Tour de France 2011 talk

[Eden]

Having been there (been in races where there have been crashes) I can so understand. You have an instant to decide what to do. I'd be willing to bet with the violence of that crash Voeckler figured neither guy would be getting back up or at very least would not be able to maintain the pace (which in fact neither could). He was in contention for the yellow jersey - which is a huge thing and didn't want to give that up. He didn't wait - but I don't think he particularly attacked the two guys who fell either. In the reality of it, it was likely not the wrong thing to do, had he and the others waited the whole break probably would have ended up back in the pack or lost enough time to lose yellow - the fallers certainly did - in fact they fell through it and finished up behind - given the horrible crash, its not a big surprise and they were both super courageous for just finishing.

The long and short of it - bike racing is a competition. It is dishonorable to attack someone who's down from a crash, a mechanical, or a nature break, but if you know that they are out or if there is something else in the race that is not under your control that requires responding to, then they are fair game. You have to remember that there almost 200 other guys that were racing too and while they may have waited for their own crash victims to catch up (and had someone more "dangerous" been up the road, its likely the peleton never would have waited as much as they did) they were certainly not going to slow down to maintain the gap while the break re-organized itself.

No one faulted the break for not slowing down when there was the big crash in the field. Technically that was taking advantage too - it certainly helped Voeckler, who may not have ever gotten far enough ahead to gain yellow and indeed appeared to be thinking more about polka dots earlier in the race. It was just a little less personal, as it didn't occur within their sight.