Professional Cycling - Did CSC abandon Zabriskie?

When David Zabriskie fell in stage 4 the Team Time Trial stage should some of the CSC riders have remained behind to bring him in to the finish? Or should the team have continued on to finish altogether?
Did Zabriskie feel abandoned and this led to him not being motivated to finish?

Dude, no way. The thing that hurt him most mentally was knowing he just blew keeping the yellow jersey for another day. And physically, that crash didn't look to pretty either. I crashed yesterday going 24, and got to skid on wet pavement, so it wasn't too bad. He was going 35+, and just kinda spun around like a top. He couldn't be feeling good after that.

I think they should have left 1 or 2 riders with him. Considering it is the yellow jersey, and how much time would it have cost them. This being said I dont think it had anything to do with Zabriskie abondoning. I think he was in pain and just did not have the body to ride due to the crash.

CSC was right to do what they did. Their hold on the yellow jersey at that point was temporary with GC being the real prize. Zabriskie was never a serious GC rider. CSC rides for Basso.

Zabrskie may have been morally beaten, but I suspect his physical issues also presented a huge obstacle to continuing.

Mark

I bruised four ribs and my hip in a parachuting incident once and it felt like hell for a couple of weeks. I got to lay around in a hospital bed too. Z had to get up and go ride 100+ miles the next day and then again the next day and etc....etc..... I'd say if not for the wreck he'd still be going strong.

CSC definitely abandoned Davey Z !!! There was only a little over 1km left and they had seven riders. At least one could have remained to pull him thru to the finish. Sure he might not be a GC contender but do you think the BLB team would have left Voeckler on the side of the road last year? I don't. Shame on you Bjarne....

I wouldnt think so although I would have loved to see team mates stop to drag him back to the finish line... I think the bruised ribs hurt bad.. he couldnt breathe in deep..

He proved to be a class guy and a tough competitor.. The funnyman that he is, even in the last interview he said "yeah I will race the vuelta(smirks)..... just kidding".. He is my new main man...

i saw an interview with another CSC rider that stated that in the team meetings, if the yellow jersey goes down, we continue on. And the rider said, damn if that did happen. We couldn't believe it.
No, you don't jeopardize the team times. What would they have done if Basso had gone down?

A team and its coach are about success for the team, not sacrificing the team for a weak and struggling rider. Dave ran a spectacular time trial on the first day of the Tour, but, overall, is one the weakest members of his team. He lacks experience in riding in "traffic", and is at his best when he is alone on a open road. He was not ready to ride in the Tour de France this year...at least not ready to ride all the way to Paris.

What makes folks such as Ullrich and Armstrong unique is their mastery of every aspect of the Tour: the individual time trial, the team time trial, riding in heavy traffic without crashing, riding through crashes, riding well in fast "low" mountain stages and the harder "high" mountain stages, reserving the energy needed to ride well over the entire three weeks of the Tour. A rider who is superb at only ONE of those things usually ends up with a big 'ol DNF.

Z will be back. Looking forward to it. Since skinnyone called dibs on #1 fan I guess this means I'm relegated to #2 fan. I'll take it.

A team and its coach are about success for the team, not sacrificing the team for a weak and struggling rider. Dave ran a spectacular time trial on the first day of the Tour, but, overall, is one the weakest members of his team. He lacks experience in riding in "traffic", and is at his best when he is alone on a open road. He was not ready to ride in the Tour de France this year...at least not ready to ride all the way to Paris.

What makes folks such as Ullrich and Armstrong unique is their mastery of every aspect of the Tour: the individual time trial, the team time trial, riding in heavy traffic without crashing, riding through crashes, riding well in fast "low" mountain stages and the harder "high" mountain stages, reserving the energy needed to ride well over the entire three weeks of the Tour. A rider who is superb at only ONE of those things usually ends up with a big 'ol DNF.

Thats BS... How do you know he was not prepared... The man was injured and could barely breathe without pain... He raced till stage 17 at the vuelta last year and dropped only because the world chamsps were 2 weeks away... heck he WON a solo stage over 160Ks... He is not a specialized TTer... He TTd better than Lance and by all accounts he is a decent climber..... IMO he would have finshed with a strong showing... He will be a force to reckon with the next few years...

