Professional road cyclists train for months, even years before earning a shot at a Grand Tour title. Perseverance, like a willingness to suffer, is a key ingredient for the best professionals in the peloton. Sometimes though, years of perseverance gets undone in an instant. Thursday’s crash coming into Montecassino smashed the dreams of many of the top contenders, and some wonder if it was fair to continue racing to the end of the stage.
After a sunny start to the day, clouds began to move in over the course. Rain — now a familiar facet of the 2014 Giro d’Italia — drenched the course. On the entry into a roundabout, things went wrong on the sodden roads. Riding on slick tires with a contact patch smaller than a dime, riders started braking for the corner. Most slowed safely, but a few lost traction and crashed to the road. Riders further back crashed into and over those already on the ground.
The peloton shattered, and a small group at the front stayed safe, ahead of the crashes in the main group. BMC and Orica-GreenEDGE had been working hard and leading the peloton. BMC’s Cadel Evans and Orica’s Michael Matthews found their way into a break out front of a slowly regrouping peloton. Matthews went on to win the stage, with Evans third across the line.
While Matthews has retained the pink jersey, Evans is now just 21 seconds back from the overall lead, though Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) remain in the hunt.
But the questions now being raised revolve around whether it was fair, or sporting, to have continued the stage rather than wait for the group to collect. Many say that crashing is part of racing, that Evans and Matthews were probably unaware of the crash and continued to ride out ahead. Others are angered by the way things worked out. There is a notion that the crash was an extraordinary occurrence, and merited a pause in the racing.
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Both sides have valid points, and past examples to support their opinions.
In 2012, while attempting to defend his Tour de France title, Evans was the benefactor of the good will of the peloton. Evans suffered two punctures after a spectator threw carpet tacks across the course. More than 30 riders suffered flat tires, but Evans was in the hunt for the yellow jersey.
Rather than race on, eventual winner Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky compatriots held back the pace of the peloton, allowing Wiggins to rejoin. At the time, Wiggins said that it was simply “the honourable thing. Nobody wants to benefit from someone else’s misfortune.”
Those who perceive that Evans was in the wrong today are quick to bring up the story of the tacks as further proof that continuing to race following Thursday’s crash lacked any sense of sportsmanship.
Yet at the 2012 Tour de France, a crash so large it became known as the Metz Massacre obliterated the hopes of many of the General Classification contenders, as those who dodged the carnage raced on. Alejandro Valverde, Frank Schleck, Michele Scarponi, Janez Brajkovic and Canadian Ryder Hesjedal all lost any hope of a shot at the 2012 Tour title when they were left behind.
The reality is that misfortunes in cycling take many forms, and cannot be avoided completely. It’s unlikely that Evans, Matthews or any of the other six riders in the break were even aware of the severity of the crash. Having raced nearly 250km to that point, and with just 10km remaining, they had earned their place at the front, where competitors can generally stay ahead of trouble. The Giro organizers are unlikely to make any adjustments to the results.
When the Giro rolls to a stop in a few weeks, this may be a turning point in the race, but it won’t be the only one. For those still in the race, there remains plenty to fight for.