Professional Cycling For the Fans - Stage 8: Pforzheim - Gérardmer

Why didn't Discovery back off in the TTT so Zabriskie would continue to wear the jersey?

This one is very easy. Because Basso is also on CSC and is a serious contender and Lance doesn't want to give him a second.

Also, by helping the team win the TTT, it is a way for Lance to say thanks for all the work you guys do in suppporting me.

This one is very easy. Because Basso is also on CSC and is a serious contender and Lance doesn't want to give him a second.

Let's see, he gave Kloden, who finished ahead of Basso in the TDF last year, ~30 secs the other day, but he doesn't want to give Basso even a few secs???...??

Ok, I think that will make sense to Grasschopper.

Let's see, he gave Kloden, who finished ahead of Basso in the TDF last year, ~30 secs the other day, but he doesn't want to give Basso even a few secs???...??


I'm not saying it is a good idea, but Lance doesn't see Kloden as a threat, but he does Basso. Kloden has has a pretty bad year so far and a lot of people think that last year's tour was a fluke for him.

I'm not saying it is a good idea, but Lance doesn't see Kloden as a threat, but he does Basso. Kloden has has a pretty bad year so far and a lot of people think that last year's tour was a fluke for him.

That's cool. My point here is really this. People have seen Lance give up the yellow to insignificant riders during his run of wins. Years ago he gave it up to Simon after a freak break that got away on a bad weather day and last year Voeckler wore it for quite a few stages. One of the not so insignificant wearers of the jersey during this string was O'Grady who kept it for quite some time and surprised quite a few people with his climbing skills in the process. But people are talking like Lance is doing something different, callling it "modern race tactics" when in fact he's just doing what riders/teams have always done.

People are talking about Lance "trying to get rid" of the yellow like he is riding in a manner to get rid of it. Discovery and Lance don't and won't ride in a manner that will lose them the jersey. If a rider gains time on them who is not a gc threat, they will let that rider go and take the jersey, because it is not wise to expend the energy to keep it when they know it will come back to them.

The Discovery people have been floating "media talk" about how it would be ok if someone else took the yellow to take the pressure off them, as long as that someone was not a gc contender. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but if they really wanted to steer clear of it, they should have ridden like they didn't want it on Stage 4, because they knew that breaks weren't going to stay away on the following week flat stages; the sprinter's teams close those stages down and prevent long breaks from succeeding.

Now they get to the mountains and Savoldelli says in Italian to an Italian press guy, "we've been trying to "get rid" of the maillot jaune for the last week; well he must have been tired and speaking some garbled trentino dialect because it would have been virtually impossible to get rid of the yellow on a series of flat stages.

Now they have "got rid" of it, and the next guy in line to take it is a former Dauphine Libere winner and 5th place finisher in the TDF who can climb and tt. Moreau is no Voeckler or Simon. We will see how this plays out, but it doesn't look pretty to me.

Interesting observation of the photo finish - The spokes are curved! In particular, the spokes on the bottom half of the wheel appear more curved than those on the top half. This seems odd since the top of the wheel is traveling twice the speed of the bike and the bottom isn't moving relative to the ground.

Any explanations?

-murray

I think the reason is, that it's NOT a photo shot. It must be a sort of scanner, fixed at the finish line. And then everything that passes by is recorded. So the result is a 'time graph', with increasing time from left to right (Which explains, that Weelings bike is 'shorter', because he had more speed when he passed Klöden a few millimeters in front of the line).

BTW: this day was great, I had the opportunity to see the tour LIVE. I had a good place directly behind the 'Champion'-band at the first climb (Dobel). Rasmussen passed first here, then 4 riders (Voigt was in this group), and some distance behind followed by Botero and another rider and then the group Armstrong/Ullrich, thereafter the rest of the pack, already splitted into many little groups. High speed just from the beginning!

Interesting observation of the photo finish - The spokes are curved! In particular, the spokes on the bottom half of the wheel appear more curved than those on the top half. This seems odd since the top of the wheel is traveling twice the speed of the bike and the bottom isn't moving relative to the ground.

Any explanations?

-murray

Optical Delusion

At 2000 and 5000 "frames" per second, if the lines are in fact "scanned" from top or bottom to the other end of the scan line, perhaps the time it takes the scan lines to traverse their entire length causes that illusion. Things are moving, after all.

In any case, should we be thanking Dr. Edgerton for the technology?

Walter! No no no no no!!! lol!

Lance's main goal is to put time between himself and other GC contenders at every opportunity. There are three main types of stages he can do that. ITTs, the TTT, and the mountain stages. Ideally, he can accomplish those time gaps without getting the yellow jersey until later in the tour.

:)