Time comes when you need grease of peace on the elbow
After the crash, came the screaming. Not from Mark Cavendish, who went down hard. Not from John Degenkolb, who rode over Cavendish’s helmet.
Not from Ben Swift, who hit Cavendish’s back wheel. Not from any of those three who crashed. Not from Peter Sagan, who stands accused of causing the crash.
Nay. It was the rest who fought. The ones standing at the bar spoiling for a rumble. Desperate souls pouring anxiously to be heard by anyone, someone.
It was they who rolled into the screaming, hissy storm with a snarl, setting up Cav and Sagz camps, firing hollow points, launching ICBMs, hurling rocks and stones. Few came to a middle ground.
Robbie McEwen, commentating on the Tour, wasn’t sure, and somewhere in between his musings on the crash, he found some truth. It was a racing incident, much of a muchness. It happened. Accidents happen. No. Wait. Sagan moved across and put Cavendish in the barriers. He deserves to be disqualified.
Sagan’s elbow was out too far, said McEwen, but that came after Cavendish was crashing and did not cause it.
A brave social media warrior suggested McEwen that was just “one idiot supporting another”. McEwen bristled. “You don’t seem to understand. It was Sagan’s fault. #dontbeaprickmate.”
Sagan was disqualified. Wait. They disqualified him? I didn’t mean to disqualify him from the Tour. Just from the stage, man. Just relegate him. Send him to the back of the bunch. Put him last. Don’t kick him out of the whole, damn race.
McEwen knows about being relegated. He was bust down from third place in the third stage of the 2005 Tour de France to last for putting the bump on Aussie compatriot Stuart O’Grady.
The picture of the incident is a classic image of the madness of the sprint. McEwen has the top of his helmet in O’Grady’s face as they crossed the line in what looks like a head-butt. O’Grady finished fourth. Tom Boonen won. McEwen’s take on the incident back then?
“The race judges have made a mistake. If you look at the video replay you can see that it was O’Grady who started things by leaning on me. He put his elbow out and I had to lean on him to stop myself from falling.
“I didn’t butt him. If you look at the video very closely you can see that my arm was trapped under O’Grady’s elbow. That twisted my body and pulled my head towards him.”
O’Grady’s take? “It was a bit too much really, too aggressive. I was heading towards the line and then I suddenly saw Robbie McEwen’s head on my shoulder.”
Crashes happen in the sprint. It is not a place to ride softly. It is dodgems at 60km/h. A game of wrestling, switching, flicking, cutting, barging and hoping, a maelstrom performed by the bravest, strongest, wisest and luckiest.
There are crashes, but no one wants a crash.
Cavendish and Sagan didn’t want a crash. And, as the fight continued around them, as team managers tried to make sense of it all and plan for the rest of the Tour, as the brave people of the keyboard attacked Cavendish’s family and Dimension Data team with threats of violence, Cavendish and Sagan got on with the job of getting on with their jobs.
Shortly after the crash, before he went to hospital, Cavendish wanted to know about the elbow.
“… if he came across that’s one thing, but the elbow, I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that. Like I said, I get on with Peter, a crash is a crash but I just need to know about the elbow really.”
Sagan called Cavendish later to explain about the elbow thrust that was heard around the world.
“He said it was keeping himself balanced, so it was nice to know. He said he didn’t know it was me coming up. It was the elbow, which I said I was confused about. I spoke to Peter about that…. It was an honourable thing to see Peter there at the bus, already come to apologise.
“It shows our relationship, shows the man he is, and I really appreciate that more than anything. It’s just sad that we’ll both be out of the Tour de France.”
The Tour is barely a week old. There are two more weeks to go.
CRASHES HAPPEN IN THE SPRINT. IT IS NOT A PLACE TO RIDE SOFTLY. IT IS DODGEMS AT 60km/h. A GAME OF WRESTLING, SWITCHING, FLICKING, CUTTING