Originally Posted by
jebensch
Thanks guys, for all the input!
Y'know as the stage climbed on yesterday, I felt more and more regretful of my comment. I think my dissatisfaction with the coverage was more weighted towards the beginning of the stage. Things seemed clearer as they got within 20km of the summit. I've gotta say I love watching the mountain stages.
I suppose though, what I found most disorienting was:
1. starting the coverage several km into the stage
2. the general ignoring of the guys leading the stage in favor the guys who are leading the tour - I often couldn't figure out how close they were
3. a lot of separation between commentary and picture, but I suppose that is just becoming more familiar with what each rider looks like; i.e. they would switch from shot to shot of these different clumps of guys, and I couldn't tell where in the chase they were oriented, since I can only recognize maybe 6-10 riders.
Thanks for the tips, fellas.
I wonder if Team Radio Shack is going to ask for Lance's phone number...
Versus is using the feed from the French tv; they have no control over the pictures. In the live version, it can be a bit confusing if you're not used to it. Not so much coverage of the breakaway if they are nobodys; especially if they are going to get caught or have no French riders in the bunch. The later, edited version has everything sorted out. Watch the time gaps at the bottom of the screen.
Did you notice the GC contender teams rarely had riders in the breakaway? They need those riders to set tempo up front and control the peloton. Sometimes they do send a rider in the breakaway to be available up the road for a later attack by their gc rider. Or when the Yellow Jersey team is content to let the breakaway succeed; if they have a rider up front they won't chase him down. This tactic is used sometimes to get other teams to do some work up front. AG2R was too weak to do much work up front and left it to Astana; who did the work to protect Alberto, Lance, Kloden and Leipheimer's gc times. After Cavendish demolished the sprint finishes a couple of times, Columbia had a hard time getting help up front so on one stage they did a mass attack and split the peloton. Once Alberto got the Yellow jersey, Astana would keep a high tempo in the mountains to discourage attacks. Saxo Bank had to drive their riders up front into the ground to try and string out the peloton and put the hurt on the gc riders before the Schlecks launched their attacks. Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov were out of the running before they even got started. Vandevelde had trouble. Only a few could follow and only one could really inflict damage on Andy Schleck and that was Alberto.
You'll get better at recognizing the riders and will know when it's the breakaway or the back of the peloton.
Since Lance is the head of Team RadioShack, they already have his number. But will they be calling Alberto?
Johan Bruyneel will be the DS for Team RadioShack and most of Team Astana will move over. Bruyneel did not want to lead a Vinokourov team and Astana sponsors were playing games with paying the riders.