Professional Cycling For the Fans - Stage 5 Amiens - Chartres

This is really the whole point of the strategy I've been presenting.

Ok, question: Ullrich, Hamilton, Heras, Leipheimer, Mayo, Zubeldia, Julich, Sastre, Mercado, Virenque, Jimenez, Pereiro, and Moreau are climbing the Col Du Core on Stage 13. They are ~ 1/2 up the climb and Mayo, Sastre, Virenque, Mercado, and Leipheimer jump away and get a 20" gap before anyone can respond. You are Erik Breukink. What do you tell your team leader to do over the radio?

A. Initiate the chase.
B. Chase only if Lance chases, then do no more than follow.
C. Chase only if Lance chases, then do no more than follow unless Lance falters, then attack.
D. None of the above.

i'm confused. if i'm breukink and levi's in the break, i tell him to ride like hell (isn't breukink rabobank's DS?). he's better positioned and, at this point, more of a threat to win overall.

i'm confused. if i'm breukink and levi's in the break, i tell him to ride like hell (isn't breukink rabobank's DS?). he's better positioned and, at this point, more of a threat to win overall.

I guess you're saying D? Good answer. ;) :)

Edited to add: What do you tell your team leader to do if you're Urs Freuler?

I guess you're saying D? Good answer. ;) :)

Edited to add: What do you tell your team leader to do if you're Urs Freuler?

very interesting question. depends on where armstrong is, i suppose. levi's a legit threat to tyler and his "podium" ambitions. if armstrong's not in the group, i think maybe i get tyler to chase it down and stick with it. he doesn't really benefit from letting that break get away. if lance is in the group, maybe send pereiro to hang off the back. don't chase it down, as such, but get a guy in the break in case it starts to get too far away, oscar can drop a bit to help tyler bridge. but i guess your point (unless i'm missing it) is that the DS's have to decide to race their race--to have their guy win--or to make sure lance doesn't win. i'd hope they try to win, rather than make sure some other guy doesn't. i have to think tyler will try to win. i bet ullrich will try to make sure lance doesn't win.

very interesting question. depends on where armstrong is, i suppose. levi's a legit threat to tyler and his "podium" ambitions. if armstrong's not in the group, i think maybe i get tyler to chase it down and stick with it. he doesn't really benefit from letting that break get away. if lance is in the group, maybe send pereiro to hang off the back. don't chase it down, as such, but get a guy in the break in case it starts to get too far away, oscar can drop a bit to help tyler bridge. but i guess your point (unless i'm missing it) is that the DS's have to decide to race their race--to have their guy win--or to make sure lance doesn't win. i'd hope they try to win, rather than make sure some other guy doesn't. i have to think tyler will try to win. i bet ullrich will try to make sure lance doesn't win.

Lance is in the group. Sorry. :o

My point is that if Lance is in the group, the DS's of the main GC contenders will have their riders mark Lance until he falters, then they will exploit his weakness. If he doesn't show any weakness, then they will have to try to beat him in the TT's.

Once again, making Lance win or lose the yellow, since he is the one who has the most to lose by losing it.

Mercado is 27 minutes behind Voeckler, man, how'd he lose so much time? Stage 3 must have killed him.

Both of Quick Step's GC riders lost their chances on Stage #3, Rodgers and Mercado. The wily one, Virengue, stayed out of trouble.

Has Phonak just had horrible luck, or do they have some defective components?
They've had at least two riders' bikes have handlebars break in the past 2 days (maybe more - there were other unspecified "mechanicals" that caused more downtime for Phonak each of the past 2 days, too) - which seems pretty odd, unless there's some systematic flaw.

Has Phonak just had horrible luck, or do they have some defective components?
They've had at least two riders' bikes have handlebars break in the past 2 days (maybe more - there were other unspecified "mechanicals" that caused more downtime for Phonak each of the past 2 days, too) - which seems pretty odd, unless there's some systematic flaw.

they've had a number of flats as well. I said it on another thread, but i've never much liked continentals, and this "bad luck" bolsters that sentiment. Dare we say tyler's just cursed?? if it's not him breaking it's his bike!

Tyler curses everything he touches.. it's all a matter of time. Tyler cursed Lance's 2003 Tour, cursed Phonak, cursed his dog.. everything.

Still.. go Tyler!

I, too, was a little annoying seeing no one bother to lead and kept draft behind USPS team. It's seem that their goal is preventing Lance to get 6, not to get the yellow jersey themselves.

The gap is quite big, Lance was able to make that gap of over 30 mins and get the GC in the past TDF, but now his team has to be careful. If those 5 guys are able to pull away 5 or 10 mins on each flat stage, then we'll have brand new GC on this tour.

Even if their lead was 30 minutes, they would lost more than twice that amount of time in the mountains. and the time trials. If Lance didn't get the maillot jaune, Tyler or Jan would. Simple as that.

Even if their lead was 30 minutes, they would lost more than twice that amount of time in the mountains. and the time trials. If Lance didn't get the maillot jaune, Tyler or Jan would. Simple as that.

Simon and Kivilev almost beat Ullrich in 2001.
That would have shown Telekom... for relying on USPS to work to chase.


Not at all. I'm going by the mentality that knows that Lance wants to win the TDF, and will take advantage of that. As I said in my post,(read carefully :) )Bruyneel, USPS, Lance et al want to win the TDF, and if they are forced to, they will do the work to close the gaps. The other GC contender teams just have to play their cards right.


