The Ego Has Landed

Le Commentateur

As an impartial spectator I thought it was a great race yesterday. It's probably not fair to call it a result for the watercarriers, as this race especially throws up results like this, where the presumed favourites are forced to play out an alternative endgame while a decisive breakaway is up the road. O'Grady (FC's team-mate) won a few years ago in a very similar manner to yesterday's race. These guys aren't nobodies,they're just not the pre-race tipster's picks.

Tom Butcher

To an extent Cancellara has made his own bed on this. He chose to join a team without proper support for the classics. He chose to show his hand in the week before Flanders by confirming he was in fantastic form again riding away from his rivals. He chose to stir the pot in the week before PR by saying he was going to take off from the field.

dougzz

Canc is a proper hard man, and has the right to talk big because he backs it up, podiums in MSR, RvV and P-R is big time success, by his standards too. Great race, just like last week, Nuyens and JVS are hardly nobodies. Let's bask in reflected glory and feelgoodness for these last two Sundays.

shinyhelmut

dougzz wrote:

Canc is a proper hard man, and has the right to talk big because he backs it up, podiums in MSR, RvV and P-R is big time success, by his standards too. Great race, just like last week, Nuyens and JVS are hardly nobodies. Let's bask in reflected glory and feelgoodness for these last two Sundays.

Spot on. Canc was the strongest but cycling would be nowhere near as interesting if the strongest rider always won.

If he wants to win every time he should stick to time trialling.

pedro118118

Canc seems to think that the only noble way to win a bike race is to simply ride away from everyone else 50km out and solo to the finish, leaving all in the wake.

Well, guess what, there are a number ways to skin a cat and he needs to face up to the fact that a) his team are simply not up to the job of supporting him and b) other riders are not duty bound to race the way he wants them to.

Garmin-Cervelo got their tactics spot on last Sunday. As did Nick Nuyens the week before. The onus is on Canc and Leopard to shape the race in a way, which best suits them, not rely on collaboration from others.

There's not doubt that he's the strongest rider out there - pedal rev for pedal rev - but there's more to it than that. That's what makes it so fascinating. As a previous poster said, if he wants mano e mano, then stick to TTs. Or start riding track!

dougzz

Maybe with the support he has in one day'ers riding away with 50K to go is the only way Canc can win.
I don't get all this Cancellara bashing. If he said the team are not up to it and I don't like losing so I'll stick to TTs he'd get criticised mercilessly. Because he comes with the reputation he's judged differently. If that had been someone else at Flanders putting in that massive effort and doing what he did they'd be loads of people saying what a shame he didn't win it's tragic with all that effort he got suckered by a clever rider, but because it's Canc he's being judged differently.

rebs

Canc jsut seems pissed off and annoy he got worked over. I would imagine most people would be. Dont think he is really that much of a sore loser.

He knew people would work against him and others would play to his strengths. Like he would and 3 classics 3 top 3's is nothing to gawk at.

Cycling really does seem one of the few sports where people can say what they feel more openly. Something that should be encouraged before useless football'isk soundbites take over :P

jerry3571

FC got worked over and there were a lot of tactics which ensured he lost. Would anyone work with him when you know that he'll stick it to you in the end; not me for sure. Better to sit on his wheel and let your team mates go up the road. He can't win against everyone else. Also his Team was lacking and gave him little support which would have made a big difference.
Cancellara should be a show a little more respect instead of making the others look bad otherwise he'll only have TTs left. No one will want to ride with him.

-Jerry

mattshrops

i also cant understand the canc h8rs (ooh look at me down with the kids-westside)
hes going to go into history as one of the greatest you lot should feel priviliged to be able to see it happen.
having said that im not really bothered if he wins or not ,i like good racing.
Vs deserved his win, took his chance when it came, and was solo for a long break.
it seems if anyone puts their head up above the parapet someone wants to take a shot. Me? - im just loving the racing , what a start to the year. more please.

jerry3571

mattshrops wrote:

i also cant understand the canc h8rs (ooh look at me down with the kids-westside)
hes going to go into history as one of the greatest you lot should feel priviliged to be able to see it happen.
having said that im not really bothered if he wins or not ,i like good racing.
Vs deserved his win, took his chance when it came, and was solo for a long break.
it seems if anyone puts their head up above the parapet someone wants to take a shot. Me? - im just loving the racing , what a start to the year. more please.

I don't think it is us who can effect the results, more the attitude of the riders on the other teams who are riding against him. If he is so dominant and especially big headed then the tactics will follow to bring him down which now seems to be the case.
FC is hugely strong but he's competing against 190 or more riders.
Also, if Boonen and Chavanel had stayed upright then this could have been a different race again.

-Jerry

frenchfighter

Tony Montana is leading the World Rankings.

