Should Menchov have sat out TDF for Vuelta?

donrhummy

Should Menchov have sat out the TDF and instead tried for a double GT win like Contador last year? Or would he never have gotten the same press as Contador did from the double victory and the Vuelta would be considered a nothing win?

(I already noticed that he got little fanfare for winning the Giro. Ridiculous. Do people not realize how hard it is to win a GT let alone the Giro?)

Pokerface

donrhummy wrote:

(I already noticed that he got little fanfare for winning the Giro. Ridiculous. Do people not realize how hard it is to win a GT let alone the Giro?)

Maybe because he's not a very interesting rider to watch. He just never seems to DO much. If not for that mountainous TT - he might not have won.

Not taking anything away from him, just explaining why he prolly doesn't get much press.

drenkrom

I think he'd never get the same credit for a very simple reason: he has never won the Tour. Contador's exploit was winning all three GTs in a ridiculously short period of time more than winning two in a year. On top of that, Menchov is a lot less engaging than Contador both in his cold calculating tactics and his riding style.

From the sponsor's perspective, it was also more logical to have him race the biggest race. I don't think his results were much of a surprise, though. I'd have found good results in the Tour after his Giro quite suspicious indeed. Bang bang Lucky Luke!

donrhummy

I agree that normally he's very reserved but none of the journalists took advantage of his extreme show of emotion in winning the Giro. A few mentioned it as unusual and unexpected but none of them interviewed him and tried to find out more about him and why he's traditionally been so reserved. A shame. I'd love to see ProCycling do an in depth piece on him, talking to him as well as those around him. Clearly he's been hiding behind a wall/facade with respect to emotion in the past.

I agree with your comments in that I wasn't that interested in him prior to the Giro, but after his show of emotion I was really intrigued, realizing that there's a lot of fire there - he's just been hiding it.

secretsqirrel

Should Menchov have sat out the TDF for the Vuelta and a double win?

I dunno he was on his *rse quite a bit during the TdF :twisted:

donrhummy

Interesting inteview with Menchov, asking him questions from BBC viewers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_s ... 150274.stm

Some interesting ones:

From Cavsupporter: You are tied with Contador for Grand Tour wins but he receives much more attention. Does this fact annoy you or do you find it helpful?

DM: I don't know, maybe it's better for me. The less attention you receive, the more you remain in somebody's shadow, that can be truly helpful in some moments.

From tom oo: Which do you prefer: pink or yellow?

DM: Actually none of these colours is my favourite but as to races, I had few of them in yellow and almost two weeks in pink at the Giro. Of course I liked it more.

Whichever colour you wear - at the Tour, at the Giro, at the Paris-Nice race or others - you will be in the spotlight for fans and your opponents.

From Paolo73: Denis, now that you have the Giro and Vuelta to your name will you be focusing more specifically on Le Tour in future years in order to have all three in your palmares?

DM: I don't plan to miss the Giro next year. The case is not only in preparations; sometimes you need a bit of luck if you remember my fall for example.

Also the Tour de France will not start with such tricky stages every year. There will be more opportunities to be fit enough for the second half of the Tour if there is a normal prologue at the beginning.

From greeny3103: Do you ever cycle for pleasure rather than training?

DM: I can't remember cycling for pleasure. I prefer to spend time with my family on holidays, because there is almost no free time during the season.

There's a LOT more in there to read. Pretty cool.

ACMadone

Great article