A couple days ago in the Giro, Simon Clarke, from Orica/Greenedge, threw up his arms at the finish. He didn’t win the race, he won the field sprint for 2nd. Afterward, he tells the interviewer that he knew he was 2nd, but so excited about taking over the race lead, thus the Pink jersey, that he couldn’t control himself and celebrated.
But, he was fibbing. At least I think he was. If you watch the video below, you’ll notice that after the line, the Movistar rider, I think Giovanni Visconti, motions to Simon that there is a guy up the road and Simon grasps his helmet with his hands. In this case, a picture is worth a 1000 words.
Simon should know by now, that the whole thing was live, on the internet, TV, etc., worldwide. You don’t get to say that you knew you didn’t win when your actions showed you didn’t. And, really, is it that big of a deal?
I’ll answer that, it really isn’t much of a big deal. I’ve never done it before, but I pay pretty close attention who is up the road and what place I’m racing for. But, there are a lot of things going on during the Giro and maybe it is easy to get confused about whether the peloton is together?
Seems like with race radios, he would have known a rider was away, but maybe he pulls his earpiece out at the end. Sometimes having something in you ear can throw off your balance a little, which would be pretty bad in a chaotic sprint. Plus, who wants someone talking in your ear when you’re trying to negotiate a field sprint at the Giro?
It is embarrassing, but just because you did an embarrassing thing, doesn’t mean you should lie about making the mistake in the first place. It is somewhat understandable losing track of one single rider in a stage of a Grand Tour, but it really isn’t understandable trying to fabricate a story.
If Simon learns one thing here, it is better to just fess up and take the ridicule up front. It really isn’t worth lying about, especially when it’s out there for the whole cycling world to see.
Seriously, you think anyone with an organization that includes O’Grady, Stephens, White and the rest has a problem with “fibbing” ? Ask Stuey to explain his “only once” EPO positive again. The whole team has cheating at its heart.
for sure.
Well, there are certainly worse things going on out there, though he could have handled it this way
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pozzato-left-embarrassed-after-roma-maxima-mix-up
Meanwhile, another a-hole interferes with the race, this time taking down the race leader in the melee. The other spectators need to mete our some informal justice to these jerks, otherwise “road racing” is going to end up on motor racing circuits so the screwballs can’t get close enough.
This is what happened in reverse with both Phinney and Keifel’s first grand tour stage wins, which in turn were the first two road stage wins in each race by an American. I’ve always wondered if I was the only one who noticed? In both cases the Seven Eleven rider thought there was someone up the road when they reached the finish line and there actually wasn’t.
At Lievin in 1986 Phinney didn’t have enough of a gap to have raised his arms and I’ve never seen Keifel’s Giro win from the year before on video. (Which is a shame because only chased down Gerrie Kneteman to make it happen.)
try this
http://www.cyclingfever.com/video.html?detp=view&video_idd=NTczOQ==
Well…..I once was off the front and got caught by a five man break. They asked me if I was a lapped rider and I did not reply; I didn’t say anything….I followed them for five laps then took off….they let me go…..I win…pretty shitty thing to do actually….
How about when a pro shows up with a lack of fitness, gets dropped, gets embarrassed, and then “abandons” the race. They never seem to just get dropped.
Nah, it’s their responsibility to know who’s up the road and definitely not your responsibility to educate them.
Yeah, but I think he grabbed his helmet in disbelief that he got pink but than again you don’t get to throw your arms up for just winning a jersey. Wrong any way you look at it. There’s way too much celebrating goin on in bike racing nowadays. Starts to look as silly as damn soccer… and we don’t want that now, do we?
I loved it was some T.T. guy or pack-filler guy would get to the front near the end of a crit, get all dialed in, act like he was taking charge of the front of the bunch, start staring everyone down and uncork this “sprint” which would embarass the most average leadout guy…and everyone looking at each other thinking “what in the world is he doing up here?” only to see him going for it up the gutter…. and then they start ringing the bell.
I Don’t think I ever lost track of a man up the road or sprinted a lap or two early but then again I wasn’t all dosed-up, micro dosed, shot-up, boosted-up with enough drugs to kill a Kentucky Derby winner like some of these lads are today.
Yes. too much celebrating. We should follow in the footsteps of the Stoics and Confucianists.
Glory be mighty leader!
Lighten up dude, life is short.
Yup. Because you are clearly an expert on this stuff. I call the troll.
Dude, who cares.
There’s the tour of Cali, people getting injured in the Giro, and it’s bad to celebrate a major achievement in one’s life!!??
Wait I’m sorry. Yates must be a liar and thus a doper so he is bad because he rides bikes really good. Along with the UCi and anyone who ever seems to touch a bike ;).
Lighten up! Steve, I read your blog and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a positive note from you about anyone in the ProTour. That’s not bad for your health, dude. Orica-Greenedge is a fabulous team and I think we’re all glad they are getting a lot of success. Seems there is a terrific group of people in their organization.
Kinda hard for anyone really paying attention to say much positive-maybe you don’t know what he does. And, it’s his blog-he can say what he wants.
??? The tour of Cali for example! What a terrific race between Cav and Sagan! How is that not positive???
Two of the greatest are riding right in front of us! Lachlan morton back in the pro ranks… what an exciting race! 🙂
Also some of the great Colombians like Chavez, Uran, Quintana, Betancur coming to the front with panache and grace! Good guys too breaking into the branks, other young guys breaking through like Rolland, Van den Broeck.
Hour record stuff
What a great time to be a bike fan!!
Celebrating when you didn’t win, wearing world championship stripes in an event you didn’t win them in, having your flag face the wrong way on your nameplate and both arms up on the podium if you were second or third are all considered bad form.
Honestly, who knows what the other rider was pointing at??? He could have been pointing at something that signified that the guy was now the new race leader. That didn’t look like he threw his hands on his head yelling “FUUUUUCCCKKK!” Sorry, but this post as well as most of the comments wreaks of the whiny, bitchy little girl, prima Donna roadie mentality that I soooo despise.
… indeed too short to be celebrating for the wrong reasons.
LMAO! Hahhahahahaha….
Hilarious. Thank you!
… just as not wearing white socks of appropriate length!
Dude, the only great about Uran is his name which he spell twice to point that out and I woudn’t say Pierre Roland is a “young” rider. Either.
It would be very entertaining, if it were real. You like wrestling too?
I do that at every time. Depending on my placement, sometimes it more funny than others. But hey, you have to be able to laugh at yourself. He’s obviously taking life to seriously.
Can I celebrate age group win without the wrath?
Off topic but this post brought this to mind. Once I went trail riding with my brother and a couple of buddies. There happened to be a foot race going on that day on the trail as well. My brother was lagging behind and we were waiting at the trail head for him which also happened to be the finish line for the race. As my brother was exiting the trail the supporters for the race began cheering. My brother gave a couple of fist pumps into the air like he had just won a race. When he made it over to us we pointed out that the race leader was only about 10 feet behind him! We all had a good laugh over it!