SHOW BUSINESS
There are many ways to win in sport but more than ever we’re idealistic about how it’s achieved, says John Whitney
Recalling his close defeat to Micha¯ Kwiatkowski in last year’s Milan-Sanremo, in the build up to the most recent edition, cycling’s perennial showman Peter Sagan reckoned he wouldn’t have been happy if he’d have won in the same way. In a three-man break with Julian Alaphilippe, the Pole largely sat on Sagan’s wheel, jumping him at the last. It was canny racing - Kwiatkowski knew, all things being equal, he wouldn’t have a hope in a straight sprint with the Slovak, so he gambled that Sagan would do the work to keep ahead of the peloton. He was prepared to lose in order to win.
“If you analyse how Kwiatkowski won last year, then... If I win like that, I wouldn’t be happy with my performance,” said Sagan. “I prefer to make some show for people and how it’s going, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It’s more important to enjoy, to be healthy and to have fun.” For Sagan, winning alone isn’t enough, nor, perhaps, is winning the most important thing.
Of course, it’s easy for someone as brilliantly talented as Sagan to choose their manner of victory. With over 100 career victories to his name - including three consecutive World Championships - Sagan, since his first big win at the 2010 ParisNice, has never had to anxiously wonder where his next is coming from. However, in the biggest races, the Monuments, which includes Milan-Sanremo, he’s won just once. Undoubtedly, had he raced smarter, he could have won more, but he’s given a pass because he’s in the business of show. For many fans, too, Kwiatkowski’s win is lesser for how it was achieved and who it came at the expense of. There has always been more than one way to win - and never a correct one - but there is, more than ever, a premium on those who do it with a flourish or swagger. Modern sport is now dominated by the idea that winning alone isn’t enough. It needs to be done in style, with show and flamboyance. Team Sky’s catalogue of wins, particularly its dominance at the Tour de France since 2012, is sneered at in some quarters for the way the team has achieved it but they are wins entirely in keeping with the grinding, controlled nature of modern Grand Tour racing. There doesn’t appear to be any other way to win!
Cycling, fortunately, escapes the worst of it. More tribal sports, such as football, are beset by the (often blinkered) belief among certain clubs’ fans that their team should play the game in a free-flowing, exciting way - and that more defensive, tactical methods are betraying the history of their club. You often hear fans say they’ll sooner see their team lose ‘having a go’ rather than win grinding out a one-nil result. This is, of course, nonsense, as any fan observes when their team does hit a slump. Winning with panache will always trump winning ugly, but the alternative to either always ends up a distant second.
Winning with panache trumps winning ugly, but the alternative to either always ends up a distant second