Originally Posted by Veloduo

I respect your opinion as much as anyone's, but there's a difference. Contact is expected. Back in my racing days -- such as they were -- I leaned on people, stuck out an elbow to hold a wheel, touched a hip or two to move someone over, shouted, used the odd choice euphemism, etc. But it's a whole other thing to ride dirty. McEwen rides dirty. Shame, because he has some physical class, but one suspects just not quite enough to go wheel-to-wheel with Boonen, Petacchi, and maybe even Hushovd. Those guys don't ride like Robbie M., mainly because they don't have to. McEwen, when he gets a whiff of somebody actually BEATING him, like Breschel appeared likely to do, stops at nothing to prevent it from happening. Screwed himself out of the green jersey in Paris last year because his "little man" craziness couldn't stand that the semi-washed up O'Grady was about to pip him in a sprint. Notice that he went after Stuey, not Boonen, who's got 6 or 7 inches on him and probably forty punds. He's a pric_. lance was a pric_, too, he just acquired a little polish over time.