Stage 20 - Montélimar - Mont-Ventoux - SPOILER

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  • jackhammer11- Banned agai
    jackhammer11- Banned agai Posts: 16
    GeorgeShaw wrote:
    jackhammer111 - banned wrote:
    The only way you can get up the road is to drop them like a stone ... He could have got clear of Wiggo soon after but Wiggo accelerated with him.

    Putting aside the contradiction in the second part of that sentence, this was my earlier point. If he was so much a better climber than Wiggins, there is no need for a defensive role as he could have jumped clear, as Frank Schleck had done to him in an earlier stage.

    Lance says he doesn't have the same attacking burst that he used to have but that has power over longer times is about the same.
    I'll say it again, if you are only gapping a guy slowly and your leader is up the road you must call off. What happened later makes it clear Wiggo could not have hung on for long but there was no way to know that at that point, so the correct tactic is to call off. I had resigned to the fact he'd have to stay with Wiggo but being who he is he found a spot where Wiggo could not respond.

    It's just one example, although I think it a major one, of how not being the leader disadvantages you in the overal. Riding someone elses tempo, i e the leader, is always harder than riding your own race only concerned about your own sensations. That's why really good domestiques are hard to come by.
    Astana has had the best ones in the game for a decade now. Switch the support riders between Astana and Saxo and they may have ridden AC into the ground.
    I think Kloden was at the highest lever of his life. As was Levi.
    There was little doubt who was going to win it. We're left arguing about who was really second best and what ifs if Lance and AC hadn't been on the same squad.
    I expect the Andy to be every bit as hard to beat as he was this year.

    After the problems the riders that did the Giro/Tour double had it will be interesting to see who does the Tour of California in May next year instead of the Giro.
  • GeorgeShaw
    GeorgeShaw Posts: 764
    My word, two Second Comings in a month.

    So if Lance doesn't have the jump to distance Wiggins, he's not got the jump to distance Schleck junior. Yet the reverse is patently true. So where does Lance put the time into Andy that would make him second best in the race?

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