Dubbayoo

This is not his decade.

Honestly, if I were Vaughters I would have my guys just get in breaks; work a little but mostly sit on since they're likely not strong enough to be animators; be happy with the publicity that comes from being up there every day. Sooner or later a guy will get lucky and stay in a break to the end. Beyond that Z and Millar can pull out a top placing in a TT. That should be good enough to get an invite back and do more damage then. I don't see the point in fighting to defend a 15th place on G.C.

YMCA

Zabriskie is the only American to have won a stage in each of the three Grand Tours.

botto 

why do you hate precision?
.



you are not mistaken.

cmh

Thank you, sir, for the correction.

king-tony

Good News! The fight for 10th place in the team competition just got interesting. Skill-Shimano would make for a better race.

YMCA

From CyclingNews.com

Vaughters plans to wait until the Tour draws closer to announce the long list of riders for the Tour, but indicated that David Millar and David Zabriskie are obvious choices, as are Magnus Backstedt and Julian Dean. But one rider who he wants to see on the team is American Danny Pate. "I'm determined to put Pate on the whether he wants to go or not - if I have to drag him kicking and screaming."

Love the Pate reference. There aren't too many guys in the world that don't want to try the Tour at least once. Guess Pate's in the minority.

Trevor98

The TdF seems like a losing proposition not really worth the risk. With the current ASO vs. UCI mess there are way too many ways to lose there off the bike and very few ways to come out of it ahead in general with the TdF being the worst of the cases. Outside of the sentimental reasons, why would anyone risk their entire career and reputation by riding this race only to be caught in some ASO/UCI fight? The potential reward isn't worth the risk.

carpediemracing 

Pate is cool.

https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...nny-pate-style.

cdr

carpediemracing 

I think the opposite is true. The TdF is so big that it simply outshines the governing body. Kind of like Indy 500 - when the US open wheel racing body split into two, one got the Indy 500. Who the heck knows where the other races are? I know of a couple but that's it. The Indy 500 is the one you want.

In bike racing the biggest races are probably Paris-Roubaix, Liege, Flanders, Tour. Worlds is important but such a crapshoot so late in the season it's a bit odd. Without PR, Liege, Flanders, TdF, the pro circuit would be severely lacking.

When you compare the Tour to the Giro it's just a different world. Giro looks like an under budget race that I'd put on compared to the Tour. Narrow roads, finish lines on blind curves, chaotic finish routes, etc. The Tour is the pinnacle of the sport. Kudos to the organizers for maintaining this position.

I know the 24 hour race at Lemans tried to break away from their league. But once the drivers were threatened (for real) with some kind of suspension, the race behaved itself. But Lemans, as big as it is in the prototype car racing, is not as big as the Tour is to bike racing. And the Lemans league only has a few races compared to the hundreds of pro bike races.

The ProTour has been criticized from day one. But since when is simply having money a good way of guaranteeing a strong team? A smaller, hungrier team may not be able to showcase its talents simply because, that year, the team doesn't have enough money to be assured a Tour start (which ProTour tried to do). Yes, the wildcards are good, but if you guarantee all the ProTour teams first, you don't have a lot of wildcards left.

I think one thing they should do is to allow bigger fields in races. Add maybe 2 more teams, bring the numbers back up to 200-210. It makes racing harder to control, makes racing collectively a bit easier (sitting in on the flats is easier), and probably won't make it any more crashy than it already is (let's face it, could you tell the difference between 190 and 200 riders? I couldn't). It just costs more to promote.

cdr

lofter

yeah but indy was the biggest race period.nascar or open wheel . nothing could compare . then the cart ,irl split . the best teams went to cart . what happened to indy? it lost its luster. people moved on to nascar. now its daytona is the coolest best race of the year.nascar or open wheel. indy isnt what it once was hasnt been since the split. and what happened when the best teams came back to indy ? they kicked arse again. so was the split really helpful to indy in the long run? not in my eyes.

alanfleisig

Oh yeah. Go, Maggie, Go!

Trevor98

As merely a rider the TdF is a dream, as a professional a rider must judge the risks versus the benefits. Judging what a rider should do based on the organization or excitement (positives) is simplistic and betrays that you cannot differentiate your riding from their.

Slipstream seems to have the right attitude going into the season this year (show the sponsors off and do their best every time they line up) but I very much doubt this year's tour will be any different from the past couple (embroiled in controversy) and any victory will be hollow.

The professional riders have long been abused and used by a sport filled with petty disagreements (ProTour vs. ASO) and so many of the solutions focus only on fixing the symptoms of the deep problems of the sport by punishing the riders. Until the real problems are fixed the sport is going to have problems.

Dubbayoo

Are there any odds on whether Tommy Danielson 1) makes the Tour team and 2) finishes the Tour without an injury?

roadgator

Your arguments seem to imply that ALL the riders are going to be trying to get away with doping, and need to worry about getting caught. No?

I'm not seeing what a clean rider would have to worry about in racing the TDF.

patentcad

>>I'm not seeing what a clean rider would have to worry about in racing the TDF.<<

Then you having been paying attention to the slipshod lab procedures and incessant politics that surround the Tour de France and Euro pro cycling in general. Everybody has something to worry about when a mere allegation supported by circumstantial evidence is enough to get you suspended from the sport.

roadgator

ok.

But I'm of the opinion that the guys who have tested positive at the TDF in the past couple of years really were doping. Sure, ASO has horrendous testing protocol, but I don't think they have issued a false positive yet either.

There were certainly innocent riders caught up in Puerto, but that was the work of the Spanish government and it just happened to break around the TDF. False allegations could happen at any race, so the riders should be worried all the time, not just in July.

asgelle

Because only the most rigorous, scientifically proven tests are used?
https://www.endo-society.org/news/pre...etic-Trait.cfm

Or because you already believe they all dope so any positive result must be true?

Dubbayoo

How about not getting dropped by riders who are doping?