Etiquette in sport usually develops over generations and is a delicate beast; everyone has to use it equally and honestly. Let's hope Froome hasn't started something.
The media’s coverage and fans’ social media commentary, not to mention the post stage interviews with riders and team staff, were dominated by one thing after yesterday’s stage of the Tour de France; the crash in the final.
The sight of the crowds on the climb to the finish blocking a TV camera moto only for the main GC contenders behind to crash into it and then for Chris Froome to be left running up the climb were shambolic.
The sight of the yellow jersey doing an impression of a triathlete as he was on the attack trying to gain time in the world’s biggest bike race will go down in the folklore of the event.
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Froome’s crash was not his own fault and the Tour’s loss of control at times in recent years – over race vehicles and the crowds – undoubtedly embarrassed the race into revising the finish times yesterday so that nobody was disadvantaged.
But did Froome abuse his position as race leader – and the respect the peloton gives to the yellow jersey – after a crash earlier in the stage (below), long before the late stage dramatic events unfolded?
Simon Gerrans falls first and Team Sky's Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas all end up off the back as a result. And while this clip shows Froome pulling in, what it doesn't show is that he was then joined by his team mates and some of them got back on with him.
On the Tour – indeed any stage race – the etiquette dictates rivals of the yellow jersey should not take advantage of the leader if he or she suffers a mishap.
A crash or puncture by the yellow jersey should not be followed by rivals and their team mates seizing the misfortune by beginning to drive the pace or by attacking; certainly not when the real racing had not already begun.
When Froome – facing what was going to be a testing final despite Mont Ventoux proper having been axed from the stage – stopped for crashed team mates with 32km to go, what exactly was he doing?
He knew if he hung back and waited for those three other riders from Team Sky who crashed or were held up it was very unlikely anyone would attack; not least because all the opposition would see and hear was the yellow jersey going off the back because of a mishap.
And from that point the etiquette would kick in and nobody would take advantage.
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Froome swings over from this position in what was an already select group and waited. And the group waited for him waiting for his team mates.
But what became clear very quickly was that Froome himself was in no difficultly. The clip in this piece clearly shows him calmly pulling to one side and waiting.
He was choosing to wait for the biggest assets he has on this race apart from his own physiology; his team mates who would protect him and work for him in the final.
The result was the group he was in - which was quite small after lots of riders had been dropped - slowed up and many just off the back were able to get back on; the rest of the race and all the individual battles in it clearly not counting for much.
Fabian Cancellara appeared to be the rider encouraging the others to wait, though at the very end of the clip above one of the Movistar riders appears to be protesting.
Intentional or not, the net result was that Froome's yellow jersey status acted as leverage to ensure the crash did not rob him of his team mates.
But the etiquette is not intended for that reason; it’s intended to ensure the yellow jersey himself does not suffer because he himself experienced bad luck.
What would happen up the road in the final kilometre was not of Froome’s doing.
But the incident with 32km remaining sets a dangerous precedent; Team Sky expecting and being granted a level of fair play that nobody else would ever ask for or be granted.
Etiquette in sport usually develops over generations and is a delicate beast; everyone has to use it equally and honestly. Let's hope Froome hasn't started something.
Gerrans is out of the race
That's the end of my #tdf2016 I can't find words to describe how disappointed I am. pic.twitter.com/DgsyxHRYpT
— Simon Gerrans (@simongerrans) July 14, 2016
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