Cyclist Bradley Wiggins has shown that the British still know how to behave when it counts. Currently leading the Tour de France and in a position to take advantage of the riders who rode over the carpet tacks thrown on the road by some idiot, he instead urged the peloton to slow down so that the thirty riders affected could catch up.
The throwing of the carpet tacks onto the road was something that you expect in the wacky Races and an act carried out by Dick Dastardly, rather than the premier road cycling race in the world. It is unlikely that the idiot responsible will be caught and that is why Wiggins act in fact nullified it.
The cyclists who crashed were travelling at reportedly 50-80kph and Astana rider Robert Kiserlovski was forced to withdraw from the race after breaking his collarbone in an accident related to the tacks.
Wiggins has been reported as saying “I thought it was the honorable thing to do, nobody should ever profit by somebody’s misfortune like that.It became quite apparent very quickly when all of the guys started puncturing at once. It wasn’t just one or two, it all started happening and was becoming dangerous.”
Should he de-throne Australian Cadel Evans such sportsmanship will no doubt endear him to many, and Evans can be grateful that his gesture has meant that he still has a chance to win back to back titles.
To do anything else just would’t have been cricket….