fly:yes/land:no

the 33 is a peculiar place, known for endorsing particular aspects of racing and abhorring others. for instance, a -17 degree stem, tall carbon tubulars, and cannondale caad series are treated as the racing vehicle of the cycling gods while zipp 303 clinchers are laughed at as a foolish and expensive compromise. further muddying the waters, these preferences are dynamic and can change upon the release of a single biketechreview article about rolling resistance.

i often find myself adrift in this turbulent heirarchy of 33 zen. sometimes, it is too much, and i need to find some traction, a metaphorical center around which i can build my cycling passion. that singular bastian of virtue has been present thorughout the history of the 33 - jens voigt. jens is a pillar of this forum. he is to cycling as luke perry is to beverly hills 90210 - you can have one without the other, but what's the point? there have been entire threads dedicated to jens' toughness, his ability to attack and stick in breaks, the sparks that flew off of his terminator face when he crashed in the tdf last year, his propensity to outfox men nearly half his age with his massive resevoirs of ole man strenth. this adoration is commonly reduced to 5 letters: wwjvd. today, i do not know that answer, for i do not know jens voigt anymore.

in the final 3k of stage 3, jens voigt found himself in a lead group of 6 and a chance to take the yellow jersey. (do not get me wrong, i do not think that jens needed the jersey as motivation, but i have to prepare an adequate foundation for you, the reader.) kid contador, a tiny dynamo who is as despised in the 33 as is a time trial bike with external cables, took several massive pulls in the final stretch and flicked his elbow for jens, the diesel, to pull through. what happened next crushed my soul more than the time i was dropped from the local cat 5 training crit. jens shook his head no. he didn't pull through. he just sat there, and coasted while contador shouted at him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvah54o3U6w#t=6m00s

does it matter than voigt did take the yellow jersey? does it matter that voigt ended up beating contador in the sprint? the answer to these questions is as futile as a wheel cover during a spinerval trainer session.

botto 

TLDR, but the editorial parts i did pick up on makes me wonder WTF is this nonsense?

kudude

jens didn't pull through as they went under the 1k sign, is that what I'm getting?

Somehow this disrupts the spacetime of the racing subforum. Don't care.

fly:yes/land:no

don't try to rationalize your way out of this mess.

Grumpy McTrumpy

it was the last few kilos.

I would have done the same thing.

brianappleby

I don't get it. A GC rider from a different team was in his break and he was trying to keep his GC rider from losing too much time? Sounds exactly like Jens to me... the definition of a selfless team player.

that and a few paragraphs of babble.

EDIT: The annoucer keeps calling him Jens Focked. I can't keep from giggling.

ridethecliche

If there's anyone who's justified to not take a pull, it's jens.

SteelerHoo

OP, i'm not sure i agree with you 100% on your police work, or your understanding of the race situation and tactics

caloso

That's bike racing.

Blaireau

Where's cosmo c. when you need him?

Brian Ratliff

It's because Contador attacked his break twice in the closing kilometers, rather than working smoothly with his breakaway companions. You can see it on the video: once at 5:10 and again at 5:50. The second time he was chased back by Jens and found himself on the front with Jens on his wheel and wanted Jens to pull through. Sucker. I wouldn't pull through either.

EDIT: Okay, so the Contador "thing" at 5:10 wasn't really an attack, more of a immediately-rotate-off-the-front-without-taking-a-pull move that seemed to prompt half the break group to adopt the classic WTF-one-arm-off-the-bars pose. But at 5:50, Contador did put in an attack which was subsequently chased down by Jens. When Contador found that he had been chased down, he immediately wagged his elbow in an optimistic hope that Jens would pull through and save him from the wind.

MDcatV

What's not to like about AC? he's the most exciting thing i've seen on a bike since pantani. I've never thought jens was strategically gifted.

TheKillerPenguin

That's roughly how his name is actually supposed to be pronounced. Jens Vockd.

gbot

To the OP:

-1 points for not spelling it 'stremf'.

Otherwise I enjoyed it. Jens is cool.

fordfasterr

I thought it was spelled more like 'skrumpf' , and also 'skrent' no ?

DrWJODonnell

When Jens pronounced it it sounded like Foked, rhyming with Joked. And Jens not pulling through for an attacking contador and helping his teammate at the same time? Jens is off the hook for that one.

gbot

I like 'skrumpf'. Well played sir.

Voodoo76

I beleive that is the OP's point.

Brian Ratliff

No, the OP's point was that this kind of racing strategy was somehow dishonorable. Grumpy's point is it is the natural response of the chaser after pulling back an attack in the closing kilometer. Not to mention that there was no mention by the OP of Contador's failure to pull through a kilometer earlier... and there was no mention that right before Jen's refusal to pull through, Contador attacked (to be chased back by Jens) and showed no willingness (for the second time) to work with the other riders for the break's success.

El Diablo Rojo

So when did AC start riding 303 clinchers?

tspek

I once found myself in a 3 man break. It then turned into a 2 man break. Me and this guy took turns pulling each lap to the point where we knew we would finish 1 & 2. Then at the top of the hill that defined the race, near the end, he attacked. It was a perfectly timed move and it almost worked as it caught me off guard. If I remember right there were 2 laps left. It pissed me off, so i stopped rotating through.

Then for some reason at the start of the last lap I felt guilty and I pulled through.

I got 2nd.

Last time i'll ever feel guilty on a bike.

Voodoo76

I thought it was his dissapointment that Jen's rode like a mere mortal, smart move or not.

FallsApart

North Carolina, according to his blog:

https://cyclocosm.com/2010/03/we-are-...-difficulties/

bdcheung

Since Bontrager left?

El Diablo Rojo

Well he's certainly proven it's not about the bike