Most things go...some holds barred...say what's on your mind (to an extent).
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h2oville rocket wrote:And Chavanel is back in yellow- may last only a day but he had a great ride-as in stage 2 he broke out early and maintained. Nice ride by some guy I never heard of from the new team that looks like they're riding naked as well. Lots of changes in the overall standings and most of the big contenders are in the top ten now. Evans, of course, is looking to make me eat my words and is in second. Tomorrow: The Alps!!!
Yeah, the team with the flesh-colored kits really is a little odd. But they seem to be popping up a lot on these flatter stages. The really fun part will start tomorrow though. I'm anxious to see all the main GC favorites finally start making moves.
Today sucked hugely for Armstrong but Schleck has positioned himself perfectly. When he hit the gas Contrador had nothing- a beautiful sight to see, Evans hung with the rest and so did Leipheimer to my surprise. Lance is now his domestique'. I could see Andy running off with this thing- he looks hungry and Contrador did not look that strong, nor did his team give him much near the end.
Sucking hugely almost doesn't do it justice. It's still remotely possible that he could make up a gap like that, but at his age, it'd be a very very long shot. Maybe Levi can surprise some folks? I've always really liked him, but he also always kinda seemed to be the background guy in the Tour de France. Tons of fun to watch him win the Tour of California for those several years running, though.
All that being said, the big shakeup that everyone predicted for today definitely happened, though I don't know that anyone would have predicted it happening quite this way. No matter what, the Tour continues to be one of the best sporting events of every year.
Another flat stage- Sprinters came to the fore but there's really only one guy in the race in the sprints. Cavendish is absolutely unreal- everyone knows what he's going to do, everybody tries to set up their own lead-out and Cavendish just blows them away anyhow. I really like Hushovld for his efforts at taking breakaways and riding hard to pick up points in mountain stages but Cavendish is clearly the better sprinter. If he ever tried to pick up any intermediate sprints he'd run away with green.
Cavendish is a beast, no question about it. I was long impressed with Hushovld (or however it's spelled), but Cavendish seems like he could put Hushovld down without even really trying.
I worked 3rd shift for a few days this past week, so I was always trying to sleep during the live broadcasts, but tried to at least catch up on the recaps later in the day. Thankfully there haven't been any major shakeups, but it sucks missing out on the Tour.
Ydfalcon wrote:Cavendish is a beast, no question about it. I was long impressed with Hushovld (or however it's spelled), but Cavendish seems like he could put Hushovld down without even really trying.
I worked 3rd shift for a few days this past week, so I was always trying to sleep during the live broadcasts, but tried to at least catch up on the recaps later in the day. Thankfully there haven't been any major shakeups, but it sucks missing out on the Tour.
Hope you got to see the big controversy around Crenshaw. Guy headbutts his way to an opening for Cavendish, then cuts off Farrar so he can't catch Cav's wheel. Then the Columbia team manager is stunned -STUNNED- that Crenshaw gets booted from the Tour- after all Farraf tried to push himself into the wall using his hands which is very dangerous. Huh? Actually, Farrar HAD to use his hand to keep Crenshaw from pushing him into the wall- until that point he had a slim shot at first and a great one at second. Now Tyler is gone, too with a broken wrist. About 22 riders have dropped out so far. Gotta think Frank Schlek is the most significant loss, though.
So: Contrador- right or wrong? Scenario: Schleck attacks with 2.1 miles or so to the top of the last climb. Vino goes with him but Contrador is slow to respond. Suddenly Schleck slips his chain and is pedaling furiously and going nowhere. Vino keeps going and Contrador catches up as do Sanchez and Menchov. There is no chance for this group to catch Voeckler for a stage win- does Contrador call for a slow down or try to take as much time out of Schleck as possible?
Tradition seems to hold that his group waits for Schleck who would probably cease attacks and finish with the same time as the rest of the group even though he is probably a better descender than Contrador. Contrador, instead, takes off and takes the yellow to much booing from the fans. He then says he didn't know Schleck was having trouble until later although he clearly passes Schleck a few seconds AFTER Schleck loses his chain.
