How the decline of sports ethics and social morals is celebrated
The Hell of the North is the title of the cobblestone anachronism over 255km with 29 pavé (cobblestone) sectors totalling 54.5km [1]. The torture for man and material on the rough, listed cobblestone profiles from the Napoleonic era are the namesake for this cycling monument with its unique route character. This year’s 120th edition showed its hellish face in particular on the last extreme five-star pavé sector (Carrefour de l’Arbre), in the crash drama involving the German captain John Degenkolb of Team DSM. Any attack in this section of the race could mean the preliminary decision for victory, as all the tactically trained protagonists in the leading group realised as they entered this sector. Degenkolb wanted to use all his experience – he had already won the race in 2015 – to use the special features of the terrain for a skilful manoeuvre in order to gain an advantage over the favourites, whose youthful liveliness for interval attacks he could only counter with his permanent speed. The following image sequences (Fig. 1 – 4) from the original recordings of the race clearly show how an unsportsmanlike drama unfolded in four acts, of which the German was the victim.
To prepare his attack and prevent his rivals from attacking, Degenkolb moves out onto the right-hand shoulder next to the pavé in the first part of the sector. In the dry conditions, it’s a little easier and faster to ride there than on the centre of the jogging track, and it’s also easier to control the leading group from this position and counter any attacks from behind. Of course, top favourite Matthieu van der Poel, who was riding directly behind him, immediately recognised the danger to his own winning ambitions and decided to put an end to Degenkolb’s plan as quickly as possible, with the active support of his noble domestique Philipsen from the same team (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who offered his captain the decisive slipstream advantage in the lead. Unfortunately, van der Poel used the means of gross unsportsmanlike behaviour in his “neutralisation attempt”, as the following detailed analysis shows. Knowledge of the wind direction is also of decisive importance for the assessment of the race situation. On the images in the Eurosport sequence [2], the flags waving in the wind can be recognised at 00min:10sec (double flag at the bottom left) and 00min:14sec (French national flag on the field on the left). These clearly mark the wind direction in the direction of travel from the left as seen by the racers. The following image commentaries describe the development of the fall provocation in the four decisive sequences.
