"If you don't race, you can't possibly understand the complex tactics and strategies!" ???
well u can understand the whole picture if you dont race. But probably the point is how somebody that havent raced even to go running to the next 7-11 to buy diapers or beer, can't really understand the perspective of how hard it is to race and even win w/o the support of a team or even hung up from the wheel of somebody that is really talented in the mountains. I was a track sprinter, and darn... in the road i was hanging from the buggers when a big slope or a 2 km uphill was comming. Cadel for me is like an all arounder, he can do it all but in the mountains he was just in there hanging because he couldnt do any other thing. Regarding sucking wheel in the flat stages, what else u can do when u have a darn train going 55 km/h pacing?? U can't just go and attack, at those speeds u simply CAN'T do it. And sadly only people that have raced have the picture clear about what is going on or how fast these guys can go.
Understand the strategies is the easy part, the hard part is to understand what the racer is passing thru some times and I'm sure cadel in the mountains suffered so much that i cant even described it. He looked boring i understand but at the oposite we have sastre, pure climber, he didnt do a single thing during the whole tour but just leave it all in the last 4 or 5 kms. Easy? well for a pure climber what he did is normal... well again, i dont like sastre but well, he won what else we can do about it.
THanks.