Originally Posted by
El Diablo Rojo
The point of putting Popo up the road was to have him fall back to help Levi when Levi and company started their move....the problem was that there was an 'and company' but no Levi...at the point that Levi started to falter Popo should have fallen back to lend a hand...he was 9min down for gods sake what good would it have done the overall even if he had won? ...
I'm not sure you have the sequence of events quite correct on the stage today. When Popo went clear, Levi still had Lance and another Astana rider in company - and he was right with all the contenders. He looked like he was simply riding tempo up the last slope, and hoping to make it stick. He was over 1km ahead with under 5K to go when Levi got unhitched. He literally would have had to ride back down the course to help Levi out - and when have you ever seen the fellow leading the stage on the final climb do that?
When have you seen anyone in a race do that?
Had it been a cooler day, I think Popo might well have been able to hold on and grab the win. I see a lot of people being really harsh on the Astana tactics here, but this was not a blunder, IMO. Bad fortune for Popovich, who has used similar tactics to win a stage in the Tour, and for Levi, who now knows staying at one's peak for 3 months is too much to expect.