Take away their radios and the self proclaimed "best stage racing team in the world" turns into a bunch of whiners who sat on their hands for most of the race looking at each other. "We don't know what to do! Should we chase or not?"

There's a break up the road and you don't know how far. What do you THINK you should do?

My favorite comment:

Leipheimer: "At the end it was Chris Horner... we have to really thank him, because he was the one to be really astute and hit the gas. We started panicking and tried to ask the other teams to help, and they didn't get it!"

Uh Levi, maybe they did. Maybe you didn't. You don't think there was a lot of grinning at the back of that chase group? "Pull through and help, uh no, no thank you. I wouldn't want to get in the way of the best stage racing team in the world".

Karma.

Horner got it. Not Lance or Johan or Levi. Horner knows how to race. From a ProCycling interview with Marco Pinotti:

“One of the riders I like the most and who I’ve learnt a lot from is Chris Horner. He’s a bit weird but he’s great at reading races and knows how to ride.”

Mancebo's win was a wily piece of work from a strong veteran rider. He knew that conditions would hinder a chase and that communications were spotty at best. This is a guy who's stood on the podium of the Vuelta, won the white jersey and finished a spot off the podium in the TDF, and was the Spanish national TT champ.

Yeah, he probably lucked into all those too.