Cyclists Show They Are Class Act During Tour de France

Were it not for Lance Armstrong, most Americans would probably not care too much about the Tour de France. Yea, the countryside is pretty, but there has to be a better way to see it than riding a bike across 2,000 miles of France for three weeks, right?

After what happened during Stage 14, athletes in all sports could learn a little something from the gentlemen in this year's race.

Apparently some idiot thought it would be a cool idea to throw a bunch of tacks on part of the road where the riders were going to cross during Stage 14. Once the pack reached the top of the last mountain of the day a bunch of them ran over these tacks and had to stop.

Racers do carry spare parts, and their teammates are there to help out too, but the time lost could put  a serious damper on someone's chances. Cadel Evans, last year's champ, was one of the roughly 30 guys that were stuck. He was in fourth place at the time, but by time he got moving--well, things were not looking good.

That is, until the rest of the lead pack made one of the grandest gestures of sportsmanship in recent history. Rather than put Evans and any other contenders that ran over a tack in a deep hole they slowed up the pace over the last 25 miles. As a result, Evans finished the day in roughly the same position as he started it.

Bradley Wiggins, the race leader, later stated that he knew something wrong had happened when so many people got holes. He didn't think it was right to benefit off of another's misfortune (and another person's dirty deed).

Can you think of any other sport where something like that would happen?