Why defend a lead?

zammmmo
zammmmo Posts: 315
edited July 2013 in Pro race
This might be a stupid question but here goes anyway. Why do teams defend the yellow jersey when it might not be advantageous to do in the long run? Case in point, Sky/Froome were saying they were happy not to have taken yellow in the TTT yesterday because they'd have had to put riders on the front. Why would they as a team not ride as if they'd narrowly missed yellow and let things just play out? Is it an honour/etiquette thing or do 'days in yellow' trump everything in the short term just in case things don't play put over the whole tour as a team might've wanted?

Comments

  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,661
    partly honour/ettiquette, partly other teams forcing you to do so. For example, if TV or Chavanel got into a break, Sky did tn ride and it got 10 mins over the peloton (which is not unheard of), then getting the jersey back may be significantly more difficult
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    plus every day spent in yellow is massive publicity for the sponsors
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,241
    It's all good publicity for the sponsors - so they may as well keep it as long as possible. A team with bigger goals may be willing to get rid of it, but for many teams it's not going to get better than this - so make it last.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • oneof1982
    oneof1982 Posts: 703
    If Sky had one the jersey yesterday, it is possible that they wouldn't have defended it today. The upshot of this would be catastrophic, for example, some contributors to this forum would become quite agitated. :lol::lol:
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 21,562
    It probably wouldn't have made any difference to Sky's tactics, but when you lose in sport you need to trot out the cliches
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    TheBigBean wrote:
    It probably wouldn't have made any difference to Sky's tactics, but when you lose in sport you need to trot out the cliches


    No, they'd have defended it - they'd just far rather save the energy till st 8
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    Failing to defend the yellow jersey lacks panache™

    :wink:
    Correlation is not causation.
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    There's no responsibility to defend it, but the yellow jersey team is at the very least expected to ride on the front - regardless of how hard they ride - until another team decides to put up a proper chase.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 21,562
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    TheBigBean wrote:
    It probably wouldn't have made any difference to Sky's tactics, but when you lose in sport you need to trot out the cliches


    No, they'd have defended it - they'd just far rather save the energy till st 8

    I disagree, but we are unlikely to find out now.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    A team with no gc ambitions would relish the limelight and take the publicity and in so doing take on the work.

    Obviously sky wouldn't give it up to say, Contador at Saxom

    Only to, say, Cofidis for example.
    _
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,811
    The last team from memory who didn't defend the jersey were Phonak in 2006, who were villified for not respecting the Tour, and ended up almost throwing it all away anyway (before the drugs, obv)
  • shinyhelmut
    shinyhelmut Posts: 1,364
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Only to, say, Cofidis for example.
    :lol:
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    TakeTheHighRoad wrote:
    The last team from memory who didn't defend the jersey were Phonak in 2006, who were villified for not respecting the Tour, and ended up almost throwing it all away anyway (before the drugs, obv)

    Ahhh was that the year of the mighty test fuelled win back in the mountains? An epic day of fuelled awsomeness

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