When David Zabriskie fell in stage 4 the Team Time Trial stage should some of the CSC riders have remained behind to bring him in to the finish? Or should the team have continued on to finish altogether?
Did Zabriskie feel abandoned and this led to him not being motivated to finish?

This thread leads to the stupidest thing I have ever heard Bob Roll say, to wit, accusing CSC of abandoning Zabriskie. They are there to win the tdf, and although Zabriskie was wearing the yellow jersey, he a) is not the team leader, and b) should not have expected his team to blow the important team trial to go lick his wounds. The tdf was unfortunately a bigger bite than the kid was ready to chew.

I feel very bad for Zabriskie - I am a big fan, but the incident did not call for the stupid Roll observation.

CSC definitely abandoned Davey Z !!! There was only a little over 1km left and they had seven riders. At least one could have remained to pull him thru to the finish. Sure he might not be a GC contender but do you think the BLB team would have left Voeckler on the side of the road last year? I don't. Shame on you Bjarne....

Wait a minute. 1km is about .62 miles right? How much would his time have been improved with somebody helping?

As soon as DZ fell, he no longer had the Yellow Jersey...it was a 2 second gap on Lance who had already finished a smoking TTT.

How would you decide which rider to stay behind? DZ did not look like he wanted to ride hard into the finish, there would have been NO drafting benefit to having another rider tooling along with him to the finish.

DZ was put on the team for the main purpose of helping the team try to unseat Disco in the TTT(and thus keep Basso close) and to try to rip off a great ITT like he did to start the race.

Wait a minute. 1km is about .62 miles right? How much would his time have been improved with somebody helping?

The team cannot assume that five of them will arrived unscathed at the finish line. $hit happens like flats, more crashes (perhaps a team crash). If they would have done anything else (with the approval of the team manager), the team manager would be looking for a new job if I sponsored the team. They acted precisely how they should have for the good and welfare of the team. I'm sure you will never hear Zabriske say someone should have come back for him.

A real team doesn't abandon one of it's members.

When Zabriskie crashed they could have left a rider back to pace him in without any lost time. At least two of their other riders finished well off the main group.

Even without doing that they could have waited at the finish line for him. They were the last team so they sure wouldn't have been in the way.

When he couldn't stay with the peloton it wouldn't have hurt to have a single rider stay back with him and offer encouragement.

When he came in an hour off the pace some of the other team members could have at least been there waiting for him.

Doing any of these things wouldn't have cost Basso a second. Riis doesn't know what a team is.

Thats BS... How do you know he was not prepared... IMO he would have finshed with a strong showing... He will be a force to reckon with the next few years...

Please share with us the list of "stage" races in Europe lasting more than a week where D.Z. finished among the "Top Ten" riders? Many riders who are great in the individual time trial (Boardman, for example) have never finished in the "Top Ten" in the GC at the Tour. Many great times trials riders struggle to even finish in the "Top 100" riders at the Tour de France.

The difference between a "one hour" race, or a "one day" race, and the Tour de France is greater than the difference between a runner who can win a 100 meter dash and a runner who can win a 26 mile marathon. And, which runner ever got a "Gold" in the 100 meter dash and also got a "Gold" in the marathon?

Lance's greatness as a rider is that he CAN win a "one hour" race, a "one day" race, and he also does win (and win, and win) the Tour de France. Less than ten riders in the past half century have shared Lance's gift. And, D.Z. ain't one of those ten. His 2005 Giro performance shows where D.Z's talent is. Spectacular in the individual time trial. And a dismal 104th in the GC.

He was NOT prepared to ride the Tour de France in 2005 all the way to Paris. And, unless he greatly improves his ability to ride "in traffic", and builds the strength to stay close the leaders in the mountains, he will never see Paris, except from the sidelines. His crash was a blessing. It gave him a graceful way to quit a race he never should have entered.

.... D.Z. is unlikely to ever FINISH a Tour de France, let alone win one.
could be wrong, but didn't he do the giro?

