supported by the newly established Team Sky, hopes were high, but performances have not lived up to expectation. The injury to team-mate Simon Gerrans was a big blow, as Gerrans was picked specifically to assist Wiggins in the mountain stages. He lies over 7 minutes adrift, and has now set his sights on securing a top-10 position when the Tour rolls into Paris.


The two-time runner-up, and reigning World Road Race champion, Cadel Evans was another who had hopes of finally capturing the yellow jersey. He was able to stay with his competitors on the gruelling Stage 8, but was dropped on the following day at the 160km mark. He later revealed that he was riding with a fractured elbow, which had virtually destroyed any hopes he had of securing the victory that he so desired.


Thus, it has boiled down to an intriguing contest between the two pre-race favourites. Alberto Contador is the reigning Tour de France champion, and in many eyes, one of the best stage riders there has been for many years. He is one of only a select few to have won all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta de España. Andy Schleck is the young pretender. Hailing from Luxembourg, he finished as runner-up last year, and many felt he could have mounted a greater challenge to Contador had he not supported his elder brother, Frank, so much on the climb up the Ventoux. The withdrawal of Frank this year after Stage 3 with a fractured collarbone could prove a blessing in disguise, although his support in the Pyrenees will be missed.


Andy Schleck currently wears the yellow jersey, 41 seconds ahead of Contador. However, Contador remains the favourite at this stage, since he is a far superior time-triallist than Schleck. Realistically, Andy Schleck needs to establish a lead of at least 1m45s before the individual time trial to give himself a chance of holding off the Spaniard. As a result, the crucial stage that will determine the Tour is likely to be Stage 17 from Pau to the Col-de-Tourmalet. Tourmalet is a mountain-top finish and will be the opportunity for Andy Schleck to gain the time that he needs.


Stage 9 has already provided a preview of what we might expect, where Andy Schleck repeatedly tried to attack Contador up the slope, before they eventually decided to work together to put distance between themselves and their rivals. However, Andy Schleck will have to repeat this, and break-away from the Spaniard if he is to have a chance to win overall. The absence of his brother could prove crucial here, unless he can enlist the help of some of the other riders who are looking to boost their position in the general classification – the likes of Roman Kreuziger, Ivan Basso or Jurgen Van Den Broeck could be possibilities here.

At the current moment, Alberto Contador rightly remains the favourite, but Andy Schleck is making it into an intriguing contest. Even if this is not to be his year though, only a fool would bet against him eventually realising his potential and winning the biggest race in cycling.