Sitting on the couch, with my fist in the air
Watching Vino attack, knees with stitched back together, bandages sweating off, 2.5km from the end of today's stage.
In the words of my wife: "Oh my god!" Followed by a litany of reasons why he should be back home in Kazakhstan drinking fermented goat's milk right now. Say what you will about the day glo sunglasses, the gold chains, the 3 word interviews. Other than Jens there isn't a single guy in the peleton with that much heart. No surrender, no quit, die trying. Vino raised a gigantic middle finger to the rest of the race today. |
I was amazed, shocked, awed, bewildered, it was awesome, unexpected, fruitless, but a magnificent gesture to the whole peloton, that Vino would not die without a fight, and one hell of a fight it would be.
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Day behind on my TIVO, but you've just given me a reason to pull an all-nighter.
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Love it.
On the heels of that move by Astana, Vino's attack was vintage. Half of the field got a tough lesson in tactics today. The other half worked their butt's off to avoid that lesson. Awesome. |
Let's make sure we know why this happened. He was paying back Moreau. They attacked while Moreau was getting medical attention. The break went when Moreau was at the medical car being seen by a doctor (something akin to attacking from the feed zone or while people are taking a natural break). Understand what really happened. I expect they, Astana, will get paid back by a number of teams that got caught out.
It's nice and all, but he's over 8 minutes down. Therefore he has nothing to lose. So what if his team p!$$ed off half the peloton for attacking when they did? Same as how Moreau attacked Vino that day he got hurt. But this was not some epic ride that will go down in the history books... Another awesome day for the wild card Barloworld and Cannondale. Two stage wins and the Giro. Another stage win for Liquigas. Pretty good couple of months... |
Originally Posted by roadwarrior
(Post 4891764)
He was paying back Moreau.
"What Vino did was not unfair," conceded Moreau. "Settling scores is part of the sport. When I attacked [in the Alps] he was not well. Today I was the one who was not that well." |
If there is Peloton Justice Moreau and his team will attack Vino while he is peeing at some point today. That should piss off that little khazako whacko. At which point the rest of the Tour would be in Big Trouble.
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Great Vino got revenge. How much energy did Astana blow to soothe Vino's ego? How much will that hurt Kloden's chances? Christophe didn't have a chance in hell of winning the Tour but Kloden sure did, now his team has to dig deep over the next couple of days and my not have anything left to give. It was good theater but bad tactics in the big picture. Say what you want about the "Lance years" but one thing that LA and his boys always did was keep their eye on the prize.
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Originally Posted by botto
(Post 4891872)
I doubt those were "Moreau's own words".
His own words probably went more like this: Quel Vino n'était pas injuste. L'arrangement des points fait partie du sport. Quand j'ai attaqué [ dans les Alpes ] il n'était pas bon. Aujourd'hui j'étais celui qui n'était pas celui bien. |
Originally Posted by branman1986
(Post 4892072)
Nobody else thought that was hilarious?:roflmao:
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Originally Posted by El Diablo Rojo
(Post 4891995)
Great Vino got revenge. How much energy did Astana blow to soothe Vino's ego? How much will that hurt Kloden's chances? Christophe didn't have a chance in hell of winning the Tour but Kloden sure did, now his team has to dig deep over the next couple of days and my not have anything left to give. It was good theater but bad tactics in the big picture. Say what you want about the "Lance years" but one thing that LA and his boys always did was keep their eye on the prize.
Nobody's nearly that good or strong today. The whole thing made me chuckle. Teams that are going for wins don't do things like this. It doesn't work. |
Originally Posted by bdcheung
(Post 4891848)
That's right. And in Moreau's own words, the move was legit:
"What Vino did was not unfair," conceded Moreau. "Settling scores is part of the sport. When I attacked [in the Alps] he was not well. Today I was the one who was not that well." The peloton is like a large neighborhood. If you are a bad actor, when you need something your neighbors tell you to p!$$ off...you have to get along and be good enough to win. |
Originally Posted by El Diablo Rojo
(Post 4891995)
Great Vino got revenge. How much energy did Astana blow to soothe Vino's ego? How much will that hurt Kloden's chances? Christophe didn't have a chance in hell of winning the Tour but Kloden sure did, now his team has to dig deep over the next couple of days and my not have anything left to give. It was good theater but bad tactics in the big picture. Say what you want about the "Lance years" but one thing that LA and his boys always did was keep their eye on the prize.