Doing any of these things wouldn't have cost Basso a second. Riis doesn't know what a team is.

Every rider is important. Even just one rider pulling off could have cost Basso time... but not only time for Basso... but don't forget they were trying to win the stage.

Besides the clear disadvantages, and the fact that it's kind of hard to organize that thing in such a short time period... there would have been absolutely no advantages to helping Zabriske. What good would it have done? What does HE think about it, anyway?

I cannot help but think some of the assertions made in this thread were made simply because Zabriske is American.

could be wrong, but didn't he do the giro?
Yeah, but the Giro isn't the TDF :p

Please share with us the list of "stage" races in Europe lasting more than a week where D.Z. finished among the "Top Ten" riders? Many riders who are great in the individual time trial (Boardman, for example) have never finished in the "Top Ten" in the GC at the Tour. Many great times trials riders struggle to even finish in the "Top 100" riders at the Tour de France.

The difference between a "one hour" race, or a "one day" race, and the Tour de France is greater than the difference between a runner who can win a 100 meter dash and a runner who can win a 26 mile marathon. And, which runner ever got a "Gold" in the 100 meter dash and also got a "Gold" in the marathon?

Lance's greatness as a rider is that he CAN win a "one hour" race, a "one day" race, and he also does win (and win, and win) the Tour de France. Less than ten riders in the past half century have shared Lance's gift. And, D.Z. ain't one of those ten. D.Z. is unlikely to ever FINISH a Tour de France, let alone win one.

Being a pro for 4 years in which two were wiped out due to injury, Zabriske has shown a lot of potential.. heck more than any US rider 5 years .. He has consitently finished hilly stages and served as a rather good domestique to Landis and Heras the last 2 years... He is still learning and adapting himself... This guy CAN climb... He Kicks butt in TTs and if he improves his climbing, which I am sure will be a big part of his training focus, I can only see good things for him... People in his team seem to think very highly of his abilities and Julich even touted him as the future of American cycling.. .Whether you take that statement at face value is debatable but comming from a sucessful Pro rider, must have some truth in it... His build certainly looks in between..

I am liking how the thread went from he wasnt prepared to he NEVER will finish... For a guy who reads or watches cycling thats a preposterous statement to make...

Your points about running are correct but if you run you would understand that running and cycling are an apples to oranger comparison... I dont want to get into that...

Don't these guys all have radios now, and so are in constant contact with the team director, who would have made this decision for the team, excuse the run-on sentence?

Being a pro for 4 years in which two were wiped out due to injury, Zabriske has shown a lot of potential.. heck more than any US rider 5 years ...



ummm

Landis?

nonetheless, this is the best discussion ever. it should be pinned.

just remember, we are discussing that stage at that particular moment. no one had known just how injured he was, that he would crash again the next day, or have to abandon the day after that. Since it was decided in the meetings before that stage, there was no confusion as to what should have been done. IF BASSO, any other CSC rider or the team has a good final result then the decision is justified. (we don't know this yet either)
the team had a decent split time...

Every rider is important.

Which is why someone should have stayed to pace DZ in. He was well placed in GC and every second is important. A team mate to offer him encouragement and pace him in would have saved seconds. At the time no one could have known how badly he was hurt if at all. Having DZ still highly placed gave CSC another possible GC contender that they could have used tactically. Especially as he is a proven threat on long breakaways. The CSC squad had split and there were (I think) two CSC riders well off the pace at the finish.

Had CSC kept a rider with Zabriskie after his next fall he could have possibly paced him back to the peloton. This would have kept his time loses down and maintained him as an effective tactical tool. With DZ still in a top position overall and with a teammate or two protecting him he may have been able to stay in and make it to the rest day.

As a TEAM member CSC should have done what they could to get DZ through the tour. He certainly deserved a chance to run the TT to back up his opening day performance. With his talent and especially if his high standing could have been maintained it's hard to imagine anyone better to have on the team to run down breaks.

Basso doesn't need much help in the early stages. He can just sit in on Armstrong and Ulrich for now, as he's been doing. Where CSC will have to really step up to the plate is if Basso is able to get the jersey. DZ will be sorely missed if that happens.


