Greatness is not a zero-sum game

A win is "only because the other one was not there." A record is "asterisked" before the rider has even crossed the line. Every performance gets weighed on a scale where one side has to go down for the other to go up.

It doesn't work like that. Greatness is not a zero-sum game.

The riders themselves know this. Watch them at the finish. Watch the hand on the shoulder, the small nod, the quiet word before the cameras swing in. Tadej and Jonas have spent years pushing each other to places neither of them could have reached alone. They respect each other as fierce competitors because they understand what it costs to be at that level. They are not asking us to pick a side. We are doing that all on our own.

I'll be honest with you. I'm a Remco Evenepoel fan. I have been for a long time. And part of what I love about following him is that I see his flaws clearly. The days where the legs aren't there. The races where the tactics don't land or he loses his temper. The moments where he is, simply, human. Those flaws don't make him smaller to me. They make him real to me.

I think we have forgotten that you are allowed to see beauty in someone who is not your favourite. You are allowed to watch a rival do something extraordinary and just... let it be extraordinary. You don't have to defend your guy by tearing the other one down. Your guy doesn't need that. He never asked for it.

Jonas Vingegaard has just become the eighth rider in history to complete the Grand Tour treble. Eighth. In history. Think about what that list looks like. Think about the years of suffering, the sacrifices made far from cameras, the family time given up, the bad weather and bad luck survived to get there. This is a career-defining moment for a man who has earned every centimetre of it. It deserves to be celebrated. By all of us. Not just by the people wearing his colours.

And let me say the other part too. Tadej Pogačar will, almost certainly, be the ninth name on that list. He is rewriting records in races he probably shouldn't even be racing. What he is doing right now is historic, and people will talk about this era for as long as the sport exists. Both of these things are true at the same time. They have to be.

Before you type the next comment, ask yourself a small question. Does my hero actually need me to do this for him? Would he want me to?

Cheer loud. Argue about tactics. Disagree about who is the better climber, the better time triallist, the better tactician, and who has the better team support. That's the fun of being a fan. But leave the cruelty out of it. There is enough of that everywhere else.

Be kind. To the riders. To each other. To this sport that gives us so much.

It really is that simple.