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Top-5 comments on Fake Magnanimity

by Gerard Vroomen

July 07, 2011 - Filed under: Company

Comments (2)

Just today, two posts. The first post today was on what cycling unfortunately seems to be borrowing from soccer. Below is the second post.

Great comments and tweets from you regarding Fake Magnanimity (I used that title because according to the blogging experts you’re not allowed to use “difficult words”. Blog traffic would indicate you are no ordinary blog readers!) Here are the 5 comments that kept coming back:

Comment 1: There is no reason to wait for Contador

My perspective: I fully agree, there isn’t. This is racing.

Comment 2: The stage 1 crash is not comparable to the dropped chain from last year’s Tour.

My perspective: Of course it isn’t, but if we have to wait until Contador drops his chain before we can judge how others respond, we can wait a long time since he is a professional bike rider. My point was not that the situations were similar, but rather that in both situations, team leaders had a choice. And the choices they made were pretty darn similar.

Comment 3: What else can Andy do?

My perspective: This is not about Andy, every team leader in the front group was given an opportunity to make a decision. And they took a legitimate one, just not the one some of them last year claimed they would take.

Comment 4: What are the team leaders supposed to do, drop out of the front group?

My perspective: This underestimates the power some team leaders have. If Andy or Cadel rides at the front and says “We slow down”, the peloton slows down. They weren’t actually going that fast at the time. And if not, at least he can say he tried (that’s the best actually, appear magnanimous and still take the advantage, see Vino in the 2010 Giro Strade Bianche stage). I’ll say it for the third time to avoid confusion, nobody HAS TO do this, they can.

Comment 5: The team leaders were merely riding in the pack after the crash.

My perspective: This sounds a bit hollow if you send your team mates to the front to speed up said pack.

Anyway, just my opinion, I realize you can look at this in many different ways that are totally legit as well. Thanks for all your comments on the blog page and on twitter, I appreciate it. As always, contact me about anything via the comments below or via @gerardvroomen.

2 responses for this Entry

S2 says:

July 09, 2011

Please continue to use whatever words most accurately and succinctly convey your intended meaning. It suggests that you have a wide vocabulary.

Decipher says:

July 08, 2011

Please avoid using the word "magnanimous" again; it's so very pretentious given that it has at least a couple of synonyms you could use instead and it makes you sound pompous. It really distracts me from what you have to say in a most appalling way.