Besides the clear disadvantages, and the fact that it's kind of hard to organize that thing in such a short time period... there would have been absolutely no advantages to helping Zabriske. What good would it have done? What does HE think about it, anyway?

To organize it Riis would have had to spoken into his microphone and told one of the other riders that had been dropped by the squad to stay back. If he doesn't think fast enough for that he could have told the squad to go back to the finish and wait for DZ there. Wouldn't have taken much.

I don't know what DZ thinks. In his interview he said his injuries aren't that bad and he doesn't know why he couldn't keep up. I think he may be mentally broken after "his" team let him down.


I cannot help but think some of the assertions made in this thread were made simply because Zabriske is American.

That DZ is a young American rider that "came out of nowhere" to wear the yellow by winning the first stage of his first TdF certainly has focused interest on him. Especially with Lance retiring there is a lot of interest to see if another American rider will step up and take his place. That CSC abandoned the rider that wore the yellow jersey for them is disgraceful and worth talking about regardless of where they are from.

Some of you seem so sure that DZ didn't say "Keep Going!" as he was going down...

If I was working for Lance and was wearing the yellow for the team, you think I'd want someone to wait for me? God no... My job isn't to win, it's for the team's best interests... and at the end of an TTT, the more men there are at the end, the more they can lead out a final sprint to reduce the team time; it's fifth best time...

If you're all mucked up and busted from a heavy crash, how much faster are you gonna go with someone pulling you along? Yeah it shows support, but DZ is showing pure dedication to the team by not asking for help... that's what makes him hardcore...

He's 179th currently *oops* and absent for stage 9... I feel REALLY REALLY bad for the guy, but he wouldn't have been able to keep up the pace for the rest of the Tour anyways with his injuries... let alone protect, I hope that he at least finishes... but I don't think he can anymore with his absence from a stage... Crap... sucks for Dave and Team CSC

it was 1.5 k of flat roads. if he needed pacing in his tour was done.

Had CSC kept a rider with Zabriskie after his next fall he could have possibly paced him back to the peloton.

Are you nuts? The team was going 38mph with only 1.5km to go. By the time Dave got off the deck the team had almost already finished.

The team cannot assume that five of them will arrived unscathed at the finish line. $hit happens like flats, more crashes (perhaps a team crash). If they would have done anything else (with the approval of the team manager), the team manager would be looking for a new job if I sponsored the team. They acted precisely how they should have for the good and welfare of the team. I'm sure you will never hear Zabriske say someone should have come back for him.

I couldn't agree more.

However, I think Bob Roll might have been referring to stage 8 where Dave finished 51 min back. CSC could have had one of their other riders, that was off the pace, help pace him in. I hope Bob wasn't referring to the TTT, he should know better than that.

ok, now I'm totally confused. are we talking aboot the TTT or the stage where he lost all that time. in any case he's just a worker bee there. sent to help and gain some experience, and to show his chops in stage one. he is not the team leader or even close. Riis would be an absolute jackass to waste any resources on him. This show is all about Basso.

Zabriskie was way, way down on CSC's rider list. Bummer that he fell, but I would bet CSC was just as pissed that they lost the stage as the jersey.

Since Zabriskie has abandoned, it would seem that CSC did the right thing to keep rolling.

As far as his potential, he is young and really, only his team knows for sure how good he is.

Please share with us the list of "stage" races in Europe lasting more than a week where D.Z. finished among the "Top Ten" riders? Many riders who are great in the individual time trial (Boardman, for example) have never finished in the "Top Ten" in the GC at the Tour. Many great times trials riders struggle to even finish in the "Top 100" riders at the Tour de France.

The difference between a "one hour" race, or a "one day" race, and the Tour de France is greater than the difference between a runner who can win a 100 meter dash and a runner who can win a 26 mile marathon. And, which runner ever got a "Gold" in the 100 meter dash and also got a "Gold" in the marathon?

