David Zabriskie had worn the Yellow Jersey since Day One of the Tour. During Tuesday’s team time trial, he crashed his bike out of the stage and into the barriers, costing him almost :90 seconds to the finish.
While this clearly placed Lance Armstrong into the Yellow Jersey on Tuesday, he refused to start the race on Wednesday wearing Yellow. His gesture was out of respect and deference to young David Zabriskie. “Armstrong felt it was no way to take the lead away from him,” described Phil Liggett in his daily wrap-up.
And so we learn lessons about Honor for the Game. In the book Double Goal Coach, Jim Thompson talks about Honoring the Game, something far more than simple sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is mainly about restraining bad behavior. “Don’t yell at the officials, don’t thumb your nose at the losers.” Honoring the Game goes beyond sportsmanship to “energize and motivate people to live up to their best, rather than being simply constrained from acting down to their worst.”
Today, we saw Honor for the Game. Of course, Tour officials saw things a little differently and threatened to disqualify Lance should he not don the Jersey, so he eventually complied.
As a Manager in your organization, how do you teach your team members Honor for the Game? -TF
Tour Standings after Stage 5
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 13:45:12.000
2 004 HINCAPIE, George USA DSC 13:46:07.000
3 028 VOIGT, Jens GER CSC 13:46:16.000
4 023 JULICH, Bobby USA CSC 13:46:19.000
5 008 RUBIERA, José Luis ESP DSC 13:46:26.000
6 007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR DSC 13:46:28.000
7 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 13:46:33.000
8 005 NOVAL GONZALEZ, Benjamin ESP DSC 13:46:38.000
9 029 ZABRISKIE, David USA CSC 13:46:38.000
10 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 13:46:38.000
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