That still makes it sound like the other GC teams are not riding to win.

I guess that is the nature of cycling sometimes (and one of the things that really bugs me about this sport)

G'day,

devil is right...don't panic yet 'Lanceophiles'. None of the guys in the break today have any chance of winning the tour. lance set up these 'chancers' today by declaring that the 'posties' probably wouldn't bother to defend the yellow. He might as well have sent a written invitation to these guys to 'have a dig'. None of these characters can climb....didn't i read that Backstedt weighs 98 kg (215lbs)?.....he ain't going no where but out the back when the race 'tilts up'......so don't panick folks....nothing much has changed in the battle for the tour,

cheers,

Hitchy

Simon and Kivilev almost beat Ullrich in 2001.
That would have shown Telekom... for relying on USPS to work to chase.

I don't really think anybody chased Simon and Kivilev. They were beaten by natural attrition over quite a few stages.




That still makes it sound like the other GC teams are not riding to win.

I guess that is the nature of cycling sometimes (and one of the things that really bugs me about this sport)


I guess that is a matter of perspective. :) I see them riding to win if they force Armstrong to the limit of his resources by making him and his team do the work. I see them riding to lose if they do the work for him. But, I guess that's why it's called strategy. Everybodies got a different one. :)

The gap is quite big, Lance was able to make that gap of over 30 mins and get the GC in the past TDF, but now his team has to be careful. If those 5 guys are able to pull away 5 or 10 mins on each flat stage, then we'll have brand new GC on this tour.Lance is only down by less than 10 min. No way these same 5 guys will be let go again and again. If a different set of non-contenders go out on a breakway, USPS will let them go. They will rely on the teams of the sprinters to do all the work, so that the top sprinters get their chance at a stage win. USPS will try and conserve as much energy as possible and rest until the work really begins in the mountain stages..

they've had a number of flats as well. I said it on another thread, but i've never much liked continentals, and this "bad luck" bolsters that sentiment. Dare we say tyler's just cursed?? if it's not him breaking it's his bike!


Its not the Contis' per se. It's the model that they are using, other teams are on Conti's too, like T-Mobile.

...None of these characters can climb....Hitchy

www.trap-friis.dk/cykling/frankrig.Casar.htm


2001
Route du Sud(a very hilly preparatory stage race for the TDF) 10th

2002
Paris Nice GC 2nd
Paris Nice Young Riders Competition 1st
Tour of France Stage 15 5th

2003
Tour of Switzerland Stage 4 1st

2004

Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon Young Rider's Mountains Competition 1st
Route du Sud GC 2nd

Like I said in an earlier post, I don't think this guy is a threat to the overall, but I'm surprised they let him get ~5'30" on LA. He could be in yellow for a few mountain stages.

www.trap-friis.dk/cykling/frankrig.Casar.htm


2001
Route du Sud(a very hilly preparatory stage race for the TDF) 10th

2002
Paris Nice GC 2nd
Paris Nice Young Riders Competition 1st
Tour of France Stage 15 5th

2003
Tour of Switzerland Stage 4 1st

2004

Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon Young Rider's Mountains Competition 1st
Route du Sud GC 2nd

Like I said in an earlier post, I don't think this guy is a threat to the overall, but I'm surprised they let him get ~5'30" on LA. He could be in yellow for a few mountain stages.


G'day,

there's climbers & then there's climbers...None of the 'real' GC contenders has anything to fear from Sandy....but what an absolute pisser it would be if I'm wrong....Go Sandy!,

cheers,

Hitchy

Calm down y'll. There are highly placed GC guys now who will lose 30-40 minutes on a stage like 13.

Did anyone see some of the mechanics oiling a couple bikes when the break was 10K or so from the finish:

From the UCI:


2.3.030

Whatever the position of a rider in the race, he may receive such assistance only to the rear of his bunch and when stationary. The greasing of chains from a moving vehicle shall be forbidden.

I guess it's not enforced.

Did anyone see some of the mechanics oiling a couple bikes when the break was 10K or so from the finish:

From the UCI:


2.3.030

Whatever the position of a rider in the race, he may receive such assistance only to the rear of his bunch and when stationary. The greasing of chains from a moving vehicle shall be forbidden.

I guess it's not enforced.

May that's like the rule where the racers aren't allowed to draft off the cars if they get dropped. Bob Roll was talking about it the other day. He said that a) there's only so many officials and they can't see everything, so somethings don't get caught, b) cameras catch a lot more and riders/teams can be penalized later (ala O'Grady's sling shot move from his teammate, I believe in the Giro or Dauphine, I forget which), or c) the officials turn a blind eye. In this case, my guess that since the break wasn't going to be caught, the officials looked the other way (if they saw it).

It wasn't O'Grady, it was McEwen. And it was in the Giro.

Yep. Bad memory. Bad. Bad.

Did anyone see some of the mechanics oiling a couple bikes when the break was 10K or so from the finish:

From the UCI:


2.3.030

Whatever the position of a rider in the race, he may receive such assistance only to the rear of his bunch and when stationary. The greasing of chains from a moving vehicle shall be forbidden.

I guess it's not enforced.

Probably from the old days, where some guy dropped an oil can in the middle of the road, made a slick and caused a crash.

He could always say he was lubing the cogs, not the chain, I love loopholes.

Besides, a small fine is nothing compared to a stage win.