Last Few Days
The Tour has had really bad timing for my personal life. I'm moving right now, and I've spent the last few days packing. I've had time to watch the Tour and of course follow the coverage, but no time to organize my thoughts and write them out. So you're getting a few days worth of crap. Again.
OSCAR PEREIRO
I'm not sure he's a GC man. He's 14th overall, but he's like an ill-disciplined domestique for Floyd Landis. I don't think he harbors any illusion that he was going to be on the podium, but I do think after Stage 10 he felt that he deserved a stage win. I mean, he went out and made an insane attack the day after he made an insane attack. The guy is a beast. We thought we were going to miss Jakob Piil (well, actually I have), but Pereiro is filled the role of absolutely insane attacking fiend.
And Hincapie did kind of screw him on Stage 15. I like Hincapie, and I'm going to write about him later in this post, but he did absolutely no work on that breakway. And while that's acceptable when there was still a chance they'd get caught by Armstrong, once he got the green light to go for the win it's just common courtesy to take your turn at the front. According to Hincapie, he just couldn't get around the front due to the Basque fans, which is a somewhat believable excuse. The shot from the motorbike looked like they were riding through Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.
Pereiro earned a stage win. He's been the most agressive rider in this year's Tour, but of course the French organizers will give that award to someone like Moreau for no apparent reason, just so the French get some hardware. He needed a stage win to cement his place in this year's Tour. I'm really happy he won a stage, and its fitting he won it on another ridiculous attack. The fates are often cruel in cycling, so we should enjoy the times a rider is justly rewarded.
T-MOBILE
I've been pretty relentless on T-Mobile this year, but I do want to say that Jan Ullrich showed a ton of heart on stage 15. Basso made his move, Armstrong followed, but Ullrich just couldn't find that quick burst. It's not his style. So he upped the pace and methodically tracked the two contenders down. He hung for about a kilometer, and they dropped him again.
Instead of bonking, Ullrich found help from one of his teammates: Oscar Sevilla. This of course begs the question of whatever happened to Kelme? But that's another story. Ullrich latched onto his teammate's whell and Sevilla pulled him up the mountain. Ullrich lost only a minute and half to the big two, but he stayed even with Rasmussen. If ever there was a time for Ullrich to just give up, this was it. He found it in himself to dig deep, keep fighting, and even show some uncharacteristic teamwork for T-Mobile. On one of those days he wasn't his strongest, I gained a lot of respect for Ullrich. I don't back down from the comment he's psychologically whipped by Armstrong, but he's still one tough guy. And kudos to Sevilla for actually riding like a domestique on the world's most selfish team. That's when its hardest to ride selflessly, but he did it. And not enough credit is going his way for that ride.
DISCOVERY
We can agree that barring a complete disaster, Lance is going to win. It hasn't been his most dominating performance, and his team has left him high and dry a few times in critical stages, but he's got the maillot jaune. It would be nice if he won at least one stage, though.
A few years ago, I commented on how much it must suck to ride for Postal (now Discovery). Everything centers on Armstrong, and you have to give up any hope of individual glory in order to acheive Lance's goals. Lance's goals become your goals. You are a faceless member of the Blue Train, and you simply aren't allwoed to go for individual glories. It works because Lance always wins. If he didn't, Discovery would quickly become T-Mobile. CSC's got tons of talent as well, but you get the feeling of the big three, they are the loosest team, the only one where it is okay to be an individual.
Anyway, this year has been strange because Lance's domestiques were the most unreliable they have been in years. He hasn't had that Blue Train. Discovery has controlled the peleton, but not to the same extent as past years, and several mountain stages have been complete disasters. There's been more criticism of Lance's domestiques than ever before.
Yet, look at the hardware. For the first time, Discovery might win the team competition. Popovych is almost a shoo-in to win the white jersey. For the first time since Armstrong started winning yellow, one of his teammates won a stage. And they won two of them. If I told you going in that discovery would win three stages, you would never guess the three winners were the team (in the TTT), Salvodelli, and Hincapie. Seriously, George Hincapie winning a mountain stage? That's like Jose Azevedo winning a bunch sprint. You don't expect it to happen. Looking at their fabulous prizes, this will go down as the most successful Tour in the team's history. The odd thing is, they don't seem as dominant. Bizarre.
