Stage 19 ****Spoiler*****

iainf72

Salsiccia wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Today was a great advert for dumping races radios.
Get back to mano a mano, and away from uber-teams.

Amen to that.

Did you see the CPA vote? 70% of riders favour radios.

Jez mon

Of course the riders favor radios, it makes it a lot easier for them!

iainf72

Jez mon wrote:

Of course the riders favor radios, it makes it a lot easier for them!

Makes it safer.

Di Luca doesn't use a radio (I think). He is evil.

Greg Lemond practically introduced them to the sport He is not evil.

But radios are evil.

So if you strap a radio onto Di Luca does he become good?

blazing_saddles

iainf72 wrote:

Salsiccia wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Today was a great advert for dumping races radios.
Get back to mano a mano, and away from uber-teams.

Amen to that.

Did you see the CPA vote? 70% of riders favour radios.

Yes, and roughly the same percentage favour dope.
They take more health risks with that, than riding radioless.
It's a job.
They are the workforce, not the decision makers.
Too few stages are like todays.
Too many are like the average Tour snoozefests of this millenium.

Oh and if you strapped a radio on LeMond, maybe we'd have had
proof of those telephone conversations! :shock:

You say potato, I say potarto..........

DaveyL

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Today was a great advert for dumping races radios.
Get back to mano a mano, and away from uber-teams.

Why? Weren't they using radios today? It seems you don't like having one team much stronger than the others and not so much that you're opposed to radios, no?

The Finestre / Sestriere stage in 05 was one of the most exciting GT stages in recent years, and the protagonists all had radios then. I guess in the end it's not about the radios, more about how closely matched the favourites are.

micron

There's one thing Contador isn't comfortable with and that's descending, it is his real weakness - especially in the wet. He couldn't hold Kloeden's wheel today and DDL will more than likely be able to call on Savoldelli.

Ricco deserves to win because he has attacked and taken his responsibility as team leader. I think Yates made a mistake not to force Ricco into pink and having to defend it tomorrow when he r4eally doesn't have a team - he could have held Leipheimer, Kloeden and Colom back and unleashed them on the final climb to blow Ricco out of contention once and for all. Instead he had Contador desperately scramble to keep the lead by a handful of seconds - it makes him look vulnerable and doesn't do much for his reputation as the next great thing.

I don't think we'll see Kloeden at Astana much longer. But he did an excellent ride today as did Savoldelli. However, so much for an Italian alliance with Sella and Pelizotti dragging Contador to the finish - so it was the Italians that colluded in the end, not Lotto et al.

secretsqirrel

micron wrote:

I don't think we'll see Kloeden at Astana much longer.

Hmmmmmm...That will test the blind loyalty of us Asscovery 'fanboys'..

blazing_saddles

Davy, you missed the point. Sorry, my fault.
I think we'd get more races with attacks like today, in other stage races and on less drastic parcours, were race radios to be removed.
I'm think of races like the hilly classics, which have become very predictable and team orientated.
They dampen the incentive to attack, when riders are almost certain to fail.
More attacking racing must be good for we fans, no?

Micron +1. I said the same thing elsewhere. Ricco's team is weak and depleted. He would have had to ride more defensively, were he in pink. Not SY's brightest decision.

DaveyL

Still think Bertie should have given the jersey away?

blazing_saddles

DaveyL wrote:

Still think Bertie should have given the jersey away?

A hindsight. Doesn't that make the lad clever.
Plenty of chat on those radios you are so fond of, yesterday.
An Italian zzzzzzzzzzzznoozfest.

Btw: At the Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan, Bouygues weren't using race radios in Voeckler's victory. (I know, I know: Who? Which race?)

Brushegin may well take Pricco's second spot, today.
Not that I think that'll interest you much.

DaveyL

It does interest me, as much as the rest of it does. As far as my limited understanding goes, it will be a big deal for Brushegin to podium in a GT. My point with Contador and Ricco was that I couldn't understand why he'd want to go from 4 seconds ahead to (say) 5-10 seconds behind. If he'd been unable to drop Ricco yesterday, he would've been putting a lot of pressure on himself in the final TT, maybe more than he's under already. I didn't see the point of giving the lead away with one mountain stage and one TT to go. Surely when you're in front, you stay in front if you can - or am I missing something? Maybe I should've made the point yesterday so it doesn't look completely like a smart-arse hindsight thing...

I'm not fussed as to whether we have radios or not - but the point I was trying to make is that the most important thing for exciting racing is not banning radios, but to have closely matched favourites. You can also get boring racing without radios. This tinkering of the rules reminds me to a certain extent of F1. Schumacher totally dominated during his era, and all sorts of changes were made to try and spice things up and they didn't work - he kept on winning and the races continued to be a procession. Of course F1 is inherently dull, so maybe that's not the best comparison.

Yes, I read about Voeckler's win on cn.com last night, after I'd got in from a nice afternoon's mountain biking. Sorry I didn't watch the Giro stage live. Good on him, he's a courageous rider and I hope he does well at the Tour. Banning radios will certainly make races different, but whether they make them more exciting or not, I'm not convinced.

blazing_saddles

I'd generally agree, but I felt there were 2 reasons for not keeping it, in this instance.
a) Contador is at least a minute better than Ricco in the ITT, probably more.
b) Ricco's team, without Piepoli, is very weak. He'd have been stuck defending, with few troops as the man to be attacked.

As it turned out, he remained the man stuck defending, with few troops!

Hence, I was wrong.

Ricco: The Italian's answer to Dr Evil. :oops:

DaveyL

I thought Ferrari was already Dr Evil...

There's always the chance today that Ricco might do a "Heras" and magically storm the final TT!

blazing_saddles

DaveyL wrote:

I thought Ferrari was already Dr Evil...

There's always the chance today that Ricco might do a "Heras" and magically storm the final TT!

OK, "Mini-Me" then! :oops: