Cycling & bikes - Time to make the unofficial Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France official

On Saturday, July 22, 2017 at 11:01:51 PM UTC+1, Andre Jute wrote:
It's time to make the unofficial Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France official, as it is official in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, another brutal competition, where it honors finishing a race in which fewer people have finished than have ascended Mount Everest, and even multiple champions in off-years say they would honored by the recognition of the effort. See http://www.bbc.com/sport/wales/40691555
and
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps...kerowe_reu.jpg

Luke Rowe rode the race with a broken rib to support his team leader, Chris Froome to the yellow jersey. His energy spent, Rowe then came last on the penultimate stage.

Andre Jute
"Eddie the Eagle was still better than youse guys who didn't make the team"

Trust the idiot organizers of the Tour, and the cycling authorities in general, to turn a major cause for celebration and a potential promotional bonanza into a nastiness. On another forum a poster replied to the above, explaining what happened in the past:

" Time to make the unofficial Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France official
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2017, 06:54:08 AM »

"It used to be. There was a black jersey for the last rider and, for some years, the last rider was thrown out of the race each day. The two problems were that the jersey glorified a rider who had no right to be glorified and that throwing out the last rider led to strategic connivances.

"How?

"Well, if you are last rider and riding for team A and the rider ahead of you is in team B, then you know you'll be thrown out at the end of the day anyway. But if you drop out voluntarily - because what have you got to lose? - it's team B that loses a rider and therefore a rival that is weakened.

"happy days

"léo"

See how everything follows from the prissy attempt to punish a rider who is still better than the millions who weren't good enough to make any team? Not only a missed opportunity but an opening to game the rules and thereby undermine the validity of the contest. All so predictable to any manager with his brains in gear -- which I will never accuse the road racing authorities of achieving even momentarily. Why can't cycling get rid of these dim blazers and hire a competent sporting manager, says from Formula One or NASCAR or tennis, to name just those that come to mind instantly, where they have so many competent promoters, they can surely spare a few for cycling. Just because a sport has its roots in the working classes, doesn't mean it has to have shop stewards with Stalinist control complexes as its bosses, mindlessly wrecking everything, of which the missed opportunity of celebrating the Red Lantern is merely symptomatic of the larger malaise.

Andre Jute
"Eddie the Eagle was still better than youse guys who didn't make the team"