Why are forum posters so mean to Andy?

I hardly dare read any of the cycling forums: the mere mention of "Andy Schleck" seems to invite a torrent of abuse.

"Cry-Baby Schleck" they call him. For standing up for himself? For making his opinion known? Even back at Chaingate, he wasn't crying about it - he stated clearly that he "would not have ridden like that".

"Can't even change gears without slipping a chain" they say. Not true: Andy has always said that he wasn't changing gears, the chain just dropped. I'm not a good enough cycling observer to see it for myself, although even I can see that he clearly goes over a bump/hole in the road just before it happens.  I can't see if he is changing gear or not, but if he says he wasn't: well, that's good enough for me.

"Can't descend a flight of stairs without Kim holding his hand." Patently untrue - is he still stuck up the top of a mountain anywhere? No, I think not. Of course he's not as good a descender as Nibali, or Sammy "Scary Forehead" Sanchez: who is? Descending is not his speciality: that would be Climbing, and Being Able To Ride For Three Weeks Non-stop.

"Rubbish at TT" they say. Excuse me, if you accept that the Tour contains the best riders in the world, both he and Frankie were in the top 20 at last year's TT. That's hardly "rubbish". Again, not his best discipline, but there are some riders who specialise in TT, and all the rest of them are not as good.

"Always whining" they say. Not entirely fair, we read the interviews in English, which is not his first, or even his second language: furthermore, they may even have been re-translated into English from German, French, Italian or even from Luxembourgish. It's easy to lose the nuance and flavour of a quote when it's been through translation a couple of times. He was asked for his opinion of a parcours, and he replied that he didn't think a Tour should be decided by descending: that's an opinion, not a whine. Now he is standing up for himself against Mr Bruyneel, and they still say he's whining?

"Anorexic - too skinny" they say. Oh, well, hardly: have you seen the amount he eats? And have you seen his identically-slender brother? It's genetics, people, the pair of them are built that way, as are the majority of serious climbers in the peloton. I doubt they will ever be fat!

"I've lost my love for Andy Schleck a long time ago"  Well, that wasn't "love" then, was it? As they say, "A true fan is not one who has been there since the beginning, a true fan is one who is there until the end."  People go through phases of support for individuals, then move on: that's fine, and perfectly understandable, but no reason to be mean about your former favourite. Just move on! Leave him alone!

And now we turn to Basic Psychology: the reasons behind all this venom.

1) over-identification of self-esteem.

Here's the picture: A Person picks their favourite - possibly based more on their looks, or their personal charm, than their cycling ability. They declaim loudly on the internet "My boy is going to win: he's the greatest, he's fantastic, any of you who don't support him are stupid, no-one else comes near him, he's gonna WIN he's gonna WIN" and the subtext includes "and I am so clever, gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable about cycling".

Then their favourite (it's not just Andy I'm talking about, btw) fails to perform one day, and suddenly the Person is saying that the rider is rubbish, they are useless, etc etc.

Why? Simple reason: the Person concerned has linked themselves with the rider, has staked their reputation, if you like, on that rider winning, and when they don't, well, it reflects badly on the Person. They feel that they have chosen badly, shown bad judgement, failed to spot the real winner, and now everyone is laughing at them because it has been shown that they don't, actually, know that much about cycling after all, otherwise they would have chosen the right winner.

So the rider has let them down - made them look stupid and foolish, and they lash out spitefully.

Is any of this sounding familiar?

Even those who should know better are doing it:

 
Is there really any excuse for this? Who, exactly, does a tweet like this one help?

It certainly doesn't help Andy - don't you think he's already aware of his performance so far?

It doesn't help all of us who read it and who still support Andy - it's as though the writers of tweets like this are now trying to make "us" feel as stupid and foolish as "they" feel.

I can't imagine it makes the writers feel any better either, other than momentarily - they are bound to get a backlash from other tweeters or forum contributors, and how will they feel when they look back, in a few weeks' time, when Andy is performing better and they deign to support him again: when they read what they wrote in anger and humiliation, what will they feel?

2) Jealousy.

This one's really easy: the Person concerned supports a different cyclist, and simply envies Andy (or Bradley, or whoever) for having an enthusiastic fan base.

If your own pet rider is not doing particularly well at any given moment, it's easier to put down someone else in order to make "your" guy look better.

Also, there is an element of 1) in it: as it stands, on paper, Andy is not doing particularly well - he hasn't won anything this year, he hasn't made any spectacular attacks - and yet he still has his huge and enthusiastic fan base (that's us!), supporting him all the way. The Jealous Guy thinks "why are they making such a fuss of that Andy, who's done nothing? They aren't as clever as me, they can't see that they are wasting their time on him. I must tell them so, because I am so clever, and important, and knowledgeable and CORRECT  in my views, they must listen to what I say. In fact, it's my duty to tell them how stupid they are being, to support the wrong person."