I think its ambiguous but in that situation, given what's at stake, I think AC slows and lets Schleck rejoin the group. Discuss among yourselves.
Contador knew Schleck dropped his chain. His teamate was behind Schleck when it happened, and they all wear communication devices to know what is going on. Contador should have kept his normal pace for about 31 seconds (the amount he was behind Schleck in the standings) and then attacked. Also, if Schleck was hurt, there would be no need for Contador to attack, so Contador had to know it was a short window of opportunity that Schleck would be stopped so he used it to his advantage and attacked.
Andy Schleck rode unbelievable to close the gap, both up hill and down hill, once he got the chain back on.
Based on what I read later in the day, it really does sound like Contador knew what was up. Even if he didn't know before he started the attack, once he did learn about it, I would say he should have slowed, not continued to put time into Schleck. It's funny, I used to really like AC, but in recent years, while his talent is still undeniable, his extremely brash and selfish attitude has made me really not like him.
(Which in a way is funny, since a lot of people made similar claims about Lance back in the day. But at least Lance was the type to respect Tour etiquette and not attack the leader during something he couldn't control, like a mechanical error.)
The article I read also mentioned that Schleck and Contador have been very friendly before this year's Tour, vacationing together, etc., but from the sounds of it, that friendship might be souring a bit now.
This third shift thing is killing me. I missed the climb up Tourmalet yesterday, but it sounds like it was absolutely awesome to watch with Contador and Schleck battling it out the whole way. At this point, I gotta think that if I were Schleck, I might even try to make a move today rather than simply wait for Saturday's time trial. Based on what I've seen, Schleck has never particularly impressed in the time trials, while Contador tends to do rather well in them. If Schleck doesn't make a move today, then I'd have to think that barring something unusual, Contador will pretty much have this race wrapped up.
Contador has to crash and even then Schleck could get aced out by somebody a couple minutes back who's a great TT specialist. Unlikely, though-its either Schleck or Contador andit will take a crash or *GASP* a mechanical failure to help andy.
At the end of the day though one could argue that Contador is not the best and that Schleck would have won without the breakdown. One could argue that Schleck isn't a good enough TTer to be considered the best. One could argue lots of things but one could NOT, using any sort of reasoning, argue that Cavendish is not the world's best sprinter by a huge margin. The guy is an absolute beast. Eveery team gears up to stop him, he loses his leadout guy and he struggles to keep up in the mountains but at the end he just blows everyone away. I really didn't like him last year but how can you not respect that kind of talent? The GC guys get most of the ink but Cavendish is a compelling stroyline.
And that would appear to be it on this year's Tour. "Mechanical problems" definitely wound up dictating how more than a few of the major stories went this year, from Chavanel's losing yellow the first time, to Lance falling too far back to be a factor, to Contador taking yellow when he did. In the end, if Schleck had carried just that :08 second margin into the time trial, I would still have doubted that he could have held off Contador. Andy has just never seemed to be that strong of a time trialist.
As for Cavendish... absolutely. He and his team don't always succeed in getting him into the right position to actually win, but overall, there can be no doubts as to the sprinting talents of that man. I once would have said the same about guys like Thor Hushovd, but Cavendish makes Hushovd look like just any other rider. He is going to be one to watch in the green jersey competition for some time to come, I think.
Schleck had, for him, a great TT and still lost- he was only a couple seconds out of yellow on the road at one point but faltered at the end. I keep thinking that crafty Armstrong will attack tomorrow while Contador is sipping champagne and take back thirty minutes before anyone knows he went on ahead of the peloton but probably not. Anyway, a pretty close Tour-at one point it had serious potential to be the closest ever. I', guessing another year of hard work on TTs and Schleck may be the favorite next year, especially if Frank recovers well and stays healthy next year.
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