Lance's greatness as a rider is that he CAN win a "one hour" race, a "one day" race, and he also does win (and win, and win) the Tour de France. Less than ten riders in the past half century have shared Lance's gift. And, D.Z. ain't one of those ten. His 2005 Giro performance shows where D.Z's talent is. Spectacular in the individual time trial. And a dismal 104th in the GC.

He was NOT prepared to ride the Tour de France in 2005 all the way to Paris. And, unless he greatly improves his ability to ride "in traffic", and builds the strength to stay close the leaders in the mountains, he will never see Paris, except from the sidelines. His crash was a blessing. It gave him a graceful way to quit a race he never should have entered.


Domestique, not GC contender, thats been Zabriskie's role thus far as far as I know, that makes a huge difference.Cant compare that to LA cause LA never spent much time as a domestique.On top of that comparing any domestique or any rider that rides in more than one GT to LA is silly to begin with.Armstrong does one GT and one GT only.

As far as CSC riding on w/o Zabriskie, that was a logical tactical move, Basso is the GC and team leader for CSC, he's all that matters, the rest are just there to help him get to the end, and if they crash and burn like Zabriskie did, then so be it, Zabriskie knows this, Im sure he will be back next year, he's a talented rider, whether or not he has the "head" on his shoulders to be a GC remains to be seen, he shows some of the physical talents needed.

Lance's greatness as a rider is that he CAN win a "one hour" race, a "one day" race, and he also does win (and win, and win) the Tour de France. Less than ten riders in the past half century have shared Lance's gift. And, D.Z. ain't one of those ten. His 2005 Giro performance shows where D.Z's talent is. Spectacular in the individual time trial. And a dismal 104th in the GC.

LANCE LANCE LANCE blah blah blah

ok, now I'm totally confused. are we talking aboot the TTT or the stage where he lost all that time.

Everyone here is talking about the TTT, but I think Bob Roll might have been talking about stage 8 and to a lessor extent stage 7. I think Bob was saying that overall, CSC let him down and it has nothing to do with the TTT. They made the right choice in the TTT.

Some of you seem so sure that DZ didn't say "Keep Going!" as he was going down...

If I was working for Lance and was wearing the yellow for the team, you think I'd want someone to wait for me? God no... My job isn't to win, it's for the team's best interests... and at the end of an TTT, the more men there are at the end, the more they can lead out a final sprint to reduce the team time; it's fifth best time...

If you're all mucked up and busted from a heavy crash, how much faster are you gonna go with someone pulling you along? Yeah it shows support, but DZ is showing pure dedication to the team by not asking for help... that's what makes him hardcore...

He's 179th currently *oops* and absent for stage 9... I feel REALLY REALLY bad for the guy, but he wouldn't have been able to keep up the pace for the rest of the Tour anyways with his injuries... let alone protect, I hope that he at least finishes... but I don't think he can anymore with his absence from a stage... Crap... sucks for Dave and Team CSC

Gee, you sound like someone who actually understands team racing rather than just being a whiner!

The TTT is long over with. The Z will be back next year. But FOX Sports decides today that they would put this in there coverage for today. They were discussing how well Disco did yesterday in protecting LA.
From FoxSports....
"As Discovery knows, it takes the full force of a team organized around a single rider to defend the yellow jersey and win the Tour. CSC expended some of its limited resources defending American Dave Zabriskie's yellow jersey during the first four stages. CSC's second-place finish in the team time trial showed that it is a physically strong team. But when CSC chose to leave Zabriskie bleeding on the ground alone and finish the team time trial without him, it showed a lack of unity and disrespected the heritage of the yellow jersey."

Which is why someone should have stayed to pace DZ in. He was well placed in GC and every second is important.

Every second is important on GC... for the riders that have a chance at leading and winning the GC. When Zabriske fell, it was over for him. At that point, it wouldn't matter if he was 5 seconds behind the GC lead or 50 minutes behind.


A team mate to offer him encouragement and pace him in would have saved seconds. At the time no one could have known how badly he was hurt if at all.

What do you expect his teamates to do? Do first aid?


Having DZ still highly placed gave CSC another possible GC contender that they could have used tactically. Especially as he is a proven threat on long breakaways.

