There’s really nothing clever or witty to say about Alberto Contador’s decision to counterattack Andy Schleck during today’s Tour de France stage, after Schleck’s initial attack was foiled by a dropped chain. There’s probably a pretty good Swiss bike mechanic looking for a job right now, I guess that’s clever.

No, nothing cheeky or smart comes to mind regarding The Pistol’s attack today, because the move itself was nothing but shameful. It’s an unwritten rule not to attack an opponent immediately following a crash or mechanical problem. But more than that, it’s distasteful, and a sign of weakness.

Bike races — particularly grand tours — are spectacles of sport, elegant and grand. There was nothing either elegant or grand about watching Contador ride away from a helpless Schleck in what might prove the decisive moment in an otherwise riveting Tour.

But if there’s one person who is seething more than anyone around him realizes right now, it’s probably Alberto Contador.

This Tour de France, whether he would admit it or not, was all about proof for Contador. Proof that he could win with the field gunning for him. Proof that he could win without Lance or Bruyneel. Proof that he could beat all comers in what has been, practically since its beginning, one of simply the most epic Tours in recent memory.

Yes, Schleck put time into Contador on the cobbles, and then again, ever so slightly, in the mountains. But Contador has, for the most part, looked the stronger and more aggressive rider — at least until Schleck’s ill-fated attack today — and it was always fair to assume the slim gap Andy held over the defending champion could be brought back in the final time trial.

Contador was riding this Tour as his crowning achievement, and his alone. His Astana team drives the pace at every occasion, and he has quite often looked simply unbeatable. This Tour was Contador’s legacy.

Not anymore.

Now the diminutive Spanish climber has little to gain. He could match Schleck’s likely attacks from now until Paris, blow him away in the time trial and sip champagne on the Champs-Elysees, and his crowning victory would still be remembered for the one moment in which he adopted what Team Sky rider Greg Henderson later jokingly referred to as “prison rules.”

Despite all its troubles, cycling still fancies itself gentleman’s sport, with gentlemen’s rules, and Alberto Contador has fought hard against the perception that he doesn’t give his sport enough respect. Today, any pretense that he truly wants to win such a fight sailed off the Pyrenees cliffs, as Contador rode away from an opponent rendered useless, in a moment that likely solidifies his reputation forever.

Of course, this isn’t a defense of Contador. A knee-jerk reaction could be defended, an initial acceleration eventually slowed once adrenaline subsided and everyone realized what had happened to Schleck.

Instead, Contador continued to drive the pace, even on the descent. He had 22 kilometers to let up. He did not. Case closed.

But at the end of the day, this will haunt Contador far more than it haunts Schleck. The latter is young, talented, just wading into the waters of his burgeoning talent. The former has been fighting nothing but a negative image since his first Tour win in 2007, and today might have marked the end of that fight.

If nothing else, it taints a Tour victory that now seems likely, but hardly seems far.

As Cervelo team owner Gerard Vroomen said on Twitter: “Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly.”

It remains to be seen whether he’ll get a chance at the second ever again.