Conversely, while I don’t like Contador, I also have to admit that in the world of rowing it is very rare (although not unheard of) to wait for a competitor that has has a mechanical issue. A few years back in Henley, Harvard was racing an English crew and Harvard had some sort of breakage in the middle of the race. The English crew was behind at the time of the breakage and was easily pulling through when Harvard had the issue. Instead of continuing to row through Harvard for the easy win the English crew stopped and requested a restart from the official. The request was granted, Harvard fixed its issue, and Harvard went onto win the race. Definitely an honorable approach on the English crew’s part.

Unfortunately I think this approach is too rare in sports these days and I have to admit I myself have been in two events with a breakage issue where I personally did not stop and took advantage of the situation (both times for a victory). I can argue that in both situations there were other crews racing who would not have stopped had I chosen to stop, but the reality is that I might have done the same thing even if it was a two boat race. Definitely not an easy thing to due to take the pressure off when you are hard wired to do everything in your power to go faster than your opponent… and even more telling when someone graciously does take the pressure off in the name of fair play.