Were the hell is my Ethics Handbook?

So Anton is annoyed that we didn't wait for him when he flatted at Frozen Flatlands. Apparently there were some heated comments that were deleted; I wish I had seen them.

First off I am going to say that I don't blame Anton for being pissed. Honestly I was uncomfortable with the situation. My gut was to sit up and wait. There was much discussion amongst the 3 of us and we decided to motor. Even while motoring I hoped he would get up to us.

If I wasn't comfortable with it, why did I work? Well.. the factors that made it 51-49 were these:

Anton was 4th on GC behind Michael who was behind. By working in the break as it was I was endangering Michael's 3rd on GC (as Anton points out). So by dropping Anton out of the break, that got me off the hook of having to sit on (which Anton knows I had to do once I knew Michael wasn't coming up). Which I despise doing (although I popped on the right hand turn once I started working). Keep in mind, I told Anton I wouldn't contest the sprint since I wasn't working.

But, that said, I still would have waited if I thought Anton would have waited for one of our GC riders in the same situation. I believe him now when he says he would have, but at the time my reference was both Sequim and Rainier Roubaix where we were told by a Broadmark rider point blank that they had upped the pace to get rid of Jonny when he flatted. My other reference was have Kiel and a Broadmark rider attack at Market Street when Derik crashed. I helped chase because I thought that was wrong even though it hurt our break which was legit and farther up the road. Broadmark helped at first and then stopped. So at the time, it just seemed like returning the favor.

I still don't feel good about what happened. And knowing what I know now, I would wait for Anton because he'd do the same. I would not extend the same courtesy to other riders if I felt they wouldn't to me. But had I to do it over again I'd also not have worked in the break at all since that was a tactical mistake and helped Anton.

Anyway, that's the story from my point of view. As Derik said when we were debating what to do it would have been nice to have an ethical handbook. I guess it still bugs me 2 days later because I am not 100% sure what is right here. My experience has been that the ethics tend to be situational.. if it happens to you it's dirty pool if it's someone else "that's just racing". I am not refering to Anton, I take him at his word that he wouldn't do that and that Sequim and RR were misunderstandings.

Personally, that's the first time I've been in that situation in 5 years so I am happy I can even be in a position that someone is pissed at me.