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Monday 16 July 2012

Fair Play from Bradley Wiggins

He who fixes the computer always enjoys this time of year, because he has full permission to watch as much cycle racing as he likes in the form of the Tour de France - he has a little nosey at some of the other races, but he follows the TdF from start to finish.
Yesterday's stage brought with it a good deal of excitement and controversy when a saboteur threw carpet tacks onto the road in front of the pelaton. Needless to say, there were a lot of punctures, in both bicycles and support vehicles, as well as a broken collar bone for one of the riders. It was a pretty serious mess, but it could have been even worse.
It also meant that racing for the stage was effectively over, as some of the race leaders were among the worst affected, most notably Cadel Evans. Yellow jersey wearer (race leader) Bradley Wiggins, seeing the chaos ensuing and that Evans was being unfairly impeded, slowed the pelaton to allow everyone to regroup, earning himself much praise for good sportsmanship. He insisted later that he had simply done the right thing and would hope that others would do the same for him. There must have been a part of him that wanted to take advantage of the situation to extend his lead over Evans, but by his actions he demonstrated that if he's going to win, he wants to do so fairly.
Bradley Wiggins Story
I wonder about the mind of the culprit - what was his motivation, what was he trying to achieve, and did he not consider the consequences of his actions? In the same incident, two completely opposite characters were revealed - that of the culprit, who mindlessly endangered the cyclists, and that of Wiggins, who put aside competition for the sake of fair play. See, even a cycle race can offer inspiration for the writer!
Good luck to Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome!

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