Gaze cops paltry fine but learns big lesson for gesture
Sam Gaze has been fined for his antics on the mountainbike track, but insists his behaviour is not indicative of the rest of the sport.
The Kiwi won Commonwealth Games gold ahead of team-mate Anton Cooper in a tense race at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday afternoon.
Gaze accused Cooper of bad sportsmanship after he attacked on a climb while Gaze was left stranded in the pits with a puncture. Whilst standing alongside his bike, he was photographed pulling the middle finger in the direction of Cooper.
Cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, fined Gaze 200 Swiss francs (NZ$282) - the currency of their base in Switzerland - for the gesture, a Cycling New Zealand spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The fine was a paltry amount and more a symbolic slap on the wrist than anything else. The gesture, along with holding one finger to his lips as he crossed the finish line ahead of Cooper, were a prelude to Gaze’s post-race comments.
‘‘There is good sportsmanship and there’s not, and I feel like that wasn’t there today,’’ Gaze said.
"It's part of growing up and putting on my big boy shoes."
Sam Gaze
Gaze had just chased Cooper down on the final lap to relegate him to silver. He apologised within hours of the race and both were made available for interviews yesterday at New Zealand House on the Gold Coast, where again Gaze apologised and admitted his embarrassment at the whole episode.
‘‘For starters, I’m grateful I had such a good performance under the pressure, but what I’m not grateful for and not proud of is my reaction and behaviour under pressure. It’s part of growing up and putting on my big boy shoes. That’s been one of the biggest and toughest lessons I’ve ever learned in my life. ‘‘
Gaze’s antics came after Jason Christie earned an identical fine for giving a double middle-finger salute to his rivals as he crossed the finish line to win the road race at the New Zealand championships in January.
That came after a third rider in the New Zealand road race team, Hayden McCormick, also flipped the bird at a competitor who beat him in a road race in Belgium in April 2017.
Gaze and Cooper both said they had the utmost respect for each other, but stopped short of saying they were friends.
‘‘We have huge respect for each other on the bike and live at completely different ends of the country, so we don’t train together a lot,’’ Cooper said.
‘‘It’s a working relationship. We get on, we do get on, I’ll happily say that. We talk to each other at the races. There is not bad blood like that. That’s all I can really say.’’
Gaze had a similar response to being asked if he liked Cooper.
‘‘It’s racing. We’ve had our bumps along the way. It goes without discussion the amount of respect I have for him as a rider and person.
‘‘It’s hard and it does put a spanner in the works when you have the same common goal, but he knows what I’m like and he’s been great towards me throughout this time.’’
Cooper said there would be no lingering bad blood from the incident.
‘‘We’ll leave that as a hotheaded, heat of the moment action. He’s apologised and I’ll take that as genuine and move on,’’ he said.