Tour de France stage 15 *spoiler*
Comments
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AidanR wrote:I really doubt he was thinking that Menchov and Sanchez were a threat any more than he did yesterday - I imagine that he was only thinking about distancing Schleck. Besides, those two were behind him at the time - it's not like he was simply trying to keep up with them.
Yep you are right Bertie was trying to gain time nothing to do with letting sammy or Menchov go off up the road.Gasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
I just watched the replay. Contador nearly ran into the back of Andy and swerved around him. No way he didn't know what was going on.
Like I said before - he didn't break any rules - but seeing as he was always going to win this Tour - he didn't need to take the time this way and would have earned a lot more respect had he eased up instead of attacking.
At least it made for an interesting day.0 -
reputation? pfft
shleck was punching above his weight and was only in yellow because of a low blow on stage 3 was it?
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Ahhh, who remembers that race in May - The really good one called the Giro. Remember when Nibali and Basso hit the deck on a crucial stage, no one waited but there weren't a bunch of princesses on a forum wringing their hands over it.
Halcyon days.
Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
same in the giro when wiggins was in pink? hit the deck and everyone went full gas0
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To me, Andy's looked atleast as good if not better going uphill than Contador throughout the tour - he can't TT aswell yet, but he's sufficiently caught him in the mountains to establish himself as the joint top rider in the sport (for me) - that's a great position (and achievement) to be in aged 24 - Contador might win the TDF now, but everyone knows their are 2 leading riders in cycling now, not one.0
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The biggest dissapointment over this is maybe Andy would have been able to distance AC there and take some time out of him . Bertie is not at his best in the mountains just now no doubt about that.Gasping - but somehow still alive !0
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dennisn wrote:Dave_1 wrote:Contador should have eased off and asked the others to. A PR disaster for AC. Ullrich at least waited till LA got back. Ullrich was a gentleman..
I seem to recall LA waiting for JU once, after Jan took a header into a ditch on a big downhill.
Col de Peyresourde not exactly sure of year was it 2001.......Gasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
What if Contador had waited and they finished on the same time, with Sanchez and Menchov taking 45secs.
What if Contador then bonks/has a crash/mechanical etc on some other stage or in the final TT and loses the Tour by a handful of seconds. He'd be kicking himself for not attacking for the rest of his life. Especially if he loses form and doesn't win 2011.
It's a race.
In my opinion, dropping your chain isn't a 'mechanical', it's a mistake.
Marginal gains - making sure your FD outer limit is set correctly.0 -
this andy andy andy talk makes me laugh... What has he done to deserve the yellow jersey anyways? Smug little fella he is.. he is only wearing it because he attacked when the gc favs were down..
What goes around comes around
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tomb8555 wrote:What if Contador had waited and they finished on the same time, with Sanchez and Menchov taking 45secs.
What if Contador then bonks/has a crash/mechanical etc on some other stage or in the final TT and loses the Tour by a handful of seconds. He'd be kicking himself for not attacking for the rest of his life. Especially if he loses form and doesn't win 2011.
It's a race.
In my opinion, dropping your chain isn't a 'mechanical', it's a mistake.
Marginal gains - making sure your FD outer limit is set correctly.
As Harmon said on Europsort - when Andy dropped his chain, Contador attacked. Menchoc and Sanchez THEN followed. If Contador hadn't attacked at that point - then Menchov and Sanchez wouldn't have had anyone to follow.
It's too bad as it would have been great to see if Andy's attack would have amounted to anything as he was starting to pull out a gap.0 -
Contador had no class attacking. I wouldn't of cared if he just sat at the back but when he went on the front full out, no class at all. He really went for it and people saying otherwise either didn't see it live or just see selectively.
I think he did it out of fear, same for Menchov and Sammy. Schleck was about to chew their legs off which is why they all quickly took advantage of it to save their own skins imo. Contador won on the GC front but pwned himself in the psychological battle now, having said that it might not matter since Schleck doesn't have many chances (one?) to put time in with nerd-rage.
Contador did something he will come to regret, mainly out of fear. Time for Schleck to step up and see if he can take it.The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome0 -
Pokerface wrote:As Harmon said on Europsort - when Andy dropped his chain, Contador attacked. Menchoc and Sanchez THEN followed. If Contador hadn't attacked at that point - then Menchov and Sanchez wouldn't have had anyone to follow.
It's too bad as it would have been great to see if Andy's attack would have amounted to anything as he was starting to pull out a gap.
I agree it would have been great to see. I was on the edge of my seat and gutted when Schleck dropped his chain.
What it looked like to me was that AS went when Contador wasn't right next to him so AC was initially a few metres back, but to me it looked like AC had accelerated and was easily closing the gap before AS looked down at his chain. The other two were already following AC.
They're not just going to haul on the brakes when they see AS slowing, and bearing in mind the gradient AS isn't just going to coast for a while, he's going to slow rapidly. I think the others were in front before they genuinely realised what was going on.
How did AC know from a few metres ahead (due to the momentum of his bridging across to AS) that AS wasn't just crunching his gears and about to get the chain back on without having to stop?
EDIT.. Of course, after the initial couple of minutes I'm sure they knew full well what was going on. But by that point I doubt any of the 3 were willing to gamble losing time to each other to wait. And why should they? Yes AS was in yellow, but so was Chavanal and no one waited for him when he had 3 bike changes.0 -
When Menchov crashed on the final day of the Giro last year (when he was in Pink), no one attacked. 8)0
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I just watched it again -- I think it is wishful thinking to say that Contador knew.
When he got caught out with Andy's attack, he was flying to move up and flew by AS on the left hand side. You can see that he is looking up the road -- he never looks at Any or looks at his bike.0 -
Don't mistake Vino for Contador - Vino countered Schleck's attack, not Bertie.Bike lover and part-time cyclist.0
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If Andy Schleck won the Tour, would it be devalued in peoples eyes because he should have been out of contention on stage 2, if it wasn't for Chinny bullying everyone.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0
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It's funny how distinctly mortal AC is looking this year, which is probably why if he did see AS's mechanical, he attacked. Is it any co-incidence that the chinks in his armour are being exposed now he isn't under the "guidance" of Boss Hogg?0
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Here's the vid. When AS's chain drops AC's view is partially obscured by vino. He was gaining on the counter even before the mechanical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP9OR-Pz2Yk0 -
I think we should look at it this way..
there are 8 seconds between them now - its pretty much a level playing field again.. if AS really is up to the job and really deserves to be in yellow he has to take it and tomorrow is his only real chance.
It would have been real awesome to see AS's ability today when he jumped but imo, he cocked it up so why should everyone else sit up? If you pull your foot out in a sprint and your leading / wearing the green jersey, what happens?.. does everyone sit up while you get your sh!t together? I don't think so!
I am surprised Cancelara didn't goto the commissar and ask for the stage to be neutralized..0 -
Doobz wrote:
I am surprised Cancelara didn't goto the commissar and ask for the stage to be neutralized..
Nah, they're going to get Jens to fall off in front of Bert tomorrow and then attack when he's delayed.
Which one of the French pundits said last week Schleck wouldn't win because he wasn't clever enough?Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0
