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Michael Albasini wins the first stage of the Tour de Romandie.

#Michael Albasini #Albasini #Orica-GreenEdge #Tour de Romandie #Cycling #Scott

Geraint Thomas in the breakaway with Michael Albasini

#team sky #Sky Pro Cycling #orica greenedge #Geraint Thomas #Michael Albasini #tour de france #tdf stage 21

We need to talk about Kévin

After a mediated handshake, not much seems open for discussion regarding the incident in which Michael Albasini used a racial slur against Kévin Reza. Albasini clarified his unrepeatable remark as a misunderstanding under duress of being in a breakaway. Alas, the Albasini test for racism would be: work your heart rate up to Zone 4 or 5, say some ethnic slurs, then figure out if you mean it or if you are just stressed. What a crock of bullshit! That the almighty ASO actually involved itself to resolve the situation indicates how the Tour de France org feared the incident may blow up and tarnish the event.

I skimmed through the English language coverage of l’affaire Albasini by a few big cycling media outlets and found most to be cursory at best. Cycling Weekly has the most detailed article focusing on the incident and its resolution. Cyclingnews, as of now, has posted nothing about the incident. VeloNews writes about it and provides context by referencing Nairo Quintana’s experience with racism from his interview with Solo CIclismo, excerpted and translated on Cycling Inquisition, though neither source was cited in the article. VN also, curiously, got a comment from Robbie Hunter, a white South African, who insists professional cycling is a “very tolerant place.” If anyone knows about being on the shitty end of institutional racism, it’s definitely a white man from South Africa, right? Looking at huge non-English (i.e., not my first nor second language) outlets that cover pro cycling, L’Equipe has a paragraph, lifted mostly from Sud Ouest, and La Gazzetta dello Sport has nothing so far. I’m curious about coverage in other areas of the world, considering Tour de France is the biggest cycling event.

It’s discomforting to think about how much Andrew Talansky’s grueling Stage 11 solo ride was written up compared to this l’affaire Albasini. One kind of suffering is glorified and eaten up, while another kind of suffering—suffering that has consequences way beyond the Tour—gets little press. As far as media attention goes, I’m not quite sure which is worse: zero coverage, or coverage that only makes an effort to interview a subject speaking from a completely opposite end of societal privilege. The Tour includes riders from Colombia, China, Japan, etc. If those riders could’t be reached there with a dictaphone, why not reach out for a comment via e-mail from riders on MTN Qhubeka, a team racing in Europe with a focus on riders from Africa? When it comes to divisive topics, I’d rather read a story with more depth later than a story filed quickly.

Race and racism in pro cycling is a topic that’s more taboo than doping in a lot of ways. It’s ridiculous that an incident like this has to happen at all, but I’m also disappointed enormously that I only see reporting on this story done by white bike race reporters uncomfortable with racism, yet none by people of color who write from the perspective of having experienced its ugliness. It’s not that there’s a concerted effort to exclude other voices in cycling media (not citing a Colombian site for their interview counts as exclusion, actually) but their lack contributes to status quo of professional cycling’s hegemony as a traditionally European male sport. In 2014, “traditional European male sport” sounds like the most boring thing you can follow.

One of my favorite things about Team Europcar is their roster’s diversity that doesn’t reek of tokenism or sponsor pandering with riders hired from certain markets. It’s fantastic that Jean-René Bernaudeau backed up his commitment to diversity by expressing his disapproval directly and firmly to Albasini. Other teams as well as cycling media need to get on Europcar’s level. I trust that there’s no misunderstanding about this?

#tour de france #tdf #tdwtf #kevin reza #michael albasini #europcar #orica greenedge #race #racism

TOUR DE FRANCE. Le coureur Michael Albasini a-til traité Kevin Reza de sale nègre ?

#TOUR_DE_FRANCE. Le coureur Michael Albasini a-til traité Kevin Reza de sale nègre ?

Par Marco

Kevin Reza

Que se passe-t-il au tour de France ? Racisme ? Info ou intox ? Ah, tiens, il y a un coureur noir dans ce tour ! Alors que Jean-René Bernaudeau, le directeur sportif de l’équipe Europcar, accusait Michael Albasini d’avoir tenu des propos racistes envers son coureur Kevin Reza, le coureur suisse de la formation Orica-GreenEdge s’est excusé mercredi matin auprès du Français…

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#Kevin Reza #Michael Albasini #Racisme #Sport #Tour de France

Jan Bakelants, Michael Albasini, Thomas Voeckler working very hard on the final climb of stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie. 10km to go. 1 min gap to the peloton.

#michael albasini #jan bakelants #thomas voeckler #tour de romandie #orica-greenedge #omega pharma-quick step #cycling race #fribourg