Professional Cycling For the Fans - Gifting A TDF Stage Win

I have a few questions about being gifted TDF stage wins.

1. If two riders are together, and they're both in position to win a stage, is it normal Tour protocol for the rider who did the most work to be given the win?

2. If one of the two riders in Question #1 has the yellow jersey, it it customary for the yellow jersey holder to let the other rider have the stage win?

3. How do riders generally feel about being gifted a stage victory? I know that Pantani never forgave LA for being gifted a stage win. But in this year's TDF, I didn't hear anything from Schleck about how he felt being given the win by Contador on the Tourmalet (though from what I saw it could have gone either way of Schleck being given a gift or that he would have won that stage no matter what).

I hope that these questions aren't too stupid. But the only way to learn more is to ask.

1. Generally

2. It depends. These days it does not matter as much with the change in time bonuses. People get way too hung up on winning a stage or more if you are in yellow. It started in Rotterdam and ended in Paris and the guy who did it in the least amount of time wins. The rest is commentary.
In other words if there was a 20 second tme bonus for winning a stage it might be a bigger deal.
Contador won no stages in this past Tour, but he did get to Paris in the most rapid fashion. That's what counts.

3. If you do the work and someone else is benefiting from said work, then the payoff is the stage win. Nobody should be angry about that.

Look, when I was racing in Belgium guys used to pay off other riders to let them win. There would actually be bidding and arguments about who was paying the most.

Thanks for your response. I know that the rider with the lowest total time wins, even if he doesn't win a stage. But I wasn't sure about some of the finer points of Tour etiquette.

Bartali was once gifted a stage by Copi. They made an agreement that Copi would let Bartali have the stage and Copi would get the TDF

By the way, Copi and Bartali both waited for each other several times when the other punctured or crashed.

"Etiquette" is just a euphemism. "Revenge-control" would be a more appropriate term for it.

On a stage whe both riders care about the stage win who did the most work means nothing.

The most important part is keeping your word. The most common situation ios where one rider cares about time and the other a stage. They work like teammates and build (or conserve) more time. One rider gets the time he wants the other a stage.

From what I've seen riders are usually fine with being 'gifted' a stage.

What riders are NOT fine with is when they have to sprint for a stage and then having the other rider sayh he gifted the stage, as in the Armstrong Pantani situation.

I know that Pantani never forgave LA for being gifted a stage win.

It wasn't being gifted a win that was the issue, it was Lance being a d*ck and saying that he had gifted Pantani the win, after, Pantani had worked his ass off for it. Lance didn't help matters by calling him "Elefantino," which was not a nickname that Pantani was fond of.

like pantani couldn't have won a mountain stage on his own...but he proceeded to torture lance through the mountains as revenge. They said the same thing when Virenque won the Ventoux...lance just didn't want to chase after him which was perfectly sensible. Anyways, he later said that anyone who suffers like that for two hours deserves to win!