Inertianinja

i love when stuff like this happens.

SactoDoug

Like what? I see an "L" in his right hand and his thumbs touching or maybe thumb to pinky? Is that supposed to be a blanked out middle finger?

Velo Gator

It's a W

LowCel 

It is a "W" for his friend that passed away in the Giro, Wouter Weylandt.

taos07

How is this a lack of class?

Walter

Maybe the OP wasn't being sarcastic?

Commodus

Yeah it was nice, he did that in...uh, whatever race was his previous victory. ...

Ster ZLM Toer. I had to look it up.

I guess it's going to be his victory salute now, I like it. I mean I don't know why some guy missing his friend makes any kind of difference, but somehow it makes me like the guy.

LowCel 

Edited the title to warn of the spoiler.

Mike F

Compared to other "professional" sports, I think bike racing is the classiest without a doubt. Weather it be making a tribute to a deceased rider, the camaraderie between rivals (remember the stink Choice got for asking Vick for an autograph after a game for his nephew) and the teamwork.

2ndGen

ibtm

taos07

I think a super classy thing to do is lick your finger and get spit on the camera lens.

Inertianinja

i said it is classy. he dedicated his win to the rider that died.

SactoDoug

I get it, but why are his fingers blanked out?

kenji666

Lance would always point up to the sky when he crossed the finish line first in tribute to his friend and Motorola teammate Fabio Casartelli.

LowCel 

Not necessarilly classy but I do think it was cool. As hard as they are working out there they still take a few seconds to have a little fun.

As far as classy goes, I also think it was awesome how the peleton slowed down slightly and let the one racer take off so he could have a few seconds to say hello to his family in the middle of the race. It's not the same thing, but when I was racing I remember racers asking if anyone would have a problem with them taking off the front so their family could would see them and get a picture of them leading the race.

Walter

Very nice thread and I really don't want to move it but we need to be consistent since we decided to keep one TdF thread in Road.

Sorry.

Inertianinja

yep. it's awesome that we have moments like this to remember. classy, poignant moments.
unlike the "cyclists" on this forum who immediately think it's a "blanked out middle finger" or that i was being "sarcastic" rather than just doing a quick google search to see what it was.

Inertianinja

i didn't even hear about that....
probably the only sport in the world where stuff like could happen. pretty cool.

taos07

Point well taken, but... Since when are people not sarcastic on this board? I mean really...

Inertianinja

well the problem is that so many people on this board click on a thread and try so hard to come up with some snarky response that it makes for a horrible experience. they're also not funny.

kenji666

Talk about classy. On Stage 16 (day after Casartelli died in the 1995 TdF), the peloton let Team Motorola win, and they all finished together in tribute to their fallen teammate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX9Un...eature=related

DiabloScott

Hey, that's one of mine!

https://www.youtube.com/user/diabloscott?feature=mhee

Namenda

Exactly. Sometimes, its exceedingly difficult to have a cycling-related conversation here. The more cycling-oriented a thread is, the more likely it is that someone will try to derail it with an insult, or with a lousy attempt at humor at the OP's expense. This particular subforum is a little better than most, but not by much. Insults, off-topic posts, trolling, and disruption are all supposedly against forum rules, but you rarely see anything done about it unless it gets way out of hand. With that said, I well understand that moderators don't see everything.

As for Farrar's salute, I like it, and I hope other follow suit. I'm sure Weylandt's family and girlfriend appreciate the sentiment, too. Gone, but not forgotten.

Keith99

There are many things I like in the traditions of cycling. A few more incidents:

When Luis Ocana crashed out of the TDF Eddy Merckx refused to wear Yellow the next day. (Ocana had 10 minutes on Merckx and would likely have been the only rider to beat Merckx in a Grand Tour between his first and lat win).

I always forget the rider who did this, but not the one who benefitted. In the Giro Perez was set to be the first Mexican rider to win a stage, he was about 55 seconds up on a chasing group. Just under a minute turned out to be very important. No cars between him and the chase group. He had a mechanical and no help until the group was past him and any hope vanished. A couple of stages later he is on a 2 man break with the eventual GC winner. Like the stage a couple of days before it is in the mountians. This time they are working as a team, sharing the work and putting tome on everyone else. Between 1 and 2 miles from the finish they change the lead just as they hit a steep section and Preez cannot even keep the wheel. The Other rider would have been justified in dropping him and taking as much time as possible, instead he slowed a little and lead until just before the finish. Class, and it did cost him a score of seconds. (But still less than they had gained).

But I ahve competed in many sports and know class comes through in many. Heck, soccer has a tradition if kicking the ball out when a player on the other team in injured. And Adam Gilchrist has been known to walk off as a batsman in a full test match when called safe (but was in fact out).

Laggard

They aren't.