Ok i havent won... But leading the world ranking is not bad as well... I am really proud of that... Thanks for all the support... :-))

jerry3571

I remember Lemond moaning about riders ganging up on him, Robert Millar in Spain, Roche in Italy also. If you are a great rider but not a Merckx then the peleton riding against you is a tough ask. A rider alone, as FC was this Sunday was, was a tricky prospect.

-Jerry

pedro118118

Just goes to show that in the classics (where there is little room to correct mistakes/bad luck), teams need more than one hand to play. By all means, have a Plan A (and let's face it, Canc in top form is a good plan), but also B and C if possible. With Leopard, Plan A, B and C is Canc crushing the opposition in the last 50km and soloing to victory. Or nothing................well, not nothing, usually a podium.

It's a tall order to control such a situation, where all the other teams are on the defensive. It can be done - HTC have mastered it for the sprints with Cav, but Leopard simply don't have that strength in depth, which leaves Canc completely isolated. And frankly, when a rider is that isolated, it doesn't really matter how strong he is.

T'was ever thus.

Pross

Even HTC have had plans B and C though (albeit it usually involves one of their other sprinters winning). Leopard are built around helping the Schlecks pick up a podium pllace in the GTs, presumably Canc realised that when he joined? If so he should accept it. If he was promised support that he hasn't been given then he should look for a new team next time around.

rick_chasey

Pross wrote:

Even HTC have had plans B and C though (albeit it usually involves one of their other sprinters winning). Leopard are built around helping the Schlecks pick up a podium pllace in the GTs, presumably Canc realised that when he joined? If so he should accept it. If he was promised support that he hasn't been given then he should look for a new team next time around.

Why?

They pay him hansomely, and he's all anyone's spoken about since March.

RichN95.

Pross wrote:

Even HTC have had plans B and C though (albeit it usually involves one of their other sprinters winning). Leopard are built around helping the Schlecks pick up a podium pllace in the GTs, presumably Canc realised that when he joined? If so he should accept it. If he was promised support that he hasn't been given then he should look for a new team next time around.

While he was in desperate need of a team on Sunday, he lost MSR and RVV because he got outsprinted. Goss and Nuyens didn't have teammates around them either.

On paper, his team isn't that bad, they just disappeared on Sunday (apparently they did too much work before the TV coverage started). Really he just needs someone like Breschel again to share the expections - not much more.

winton

I think it is fair to say that, pound for pound, Cancellara is up there with the Classics greats. His results in this years races are very good for most riders but I'll bet Cancellara is sitting somewhere now feeling the pangs of disappointment. He must have expected more. As everyone is pointing out though, when you are that good then the opposition, ALL of the opposition, have to sit up and take stock. In P-R, and to a lesser extent RvV, they played Cancellara perfectly.

Say what you like about Vaughters, at P-R he realised that Cancellara wouldn't drag the rest to the front and that gave him the chance to put his team on the top step. And he made the call to Hushovd - tactically, a great call. Garmin had come in for some criticism, weren't really producing the goods for a team with such lofty ambition, yet here they are as P-R victors. Rider happy, DS happy, team happy, sponsors happy, Hushovd perhaps less so....

And at the bottom of this Cancellara, whilst I understand the frustration, needs to realise that when you are that strong, your peers are always going to be looking to nullify your threat. So he needs to either ride different, or get some decent back up for the Classics - otherwise next season could well look very similar.

jerry3571

I think a small matter of FC not being able to drop Hushovd (until too late) which was a problem he didn't have in previous years. Having Hushovd on your back wheel in a non starter; even though FC is a strong finisher.
Problems, problems!!

-Jerry

rick_chasey

jerry3571 wrote:

I think a small matter of FC not being able to drop Hushovd (until too late) which was a problem he didn't have in previous years. Having Hushovd on your back wheel in a non starter; even though FC is a strong finisher.
Problems, problems!!

-Jerry

He had the problem in '08...

jerry3571

Not sure on whether Boonen's star is sinking and FCs is still rising but that photo does illistrate what happens when you drag a sprinter to the finish in the eyes of FC.
It would have been good to see Boonen in the form of a few years back; whether we'll see that again is still uncertain.

-Jerry

Gingerflash

"Canc seems to think that the only noble way to win a bike race is to simply ride away from everyone else 50km out and solo to the finish, leaving all in the wake. "

For many fans and riders, it is the most impressive, exciting and romantic way to win, which tends to stay in the memory for longer than sprinting from a small group or a bunch finish.

Even though he didn't win P-R, many will never forget the speed he showed in the last 3km, putting 30 seconds into the Hushovd group, in what was probably less than 4 minutes of riding. Last year's double will be remembered and talked about in 50 years.

It seems FC is more interested in that, than just his win tally.