Professional Cycling For the Fans - Stage 12 Castelsarrasin - La Mongie

I gotta think Noval and Beltran were sand-bagging.

According to Graham Watson, that's Beltran in front on the Col d'Aspin.

-murray


http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/04tourSt12/$file/7.jpg

Just a quick question for all you out there in TV land. When Basso and LA seperated from the others in the final 3km, did Basso do any pace setting up to his teammate Sastre? Or did LA do all the pace setting? Thx.

Armstrong accelerated and Basso just sat on his wheel until they reached Sastre

Armstrong accelerated and Basso just sat on his wheel until they reached Sastre

from the horse's mouth, it was a gift stage win. basso's mom has cancer, and lance thought it appropriate to give him the win.

http://www.velonews.com/tour2004/details/articles/6581.0.html

I have to say even though a win is a win if I were Basso, I would be insulted by that. I would rather win because I had the legs on the guy than him give me it cos my Mother is sick. But thats just me.

And at least now we know where Robbies going wrong!

Little different take on Cyclingnews.com. Doesn't make LA's comments seem so brash (he admitted he suffered.)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jul04/jul17news

Armstrong accelerated and Basso just sat on his wheel until they reached Sastre

Glad to see Basso had the good sense not to chase down his own teammate. :)

from the horse's mouth, it was a gift stage win. basso's mom has cancer, and lance thought it appropriate to give him the win.

http://www.velonews.com/tour2004/details/articles/6581.0.html

I think this will roll off Basso's back like water off a duck, but still... :rolleyes:

Lance is well schooled on how to deal with the media, so it is unfortunate to see him let something like this slip out. That's twice.

I think this will roll off Basso's back like water off a duck, but still... :rolleyes:

Lance is well schooled on how to deal with the media, so it is unfortunate to see him let something like this slip out. That's twice.

in fairness to lance (for whatever reason) the way cyclingnews reported the same quote sounded MUCH better (as posted, above). if in fact he did let him win, it'd be tough to find a totally tactful way to say it. he could, of course, lie, i guess...

if in fact he did let him win, it'd be tough to find a totally tactful way to say it.
but, you wouldn't say it! Let the schmuck and the press assume he won it by virtue of his legs, which may be the reality in any case. Words are cheap.

Ah thbbbbpppt! THe tour is shaping up to be another summer rerun, lance will win again etc. I was really surprised to see Hamilton and especially Ullrich have such a bad time. I thought Jan was in great form with his Tour de Suisse win.

One thing I did notice is that at the end, lance was isolated and had to follow basso. I think that is the best tactic, and I hope his rivals,especially Jan, pick up on it. Isolate him in the mountains, with none of his teammates around him, and keep attacking and keep going!


In the meantime, I find myself wondering if I'll keep watching... there are enough reruns as it is.

I'm really disappointed so far (save for Basso's win). I expected the Euros to give Lance a harder time--I don't think anybody wants to upset his 6th Tour win badly enough. Well, there's always tomorrow.

Ah thbbbbpppt! THe tour is shaping up to be another summer rerun, lance will win again etc. I was really surprised to see Hamilton and especially Ullrich have such a bad time. I thought Jan was in great form with his Tour de Suisse win.

One thing I did notice is that at the end, lance was isolated and had to follow basso. I think that is the best tactic, and I hope his rivals,especially Jan, pick up on it. Isolate him in the mountains, with none of his teammates around him, and keep attacking and keep going!


In the meantime, I find myself wondering if I'll keep watching... there are enough reruns as it is.


Lance wasn't isolated, Azevedo lead him up at a pace virtually no-one could match. At the point that they had dropped everyone but Basso and Sestre, Azevedo pealed off. This wasn't the peleton or a single rider trying to isolate Lance this was Postal blowing off the field.

Yeah, that's right, but he was alone there for a while. I agree, resident, I keep hoping someone will torture lance in the mountains and at least give him a bit of a challenge. I'm hoping some of the spaniards, jan and maybe simoni will get out there. Well, they might. Mayo isn't a big GC contender now, but he is definitely going to go for big stage wins and will go all out if he has nothing to lose. I like Simoni and would love to see him also win a big mountain stage.

CSC looks pretty good right now. Basso, Sastre, Piil, and Julich all have done well so far. Bobby J., in an interview after the race, said he could have gone harder but Bjarne Riis told him not to drag anyone up to the front. Maybe we'll see CSC attacking USPS tomorrow.

I think by the end of tomorrow's stage, we'll know whether Armstrong's got the race locked up or not. If none of the contenders takes time out of Armstrong tomorrow, I'm afraid the the Tour is essentially over. Thomas Voeckler, bless his heart, has seen his last day in the maillot jaune, I think.

Why would Armstrong burn out just to win the stage and gain eight more seconds? He didn't need to beat Basso and rode accordingly. There was no reason to win the stage and take away from the legs tomorrow. Basso didnt beat Lance, he just rode harder than Lance wanted to at this stage.

Why would Armstrong burn out just to win the stage and gain eight more seconds? He didn't need to beat Basso and rode accordingly. There was no reason to win the stage and take away from the legs tomorrow. Basso didnt beat Lance, he just rode harder than Lance wanted to at this stage.

Maybe because bonus for the first place is 20 seconds.

Maybe because bonus for the first place is 20 seconds.

He got a 12 second bonus.
Trying to sprint it out would just waste more time and energy. As we saw, they both just kept a steady, fast pace to maximize time gains.

DJ, the difference therefore is only eight seconds between the two time bonuses. I don't think its worth the burn out on your legs. I think today he wanted it because Basso was strong once again and he knew he had a flat stage tomorrow.