skinny,
I'm pretty sure botto's point here is that those two victories came in circumstances similar to Cadel's. Not much team support, and not riding aggressively. I didn't follow the '89 tour, but I know that in the 2005 Giro, Savoldelli didn't make excuses about not having team support. From Cadel's interviews, it seems he has the mindset of being defeated (mean old Rasmussen and Contador ganged up on me and left me behind. What was I to do with nobody to draft going up a 9% grade? Surely I can't ride up that hill by myself!)
That attitude is probably the greatest difference between Cadel and past champions. Suck it up man. Give it your best, and deal with the consequences. I'd be much more impressed by him quietly finishing fourth than I would be by him winning the tour and whining the way he has this past week.
Originally Posted by
skinny
I love that you picked these two races as examples.
Greg fought just to follow the wheels on almost every stage in that race, including the road stage he won, stage 19, where he finished with a group containing Fignon, Theunisse, and Delgado. He outsprinted them for the win of course, but he was by no means the aggressor. Fignon was the aggressor throughout the Tour that year, with Lemond just trying to hang on. The only significant attack Lemond put in was on Stage 16 where he attacked over the top of the Izoard and
used his descending skills to put time into Fignon. He won the TDF that year by winning time trials. Here is an account of that TDF:
http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/June06/top25-1.htm
As for Savoldelli in 2005, he won that race because Basso got sick and fell apart on the 13th stage. The one stage he won was the 11th, where he used his descending skills to outdistance Basso on the descent of the penultimate climb, and then when Basso caught him on the final ascent, just stayed with Basso and outsprinted him at the end. Savoldelli simply limited his losses to the key riders after stage 13 and did well in the ITT to take the overall.
Savoldelli did virtually no attacking in the entire Giro.
Bott, I know you're new to this, but you've got to do better than this.