Originally Posted by
Racer Ex
Mr. Sacre was allowed to stay in the game despite being disqualified. Different situation. Utterly. Actually weakens your point since the whole reason that particular rules exists in basketball is precisely because 5 against 4 is utterly hopeless for the shorthanded team.
... The "team" competitions you reference are rewarded not for collective effort towards a goal, but rather for an aggregate of individuals based on time. It's like rewarding a basketball team for the best field goal percentage even if they get blown out.
Like a fast break with the clock at 3 seconds in basketball, you'd like to be 3 on 1 heading to the finish line. Yes, LeBron might swat the ball back into your face but he's certainly going to do that if you're 1 on 1. See Cancellera, Fabian. ...
First, the team competition
can be played using collective effort. One can imagine filling a team full of strong domestique type riders, guys who can get into the top 10 but not the top 3, and dominating the team competition. Certainly Lance Armstrong's salary would have bought 3 or 4 top 10 riders. It's just not played that way because individual results are more difficult to achieve and thus more valuable. Do you think this will change if everyone on the team gets a yellow jersey? The most valuable guy on the team will still be the guy who crosses the line first, only, it'll be harder to differentiate this fellow because he's wearing the same jersey as the rest of his teammates.
Second, if you started Lebron James, solo, against a full team of starters, he'd get his ass kicked. Might never get past half court to the own basket to even attempt a shot. Not so in a bike race. Put Cancellera, solo, into a race where he'd be expected to do well, and he still has a shot at winning, might even be the favorite, despite not having teammates.
Unless stone tablets sent from Yahweh have commanded it to be so, how we currently reward (or don't) teams is an artificial construct, like anything in sports.
Some of you would live in mud huts because we always have lived in mud huts and we make huts out of mud. Jumping up and down pointing at mud is not a "cogent rebuttal" to a motion that brick may be a superior building material.
Event Services was suggesting a shift in how racers on a team are rewarded for an effort that produces a winning result in things like the Olympics and Nats. Examining the facts, the argument for has merit.
We can reward teammembers any way we want. We can give them all trophies and jerseys and money. We can mention them in race introductions. Sure. But the dude who crosses the line first will always be the rider most valued. You can fill a Tour de France team with Hinicapies and you'll never get that team the GC win. You can take one Lance Armstrong (juiced version), give him no teammates whatsoever, and he'd still be a favorite to win. That truth dictates the actual rewards and recognition, not any particular participation/recognition system of rewards.