And let's face it, it's easy to be jealous of Frandy - who in the peloton has a tee-shirt?  Let's see... hmmmm... well, Andy of course has Stomach of Anger: Jensi has "shut up legs", Johnny Hoogerland had a well-deserved barbed-wire teeshirt for a while. Who else? Not many, is the answer. Who else other than Frandy have flags with their faces on (Figgy, stop snorting about car flags, I can hear you)?  When you see a block of Lux ensign blue-and-white stripey flags along the route, you know (begging your pardon, Laurent Didier) who they are for. I am clearly somewhat biased on this, but I do think that the Schlecks, and Andy in particular, are possibly the most popular/well known cyclists out there at this time. Even people who know nothing about cycling have heard of them, whereas I say "Contador" and I get blank looks.

So, we have 1) over-identification, 2) jealousy, and we had better not forget 3) bloody-mindedness.

Or "Trolling" as it's known. Yes, there are some sad people out there who don't care what they say, they just want to stir people up and get some responses. Why do they do it? Just to be annoying? Just to get someone to tweet them, or tweet about them, or to respond to them in a forum? Do they feel this gives them credibility? Or power, in some sick, twisted way? In my opinion, it's the second worst thing about the internet.  (Third worst, if you include porn.) The only way to deal with them is to ignore them: by  responding, it just fans the flames and they get even more rude and insulting.

So, there are many reasons why people on the internet are mean to Andy. But it's a bit much when we, his own supporters, start doing it as well.

Here are the facts as I see them: Andy is a Tour guy. We know this to be true. He loves the Tour, it's his main goal of the year, and he will happily sacrifice all earlier chances to win, in order to use the races as specific "training" aids.

Read any book about cycling or cyclists (I've read quite a few now) and they all comment that the Tour is the biggest race in the cycling calender, and there are some riders who are only interested in winning the Tour. Andy is one of those. Deal with it.

Yes, it's annoying for fans, who would like to see him win earlier, would like to see him win lots of races - but ask yourself, for whose benefit is that? So that YOU look better? So that YOU can jump up and down on the sofa yelling  his name? Because YOU are embarrassed to be supporting a guy who doesn't seem to be winning anything yet? Are other people taunting you about your favourite's lack of performance? Please see Basic Psychology 1), above. Don't take it personally.

Of course, all this might well have to change now that the UCI rules about points are in place: all riders are going to have to learn this lesson, that they have to get as many UCI points as they can, in order to ensure continued Pro-team status for their team, and to maintain their personal transfer value. But for now, if a rider wants to concentrate on the Tour to the exclusion of all else, we have to accept their decision, and we have to trust that they know what they are doing.

Also, just occurred to me, another point that we have covered here in Schleckland many, many times: it's very easy for us armchair cyclists to say "pedal faster" or "get your back flatter" or "attack!" but we are not there, we don't know how Andy's body feels (stoppit, I can hear you, and you know perfectly well what I mean) (*stern look*) that is, we don't know if he's in pain from an old injury, a new injury, stomach upset, or whatever: plus we are not privy to what his coaches have planned, we are not an experienced DS, (or at least, I'm not, I don't know about you guys) so it really isn't any of our business to shout at him that he "should" be doing this, or that, at any given time.

I have also spent an interesting hour or so going back through some old posts on here, from last spring: guys, we were saying all the same things - "he's not on form yet" "he hasn't won anything yet"  "ah but he's just changed teams" "lots of pressure to perform" "injuries"  "knee not well" - and as we know, it worked out fine.

And this morning, there is a nice piece in the cycling news from Shack man Haydn Roulston, who says that the internal friction is not as bad as it sounds in the press: Andy is improving daily: the team are getting on well together: and he cunningly points out that there is still a month to go until the Tour, and those who are flying now might well have lost their peak by then.

So please, everyone out there, let's have a bit less drama, a bit more faith, and let's just enjoy the racing that we see, without wishing for a win every time.

Now for something to lighten the spirits, to end this rather dispiriting post: if you are feeling a bit "down" over this year so far, I can highly recommend going back to April or so of last year and reading some of the Schleckland news - some of it is quite funny! Waaay back then, (Canadian Schlecklanders take note) I was the one drawing attention to Ryder Hedjerdal by taking the mickey out of his name.  And Russian cycling! Anyone remember that? *screams with laughter* "blushes guiltily at being caught laughing at her own stuff, but actually, it's quite funny!*

Enjoy the rest of the Dauphine, and the start of the Tour de Suisse, and I'll be back next week to discuss them in detail.