erader

i shook hands with cav. he has small, soft, rather girly hands .

ed rader

substructure

Over the top, then. Over the top.

erader

what's the overall plan....get a guy in the top 10? garmin could go winless this tour with that plan .

ed rader

ericcox

I didn't say it was a good plan. But... the team isn't exactly set up to help out Tyler.

erader

garmin is in big need of a shake-up. too many has beens.

ed rader

nitropowered

A: Take him to the fence.
or
B: Have your 9th guy crash in front of him, sit up, brake check Cav.

Kris Flatlander

Say from Cervelo's perspective you've got 2 good cards to play (which may happen if Sastre sinks lower on GC).

Get Lancaster up there driving the pace to tow up Hushovd and Haussler, sit Hushovd back 4-5 wheels from Columbia's leadout train, hopefully within a wheel or two of Cavendish.

Then get Lancaster to launch Haussler with 1000-500 meters to go, get him sprinting for the 250 meter line (Columbia assuming he'll have enough to finish lets say).

The train has to work even harder further out to get Cavendish into position as their rhythm is disrupted hopefully setting up Hushovd to power through at a further out distance.

Just an idea, I like the idea of getting in front of Renshaw with your own leadout as others mentioned.

dmotoguy

they should of had the team= Brad and CVV for climbing/gc and the rest built around tyler..

gregf83 

Isn't that the same coaching principle as 'just ride faster than Mark'. Seems like a simple strategy.

kuf

2nd in the TTT by just 17 seconds and too many has-beens??

erader

if also-ran is your goal then garmin is your team. with all that "talent" why isn't anyone getting in the decisive breaks...where are the stage wins? and let's talk about TT....what's zabriske or millar done lately?

wiggins looks like the best hope now. he's not whining much these days and he's made changes for the positive.

they've got a pool of talented riders who aren't producing. heads need to roll.

ed rader

kuf

two guys in the top 10 is not bad. Their goal is to get somebody on the podium, and they are well on their way. Astana is going to sacrifice Kloden and Leipheimer in the Alps most likely, so they are close to their goal right now.

erader

their announced goal in the giro was to win the TTT. that didn't work out too well. in fact i'll go as far as to say they embarassed themselves. oh but there were the other results......

heads need to roll and i'll bet they do before next season.

ed rader

trustnoone

Even better if it's a TT.

For the sprinters, pedaling harder faster longer should work. For nearly everyone else a mountain top. If all else fails just ask yourself what would Tanya Harding do (WWTHD)?

For me, I shoulda, coulda, woulda started my pro cycling career 15 years ago when he was in pre-school. Yes, even then he would probably have been able to out-sprint me. Getting beaten by kids on training wheels is so humiliating.

trustnoone

I don't see that happening in the next two days. The Columbia train starts positioning 20km from the finish and they have the power and skill to be in the driver's seat and take it all the way to the finish. For sprint stage wins it's hard to imagine a better team.

rollin

botto 

^

Creakyknees

Anybody see Cav's interview today? guy asks something about how "they said this stage wasn't suited to you" and Cav goes "who said that?" all up in arms.

Gotta love it. Attitude is one of his secret ingredients.

unterhausen

that was funny since it was the versus guys that were saying it wasn't suited to Cav. It did look like the other teams were trying a lot harder on this stage, they must have felt the same way about their chances. I thought it was going to work out differently, but then it turned out the same as always. It seems pretty clear that sitting on Cav's wheel is not working for the other sprinters.

epenthetic

Not sure if this was actually the strategy, but with Zabriskie on the front in the final 20k today, I though Garmin's plan was to put all that TT talent to use in grinding down the Columbia train before they got anywhere near the lead-out.

Until, of course, the Milram train swallowed them up.

McTufferton

Milram, Garmin, Cervelo (briefly), etc... it matters not. The Columbia train was, once again, 8 or 9 guys deep from 10k out. Hard to wear out 9 guys. They're well versed in this exersize, well organized and execute perfect every time.

FatguyRacer

Exactly. If the other sprinters want to beat Cav, they cant let him lead the sprints. No one right now has the motor to get past him if he's ahead of them. With the Columbia train, that seems to be the case all the time. Robbie McKewan in his prime was the one of the few with the skills and motor to come out of the pack from no where and win against the teams that had more organized and powerful leadout trains. He has a knack for finding holes like no one else. Right now, at his age, even he lacks the engine to go head to head with Cavendish.

davesax36

Give renshaw some undercooked chicken....

Other than that, i think disrupting the lead-out in the last 500 meters (which somebody tried yesterday) should at least help get something a little more exciting happening at the line. I'd love to see Thor do some more soul crushing.

msh1283

Embarrassed? They were easily second place AND they rode at almost half the number of the other teams for the majority of the race. It was a pretty impressive ride.

Quijibo187

I'd impersonate bob stapleton and tell Cavendish to sleep in, they added a rest day.