Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
I think in most of the last 7 years, Armstrong's strength, and his team's strength made it impossible, or at least made the people think the odds were so low it wasn't worth the risk, and they road to conserve other goals, such as high placings .I don't discount Landis' amazing ride. But a dominant team effort like the Blue train was capable of would have mad ethis much ore unlikely.
landis caught the breakaway group and dropped them one by one. on a stage like this one the train is only as good as the strongest rider because physics is more important than aerodynamics plus landis can descend like a demon.
landis was previously trying to ride a conservative race al la miguel indurain but he realized after being worked over by CSC and T-mobile and being dropped that he was the strongest rider with a weak team.
a lesser man would have abandoned or blamed his team, and landis could could have even blamed his hip.
but he didn't do that. landis said he would keep fighting because anything could happen.
he woke up that morning and knew he could make it happen.
ed rader