Again, their main objectives were to: 1) win the TTT, and 2) Give Basso as much help as possible.
DZ doesn't fit at all with those plans.
And anyway, having a teamate or two wait for him would have hardly helped his time at all.


Had CSC kept a rider with Zabriskie after his next fall he could have possibly paced him back to the peloton. This would have kept his time loses down and maintained him as an effective tactical tool. With DZ still in a top position overall and with a teammate or two protecting him he may have been able to stay in and make it to the rest day.

Time losses down? He finished like 50 minutes behind. You have to be kidding in thinking he would have been helped back to the peloton.


As a TEAM member CSC should have done what they could to get DZ through the tour. He certainly deserved a chance to run the TT to back up his opening day performance. With his talent and especially if his high standing could have been maintained it's hard to imagine anyone better to have on the team to run down breaks.

His high standing couldn't have been maintained, regardless of how much assistance he got.
CSC isn't there to support DZ. Rather the opposite.


I don't know what DZ thinks. In his interview he said his injuries aren't that bad and he doesn't know why he couldn't keep up. I think he may be mentally broken after "his" team let him down.

:rolleyes: So you think he just started feeling upset and lose all of that time because of it?
"Didn't know why he couldn't keep up" - He didn't have the legs, so why bother to help him?



However, I think Bob Roll might have been referring to stage 8 where Dave finished 51 min back. CSC could have had one of their other riders, that was off the pace, help pace him in. I hope Bob wasn't referring to the TTT, he should know better than that.

But keep in mind that could be dangerous for those riders. They could incidentally miss the time cut and be eliminated. Not to mention them using unnecessary energy. If a rider is going that slow, there really is no hope for them.

Gee, you sound like someone who actually understands team racing rather than just being a whiner!

Hahaha...
I don't know too much about team racing to be honest - because I've never raced with a bicycle team, but DZ had a job... and being a professional of any sort is fulfilling your duties to the best of your ability... his was not to keep the jersey to Champs - that much I know. We'll never know how much further he could have held onto the jersey, but all I can say is I feel bad for him - not that he needs it, he's on CSC; one of the greatest bike teams & I'm on my computer typing along...

He'll do well after this... he knows what to do... not to mention he's young...

Once he fell Zabriski's hopes of keeping yellow were gone. Speaking as a psyco competitor (Rugby, not cycling) if I were in his shoes my desire at the time would have been to get up, have help and make it to the line as fast as possible. But that would have been my desire on race day. And it would have been the worst thing to do. Again the Yellow was gone. One never knows what might be hurt in a fall and a fast ride with no time to check out injury would have been a foolish risk. Best for Zabriski was to make it to the line slowly and carefully risking no further damage.

The decision was right on all counts. Peoiple here also forget there are things that announcers worry about, that team managers do not. Things like being within the 1k safe fall zone on a TTT. At ride time Zabriski's best hope is that the team had things wrong and he wa in fact in the 1k zone. How bad would he have felt if he had been in that zone and riders waited for him and he was out of yellow by 1 second?


BTW other riders who did not finish with the team are strong evidence that it would have been foolish to have had anyone wait for Zabriski. They either could not keep up or more likely took their last hard pull and then spent having done their job dropped off. Either way having anyone wait for Zabriski would increase the chance of a screwup where one too many drops off and the group has only 4 at the finish.

I posted this on the Stage 9 thread, but it seems to be more appropriate here.

After Z fell, I can see how the split-second decision would be to have all seven riders go forward.

But there was still about two and a half minutes until Z finally rolled in by himself -- a minute-plus for the team to make the finish, and another 1:26 for Z to make it.

At some point, with the team back into its pace, and with less than a kilometer to go, it would have been nice to see one or two guys waiting up, or even going back, to bring Z in. He was obviously crushed, physically and mentally, and showing a little loyalty to a teammate has to be worth something.

...As far as his potential, he is young and really, only his team knows for sure how good he is.

In April, his team ranked him as their "10th" rider. He was not slated to come to the Tour. But, his team was impressed by his outstanding TT performance at the Giro, and moved him up to "9th" and brought him to the Tour. His Giro finish of 104th is a clue as to his ability on the stages other than the TT.

