Originally Posted by Mo'Phat
You're entitled to your opinion.
I defer to Phil and Paul's credentials over yours, however. Tour riders and commentators that have been doing it for decades probably have a good idea of race tactics.
You have a point. Counter point - The team managers have far more experience and inside information. There were 4 different teams where the manager in effect made the same decision. Why?
I still stand by my analysis. On a rethink I want to move the blame for idiotic (or perhaps shallow) analysis by the announcers. I know d@mn well Phil and Paul are well aware of the issues I brought up in this thread. I went back and checked the first ITT. Pereiro finished only 2:41 down. The other contenders who were chasing Floyd were from 1:43 to 2:11 down. That puts the BEST of them only a minute better than Periero. They all needed to make up some time on Periero to give themselfs a reasonable chance of making up the remainder on the final ITT. I just want to make that very clear. All 4 contenders in hte pack have the others in the pack to worry about.
Again thinking about it I know Phil, Paul and Bob all know this. Why not say it. Over the years they have taught me a lot, but it always comes in small, easy to digest bits. They all know what I do and should have some inside information. I'm beginning to think however that they have over the years been told to keep things overly simple. They kept making it seem like chasing harder was a no brainer. It wasn't. As others have pointed out they did hit things spot on that perhaps they just did not have the legs. But that was not all of it. It surely was not all of it as far as the domestiques went.
In the end of the contenders in the chase only Sastre and Pereiro had the legs. That is what killed the other contenders, not bad strategic decisions. Look at how things would have been far different if Kloden had some legs. T-Mobile would have pushed at the bottom and kept pushing using their domestiques. Any of the contenders who stayed with that train would have made up at least 30 more seconds on Landis. Probably more like 1 minute, perhaps more. Who would have been in best position now would have depended on who came out best in the scramble from the pack.
Stop and think about it. How often have the announcers pointed out situations where there is complex strategy? Almost never, but at least some of them know it far better than most of us. I can only conclude thay are told to dumb it down. After all their audience can not walk and chew gum at the same time.