"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Zabel in the Vuelta

(The Erik Zabel appreciation thread)

Close again! No cigar! Again. He has finished second 4-5 times I believe. One more shot in stage 20... can he do it??? Who here is cheering him on?

It looks like he has the points won atleast. Or can Petacchi steal it from him?

I guess I'll just sit back and see what happens. :beer:

I thought he had it, too, then bam here comes Furlan out of nowhere. I have to admit, that was pretty impressive to come from that far back and pip Zabel.

Zabel isn't having a great Vuelta like he did last year- he won 4 stages! And in the Tour of Switzerland he won two and the points jersey. He's not having the season he did last year,but I don't think it's age- cipo's four years older! I think he's having bum luck, with his leadout man twice out of contention. I hope he can win at least one stage! But it does seem that he has the points jersey pretty much wrapped up.

he's tired. racing as much as he does has to have some sort of negative effect.

I think the team support just ain't there. The way to protect against that type of manuever is to have a decent sprinter team-mate on your wheel. Anybody competitor who follows is forced to either leave the draft, or counter early enough to get around the trailer and the sprinter. Telekom faces a year or two of rebuilding.

BTW, lately Telekom has entered the cell phone market in the US (T-Mobile), where the market isn't as saturated as in Europe. I wonder if Team Telekom will start making appearances stateside?

No doubt about it, the shakeups at Telekom, especially the Ullrich thing have had an impact on the whole team, plus injuries. Vinokurov crashed at the Tour of Switzerland and had to bail, and now he's out of the vuelta- he's had bad luck too. It's just luck sometimes, and Telekom is probably suffering from a morale problem. I think they'll rebound after this year. I hope Zabel can win one stage in the vuelta and I would love to see him win the Worlds.