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Originally Posted by botto
(Post 4891872)
I doubt those were "Moreau's own words".
His own words probably went more like this: Quel Vino n'était pas injuste. L'arrangement des points fait partie du sport. Quand j'ai attaqué [ dans les Alpes ] il n'était pas bon. Aujourd'hui j'étais celui qui n'était pas celui bien. Which Wine was not unjust, arrangement of the points forms part of the sport. When I attacked [ in the Alps ] it was not good. Today I was that which was not that well. |
Originally Posted by gcl8a
(Post 4892186)
But then the English translation would have read:
Which Wine was not unjust, arrangement of the points forms part of the sport. When I attacked [ in the Alps ] it was not good. Today I was that which was not that well. |
Originally Posted by gcl8a
(Post 4892186)
Today I was that which was not that well.
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Originally Posted by branman1986
(Post 4892072)
Nobody else thought that was hilarious?:roflmao:
With one flat stage to sit in and recover before the TT, where his workers can mail it home, the move to get rid of Moreau may not turn out to be all that bad. Frenchy showed a lot of strength in the mountains, and put time into many of the main contenders in stage 8. Now they can just let him go. The move by Kloden to try to bring Vino back up the other day may turn out to be far more costly. I just loved the OTF move at the end in any case. |
Originally Posted by Vinokurtov
(Post 4892602)
The move by Kloden to try to bring Vino back up the other day may turn out to be far more costly.
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Yet again Vino's crazy ego and tactics hurt his teams chances. Fun to watch, maybe. Smart race tactics, hardly.
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I'm not sure a 30 foot breakaway that's pulled back within 10 seconds qualifies for any military medals.
Also, afaik, Moreau attacked in the alps 2-3 days after vino was hurt. Not the day he fell. Theoretically, he might have been more worried about Rasmussen (5 minutes ahead at the time) than whether vino might not approve of his riding habits. |
Originally Posted by godspiral
(Post 4894555)
Also, afaik, Moreau attacked in the alps 2-3 days after vino was hurt. Not the day he fell. Theoretically, he might have been more worried about Rasmussen (5 minutes ahead at the time) than whether vino might not approve of his riding habits.
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Originally Posted by godspiral
(Post 4894555)
I'm not sure a 30 foot breakaway that's pulled back within 10 seconds qualifies for any military medals.
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Originally Posted by smoke
(Post 4892176)
my thoughts exactly. it was fun to watch, but we'll see if it burned up astana enough that they are no help to kloden in the mountains. they might have hurt the chances of their own g.c. man
I'd be pissed if i were Kloden, he either has no gumption to assume the leadership him self, or the Kazakhs have shut him out. |
Originally Posted by branman1986
(Post 4892072)
Nobody else thought that was hilarious?:roflmao:
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Originally Posted by 40 Cent
(Post 4895517)
Hilarious in the sense that the French is incorrect and unless Moreau was born in Moravia instead of France, he wouldn't have said it exactly like that?
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Originally Posted by branman1986
(Post 4892072)
Nobody else thought that was hilarious?:roflmao:
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Originally Posted by specq
(Post 4899583)
I don't think we should laugh at a man who is obviously still struggling with such a horrible learning disability but has still managed to become a world-class cyclist.
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And yet again, Vino is back in the game claiming second stage win in three days. AMAZING!
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Originally Posted by crypticlineage
(Post 4911994)
And yet again, Vino is back in the game claiming second stage win in three days. AMAZING!
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Originally Posted by crypticlineage
(Post 4911994)
And yet again, Vino is back in the game claiming second stage win in three days. AMAZING!
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