D.Z. may have been born thirty years too late. In the 70's, a great TT rider had similar prestige to a great Tour rider. Today, if a guy is great at the TT, and weak in the mountains, he is an awkward fit on teams that plan their season around stage races.

let him go break the hour record

... His Giro finish of 104th is a clue as to his ability on the stages other than the TT. ...

more a clue as to how he was used in the Giro. I'm not saying he is ready to be a GC rider, but saying look how a support rider finished in the GC is not really appropriate. Some days they tell him to go easy so he can go hard when he's needed. A lot of time is lost on those days. You need to look at how he has done on races where he is given the green light to race for himself. I'm not aware of his results on this type of race or even if he has done any recently.

I think he was abandoned by his team. The TTT decision to continue was correct, and even the next day decision not to pace him back (in light of his situation) was correct, but that no one was there to show support at the finish of the TTT was a disgrace. CSC would not have been :02 from Disco without his help. The least they could have done is gone back and let him know how valuable he had been to the team. Compare this to what Disco did after they dropped a rider last year. Neither team sacrificed time during the race for the dropped/crashed rider, but Disco was there for their rider at the end, letting him know that he still added value even though he was dropped. That is the difference between just being on a team and being a member of a team.

It seems like everyone here is obsessed with DZ time and whether it would have improved with pacing. That is not the point of having one person wait for him. One of the main points is to distract the rider give him something to concentrate on other then the fact that he just lost the yellow jersey by falling. It also give some cover to the cameras. It also looks good that you are there for everyone. However once dropped on a hill, he is dropped that is racing. As far as Basso as a true GC man, I don't really think that Riis thinks he can win. Why would you put a man in a break to get the yellow jersey, so you inherit the work. I think Basso's best chance is for Discovery to crack and T-Mobile to suffer from infighting. This could be a pick up the pieces and win kinda race.

The TTT is long over with. The Z will be back next year. But FOX Sports decides today that they would put this in there coverage for today. They were discussing how well Disco did yesterday in protecting LA.
From FoxSports....
"As Discovery knows, it takes the full force of a team organized around a single rider to defend the yellow jersey and win the Tour. CSC expended some of its limited resources defending American Dave Zabriskie's yellow jersey during the first four stages. CSC's second-place finish in the team time trial showed that it is a physically strong team. But when CSC chose to leave Zabriskie bleeding on the ground alone and finish the team time trial without him, it showed a lack of unity and disrespected the heritage of the yellow jersey."

Well, CSC certainly made a bad PR call.

I don't know where some station like FOX gets off reporting such things.

I did not read all the comments above so maybe this has already been stated.........Bjarne Riis had a customary meeting with his team before the TTT. In that meeting they discussed the possibilities of the yellow jersey(Zabriskie) crashing within 5k from the finish. Riis told the team that if Zabriskie goes down near the finish that the team should not wait for him. When Zabriskie did go down...the team didn't even blink an eye. They had gone over this in the meeting and they knew to keep going full gas. They did the right thing. Basso is their man for GC...and they could not afford to lose that time waiting for Zabriskie. Had Zabriskie fallen say 12k from the finish then yes they may have waited for him because they could have made up the lost time having a full team...especially with a TT specialist like Zabriskie. With less than 5k to go there is no way to make up the lost time...so they didn't wait for him. Good call...because Basso only lost 2 seconds to Lance. If CSC had waited for Zabriskie then Basso loses 40 seconds or more easily.

Riis told the team that if Zabriskie goes down near the finish that the team should not wait for him. When Zabriskie did go down...the team didn't even blink an eye. They had gone over this in the meeting and they knew to keep going full gas.


Don't these guys all have radios now, and so are in constant contact with the team director, who would have made this decision for the team

Hell yeah, I knew it was the DS's decision somehow or another.
Good call, PainTrain.
Thanks, you handsome devil, you.

Hell yeah, I knew it was the DS's decision somehow or another.
Good call, PainTrain.
Thanks, you handsome devil, you.


PainTrain you're amazing!
Are you psychic dude?!!!