Team time trial: USPS delivers in the rain
The rain provided bad conditions for the team time trial, but in the end the major contenders all finished near the top. USPS really blew the field away, beating the next team by over a minute. Because of the stupid rule changes limiting the time lost, they only put 20 seconds on the second team, Phonak. Anyway, here's a review...
1) USPS: Totally dominant. They crushed the field even more than they did last year, even though they dropped a rider early on the course. Lance gets the yellow jersey, which they will not defend. USPS gets robbed because of the rule changes regarding time. But now everyone knows who has the best team in the race.
2) Phonak (+0:20). They were actually 1:07 behind USPS. Phonak was awesome on this course. They took a gamble by dropping a few guys in order to ride only their strongest 5 men to the finish. The gamble paid off. I thought Tyler Hamilton went to a weaker team when he left CSC for Phonak, but they were on task today. Hamilton now sits in 8th position overall, 36 seconds behind Armstrong, 19 seconds ahead of Ullrich.
3) Banesto (+:30). Right behind Phonak. A really strong ride. No one ever notices Francisco Mancebo, but he sits only 30 seconds behind Armstrong.
4) Telekom (+:40) Had the rules been based upon time lost, not finishing position, they would have lost only 12 seconds to Phonak, not 20. I just mention that as yet another illustration that the Tour directors suck eggs. Ullrich has always had trouble with team time trials. This was a good result for them. He's only 55 seconds behind Lance.
Others...
CSC, Rabobank, and Liberty finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. So Basso, Leipheimer, and Heras did well to avoid losing a lot of time. Currently Basso and Leipheimer are within 80 seconds of the lead; Heras is down 1:45. It could have been a lot worse.
The boys in orange must have read the hatchet job I did on them yesterday. They responded with a really good time trial. Euskaltel finished 7th, putting them +1:20 behind USPS in the final tally. I expected them to be close to 17th, not 7th. This is as good as they could have hoped for. Mayo and Zubeldia are placed #92 and #95, about 5:30 behind Armstrong. They'll rise up a lot once we hit the mountains. If either manages to finish in the top 10, it'll be in part because of a good effort in the team time trial.
Cofidis and FDJeux were totally horrible, finishing 17th and 19th. FDJeux was totally blown apart and staggered home 7:33 behind USPS. Last year they were doing everything right. This year nothing is going right for them. As for Cofidis, their tour was gutted before it started when David Millar was suspended for doping. They have no motivation and it shows.
The rain provided bad conditions for the team time trial, but in the end the major contenders all finished near the top. USPS really blew the field away, beating the next team by over a minute. Because of the stupid rule changes limiting the time lost, they only put 20 seconds on the second team, Phonak. Anyway, here's a review...
1) USPS: Totally dominant. They crushed the field even more than they did last year, even though they dropped a rider early on the course. Lance gets the yellow jersey, which they will not defend. USPS gets robbed because of the rule changes regarding time. But now everyone knows who has the best team in the race.
2) Phonak (+0:20). They were actually 1:07 behind USPS. Phonak was awesome on this course. They took a gamble by dropping a few guys in order to ride only their strongest 5 men to the finish. The gamble paid off. I thought Tyler Hamilton went to a weaker team when he left CSC for Phonak, but they were on task today. Hamilton now sits in 8th position overall, 36 seconds behind Armstrong, 19 seconds ahead of Ullrich.
3) Banesto (+:30). Right behind Phonak. A really strong ride. No one ever notices Francisco Mancebo, but he sits only 30 seconds behind Armstrong.
4) Telekom (+:40) Had the rules been based upon time lost, not finishing position, they would have lost only 12 seconds to Phonak, not 20. I just mention that as yet another illustration that the Tour directors suck eggs. Ullrich has always had trouble with team time trials. This was a good result for them. He's only 55 seconds behind Lance.
Others...
CSC, Rabobank, and Liberty finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. So Basso, Leipheimer, and Heras did well to avoid losing a lot of time. Currently Basso and Leipheimer are within 80 seconds of the lead; Heras is down 1:45. It could have been a lot worse.
The boys in orange must have read the hatchet job I did on them yesterday. They responded with a really good time trial. Euskaltel finished 7th, putting them +1:20 behind USPS in the final tally. I expected them to be close to 17th, not 7th. This is as good as they could have hoped for. Mayo and Zubeldia are placed #92 and #95, about 5:30 behind Armstrong. They'll rise up a lot once we hit the mountains. If either manages to finish in the top 10, it'll be in part because of a good effort in the team time trial.
Cofidis and FDJeux were totally horrible, finishing 17th and 19th. FDJeux was totally blown apart and staggered home 7:33 behind USPS. Last year they were doing everything right. This year nothing is going right for them. As for Cofidis, their tour was gutted before it started when David Millar was suspended for doping. They have no motivation and it shows.
posted by uberschuck at 7:04 PM
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