Originally Posted by
julian
Well I am glad that you KNOW what Levi and Lance are or are not capable of. You make it sound like AC is the second coming of Jesus on a bike. For pete's sake the chicken was handily beating him (contador) before he got booted. There is no way Lance can win by intimidation and deception. If that was the case, anyone with a mean look would be entering the tour. Intimidation is gained by out TTing or out climbing your rivals. If Armstrong doesn't have his legs then he can bluster all he wants and it ain't going to make a hill of beans of difference.
If I had to put money on the tour I would bet on AC, but I have been really shocked at Armstrong's form so far.
the chicken was handily beating everyone because the other teams inconceivably let him get 5+ minutes
up the road. remember how angry christophe moreau was that day as he constantly tried to get everyone
to chase? moreau seemed to be the only rider smart enough to consider rasmussen dangerous. that old dog
knew that rasmussen was potentially winning the tour right then and no one would help him minimize the
damage. the other contenders were primarily wheelsucking a majority of the last climb. rasmussen essentially
pulled a 1998 pantani col de galibier move on everyone. the rest of the field finally figured out what moreau
already knew-the tour was over when they saw the chicken putting in a top 15 time trial.
i think contador
would have won the 07 tour anyway if the other teams hadn't wildly overestimated their ability to
control rasmussen downroad (much of the thinking was that he would give away most/all of his mountain gains in the tt's).
surprising that they blew it so badly given the facts that rasmussen was a known quantity and we had
just seen the pereiro (previous top ten) & landis breakaways which defined the 06 race. hindsight is 20/20
but still, you don't give away significant time to anyone, much less someone as accomplished as
rasmussen, pereiro or landis. it's a receipe for game over.
with armstrong back in the peleton, it's less likely for
a similar scenario to unfold. watching the 2006-2008 races, which had some really boneheaded tactical
manuevers/mistakes by most teams, undoubtedly gave lance fuel for the fire. no wonder he thinks he can
win. i don't blame him. if i had his form, experience and team, i'd feel the same way.