Why it sucks to be Iban Mayo.
Mayo didn't have to have his hopes die in stage 3. For sure, that was a bad crash at a bad time, and for sure, the guys at the head of the peloton made it hard to catch up. But this was a classic case of why a contender needs a good team. Mayo's Euskaltel-Euskadi team is a low budget team of all Basque climbers. They are one dimentional and lack experience in controlling a grand tour. So, when Roberto Heras and Ivan Basso had help from their Liberty and CSC teams, Mayo had crummy help from Euskaltel. CSC and Liberty worked together to bridge a gap, and the gap was smaller than Mayo's, but Mayo had about 30 miles to bridge the gap, which was only about 90 seconds for a long time. But he only had three teammates, none of which are good flat-landers. They were undermanned--Euskaltel only started with 8 riders because one was not allowed to start after a positive drug test. They were also poorly organized in setting up the chase. Contrast that to the way USPS controlled the tempo before, during, and after the cobblestones.
Mayo is a really good, talented, young rider. If he wants to be a Tour champion he needs to do two things...1) learn how to do a flat time trial, and 2) get a team that can support him. He can still work magic in the mountains and have a good finish in this Tour, but a podium finish would need a miracle.
Stage 4 is the team time trial. Euskaltel is in last place, so they are first out the gate. They are still undermanned, and now extra tired after stage 3's events. They are a weak time trialing team, and we can expect them to lose big in stage 4. Mayo will be 6-7 minutes behind Armstrong, Ullrich, Hamilton after only 4 stages.
Meanwhile, USPS gets the advantage of going last. They'll know exactly what time they need to win the time trial.
Mayo didn't have to have his hopes die in stage 3. For sure, that was a bad crash at a bad time, and for sure, the guys at the head of the peloton made it hard to catch up. But this was a classic case of why a contender needs a good team. Mayo's Euskaltel-Euskadi team is a low budget team of all Basque climbers. They are one dimentional and lack experience in controlling a grand tour. So, when Roberto Heras and Ivan Basso had help from their Liberty and CSC teams, Mayo had crummy help from Euskaltel. CSC and Liberty worked together to bridge a gap, and the gap was smaller than Mayo's, but Mayo had about 30 miles to bridge the gap, which was only about 90 seconds for a long time. But he only had three teammates, none of which are good flat-landers. They were undermanned--Euskaltel only started with 8 riders because one was not allowed to start after a positive drug test. They were also poorly organized in setting up the chase. Contrast that to the way USPS controlled the tempo before, during, and after the cobblestones.
Mayo is a really good, talented, young rider. If he wants to be a Tour champion he needs to do two things...1) learn how to do a flat time trial, and 2) get a team that can support him. He can still work magic in the mountains and have a good finish in this Tour, but a podium finish would need a miracle.
Stage 4 is the team time trial. Euskaltel is in last place, so they are first out the gate. They are still undermanned, and now extra tired after stage 3's events. They are a weak time trialing team, and we can expect them to lose big in stage 4. Mayo will be 6-7 minutes behind Armstrong, Ullrich, Hamilton after only 4 stages.
Meanwhile, USPS gets the advantage of going last. They'll know exactly what time they need to win the time trial.
posted by uberschuck at 10:47 PM
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