The most dramatic way is to suffer an injury in an accident. Every year several riders are forced to withdraw with broken ribs, collar bones, wrists, etc. There have even been some fatal accidents. If you watched the 2011 Tour, you may remember the spectacular crash where a car bumped Juan-Antonio Flecha, whose fall somersaulted Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence. Blood everywhere! Ripped his pants clear off! Miraculously both were able to continue, but they each dropped about 20 places in the standings. Alexandre Vinokourov was not so lucky on that same day. After flying into a ravine full of trees on a wicked downhill crash, he had to leave the race with a broken leg.
Of the 198 riders who started the 2011 Tour, 31 failed to finish. Most from injuries, a few from fatigue, discouragement or illness, and some for being just plain too slow! You see, there is a rule that riders must finish the race within a certain time delay after the first rider crosses the line. Otherwise, they are not allowed to continue the next day. Four riders suffered that embarrassment in 2011.
Only one rider wins the yellow jersey, or the other prize jerseys. Of those who try for one of those prizes, most do not lose by leaving the race, but for more subtle reasons. They might have just one bad day in the mountains or in a time trial. They might get caught up in an accident-even without injuries–at an inopportune time in a critical stage. They might lose an essential teammate. Or their best might just not be quite as good as their chief competitor’s best.
Curiously, there is one loser in every Tour de France who wins a special prize. He is known as the Lanterne Rouge (the Red Lantern). It is just what you think–the red lantern hanging on the end of a train’s caboose. To "win" this prize, he must finish the race, but he must come in last place. It actually has some value–perverse bragging rights, post-race appearance fees, name forever remembered, etc. (No one remembers who was second-to-last!)
In 1979 two riders were neck-and-neck for last place going into the final time trial. They both rode as slow as possible, and one was 1 minute 40 seconds slower than the other–slow enough to win the Red Lantern. But wait! He was outside the time limit, based on the winning time for that stage. He was disqualified from the race, and the second-slowest turtle won the coveted prize after all. So, we only remember the name of Gerhard Schönbacher.
It seems like there ought to be a moral to this story, but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is.
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dad, you crack me up! But I think I figured out the moral--don't go back for your wife, even if does give you a second chance of fame! or should I say infamy?
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