B_Doughtie wrote:
I see it as an optics problem. Whether fair/unfair, rules were broken or not broken (I guess only Dreitz and Lange can truly answer that), it looks really bad when you have 2 guys in the same kit working/talking together. This was just "different" than 3 different non-"teammates" working together for the same cause. This was more in your face, straddling the "legality" of things.
As you stated, only two people can answer that, and since if they admitted what they were really doing it would result in some really bad press at a minimum, they won't, I expect we'll see much more of this in the future. It's f****** depressing.
My 0.02: what Lange and Dreitz did was just another nail in the coffin to the integrity of a sport that is already rife with doping.
Anybody that spends time Road biking, or watching road races at high levels can recognize when two people are working together in a domestique / GC Contender relationship. That's exactly what it was on Saturday. It's disgusting.
Blatant doesn't begin to describe it.
All credit to his 2017 win, he earned that one with smart, solo racing, and guts.
Lange 2018 is a co champ with Drietz. He didn't earn it on his own. At a minimum his win and record deserve an asterisk.