Has Tour changed for ever with "Chaingate" incident?

Having seen it again on a few shows yes, I have changed my mind to an extent. Schleck clearly made a shifting error but it does seem a shame that contador goes on the attack when the mech happened. Especially with the time differences being so close now. Winning because another rider dropped a chain cant be as gratifying as winning because they couldnt stick with you on the slopes.

Rider error. That is all.

As a non-racer, I don't see what the problem is.

It's a race! A 3 week race at that. Wear your opponent down. Take advantage of the luck that comes your way. Granted, it's not nice, but that is the nature of competition. Taking part is not the most important thing.

Neutralising the race reduces the spectacle and drama, and opens the door to the "professional foul".

No way in my opinion can anyone slag Contador off for doing that I think he was perfectly entitled to do so. Its a bike race for men not an afternoon outing by the YMCA(God bless them) so these things happen maybe if it was a personal injury accident then yes maybe stop but if Contador had stopped would the others in contention have stopped? Probably not. Go to it Alberto dont let it affect you, win if you can. Alan Jett

Whilst I have every admiration for the way Schleck fought back on the climb I can't see what grounds he has for criticising Contador - I didn't see anyone else stopping. That's cycling. The slow-mo on TV tonight showing Schlecks rear wheel jumping in the air was interesting - what did cause that - a jam between chainwheel and guard?
All set up nicely for the next stage now.......

Makes it more interesting in my opinion.

with you on that simonmb

UPDATE: I see Contador has just issued an apology. Kind of makes things worse in my mind...

I think the real sadness is that we were deprived of a great finish to the stage and, although I've got huge admiration for Schleck, I think he would have been shown to have made a mistake in attacking where and when he did. Contador was clearly the fresher of the two and I don't think Schleck could have stayed away. As far as the ethical fallout goes - Contador is the loser. Not because he attacked while his adversary's chain was off, but because he didn't have the balls to just shrug his shoulders at the end and say "Hey, that's racing".

Oh come off it JTC, he didn't have a mechanical he made a mistake when he attacked, perfectly legitimate for everybody else to profit from that. Top level sport is a ruthless business forcing errors is part of the game, as are unforced errors, Scheck's cack-handed gear change could come under either of those categories.

You play to the rules not the unwritten ones. Oh, and the kicking the ball out in football analogy, well that particular unwritten rule gets abused all the time and in fact the practice itself is often used to gain an advantage.

Anyway, if everyone stopped every time one of their opponents made a mistake sporting contests would take a very long time indeed and the Tour in particular would be pretty boring, this year's race has been fantastic.