Professional Cycling For the Fans - Stage 17 - Was the win all FL or were the other contenders partly to blame?

Congratulations Floyd Landis :beer: You rode your heart out! :beer: Your ride was legendary.



Oscar Pereiro could have given FL 5:30 minutes and still had a 2 minute lead for the ITT. Before the stage even started they had to know FL would attack. Seems like they would have set a limit of 5:00 max or so. Floyd landis led out to a lead of 8 or 9 minutes????? :eek:

Were Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears and CSC delinquent in allowing this to happen?

Congratulations Floyd Landis :beer: You rode your heart out! :beer: Your ride was legendary.



Oscar Pereiro could have given FL 5:30 minutes and still had a 2 minute lead for the ITT. Before the stage even started they had to know FL would attack. Seems like they would have set a limit of 5:00 max or so. Floyd landis led out to a lead of 8 or 9 minutes????? :eek:

Were Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears and CSC delinquent in allowing this to happen?

floyd's team had softened up the peloton before he broke away and there was some confusion as to whether landis should be marked.

landis caught the breakaway group and rode them off one by one. there wasn't much draft advantage on the stage and the peloton did chase but landis was too powerful plus he pulled out the stops on the descents.

honestly, there should have been a response when landis made his break but i don't think they could have stopped his epic ride.

ed rader

I was just reading an article in which Pereiro and Rasmussen whine about the 'other' teams not reacting to his attack soon enough:

http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=2326

If the Peloton had organized it self to chase Landis all day then they may have been able to limit his gains a bit, but what Landis achieved yesterday was nothing short of amazing and flat out unstoppable. As mentioned, the Peloton doesn't have a lot of aerodynamic advantage in the mountains. Even if they organized and rotated the front group as often seen on the flat stages I don't think it would have worked well in the climbs. Landis proved through out the day that he could ride with someone hanging on to his wheel and he'd just keep going. When the last T-mobile rider fell off Floyd's wheel it was pretty obvious that he had the strength to keep everyone behind him, far behind him.

- still think the peloton was doing just about everything they could. Some of the climbers could have attacked earlier and gone after Landis, but probably would have slowed on the final climb and had all of their efforts for a loss.

I was just reading an article in which Pereiro and Rasmussen whine about the 'other' teams not reacting to his attack soon enough:

http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=2326

That's weak as hell, especially coming from the Maillot Jaune. If you and your team can't drive the train, don't blame everyone else.

DrPete

Everyone's pointing fingers after Landis makes an epic stage win that puts egg on everyone's face. They all want to play it off like they could have done more if other teams had helped more. Maybe, but I still say it wouldn't have helped that much.

I say Landis, and the most remarkable part was the pacing. He still had enough left at the end to not give back 3 or 4 minutes.

I think T-mobile played it perfectly from a strategic standpoint. Everyone seems to forget they had two reasonably fresh riders (aside from Kloden) at the bottom of the climb and one up the road with Landis. Their only problem was Kloden did not have the legs.

The decending ability of Landis turned out to be a huge asset, esp combined with the fact there was no runout after the final decent.

Shame to hear Periero making excuses. If the other teams had pushed harder, earlier, they might have actually have cracked and ended up farther behind. About the only rider who might have ridden substantially better than they did yesterday was Rasmussen - who was tied down to shepherding Menchov. Maybe Sastre could have done a little bit more, but everyone else tried - and ended up losing ground on Floyd from when they started their efforts.

Two more days to go. More excitement on Saturday. This Tour is amazing.

Everyone's pointing fingers after Landis makes an epic stage win that puts egg on everyone's face.
They were already pointing fingers during the race, before he had 2 minutes lead.

yellow jersey is responsible for chasing down the attack. No ifs ands or buts.
Pereiro gave it away

Was the win all FL or were the other contenders partly to blame?
Looking back, I think a doctor may have been involved.

Looking back, I think a doctor may have been involved.

so you think the testosterone patch was the reason floyd was able to ride away. but wait a second, if they are all doping why wouldn't the rest be able to follow?

you know i'm pretty much with you on the extent of doping in the peloton but you can't have it both ways.

ed rader

I'd like a consult with that doctor.

Looking back...

Or maybe it's just your saddle?