COFIDIS
Why the hell are Cofidis and Lotto allowing so many breakaways? Don't they know their lead sprinters can beat Hushovd? These points are important, and Hushovd is happily watching them go to riders who are no threat to his lead.
OSCAR PEREIRO
I'm not sure he's a GC man. He's 14th overall, but he's like an ill-disciplined domestique for Floyd Landis. I don't think he harbors any illusion that he was going to be on the podium, but I do think after Stage 10 he felt that he deserved a stage win. I mean, he went out and made an insane attack the day after he made an insane attack. The guy is a beast. We thought we were going to miss Jakob Piil (well, actually I have), but Pereiro is filled the role of absolutely insane attacking fiend.
And Hincapie did kind of screw him on Stage 15. I like Hincapie, and I'm going to write about him later in this post, but he did absolutely no work on that breakway. And while that's acceptable when there was still a chance they'd get caught by Armstrong, once he got the green light to go for the win it's just common courtesy to take your turn at the front. According to Hincapie, he just couldn't get around the front due to the Basque fans, which is a somewhat believable excuse. The shot from the motorbike looked like they were riding through Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.
Pereiro earned a stage win. He's been the most agressive rider in this year's Tour, but of course the French organizers will give that award to someone like Moreau for no apparent reason, just so the French get some hardware. He needed a stage win to cement his place in this year's Tour. I'm really happy he won a stage, and its fitting he won it on another ridiculous attack. The fates are often cruel in cycling, so we should enjoy the times a rider is justly rewarded.
T-MOBILE
I've been pretty relentless on T-Mobile this year, but I do want to say that Jan Ullrich showed a ton of heart on stage 15. Basso made his move, Armstrong followed, but Ullrich just couldn't find that quick burst. It's not his style. So he upped the pace and methodically tracked the two contenders down. He hung for about a kilometer, and they dropped him again.
Instead of bonking, Ullrich found help from one of his teammates: Oscar Sevilla. This of course begs the question of whatever happened to Kelme? But that's another story. Ullrich latched onto his teammate's whell and Sevilla pulled him up the mountain. Ullrich lost only a minute and half to the big two, but he stayed even with Rasmussen. If ever there was a time for Ullrich to just give up, this was it. He found it in himself to dig deep, keep fighting, and even show some uncharacteristic teamwork for T-Mobile. On one of those days he wasn't his strongest, I gained a lot of respect for Ullrich. I don't back down from the comment he's psychologically whipped by Armstrong, but he's still one tough guy. And kudos to Sevilla for actually riding like a domestique on the world's most selfish team. That's when its hardest to ride selflessly, but he did it. And not enough credit is going his way for that ride.
DISCOVERY
We can agree that barring a complete disaster, Lance is going to win. It hasn't been his most dominating performance, and his team has left him high and dry a few times in critical stages, but he's got the maillot jaune. It would be nice if he won at least one stage, though.
A few years ago, I commented on how much it must suck to ride for Postal (now Discovery). Everything centers on Armstrong, and you have to give up any hope of individual glory in order to acheive Lance's goals. Lance's goals become your goals. You are a faceless member of the Blue Train, and you simply aren't allwoed to go for individual glories. It works because Lance always wins. If he didn't, Discovery would quickly become T-Mobile. CSC's got tons of talent as well, but you get the feeling of the big three, they are the loosest team, the only one where it is okay to be an individual.
Anyway, this year has been strange because Lance's domestiques were the most unreliable they have been in years. He hasn't had that Blue Train. Discovery has controlled the peleton, but not to the same extent as past years, and several mountain stages have been complete disasters. There's been more criticism of Lance's domestiques than ever before.
Yet, look at the hardware. For the first time, Discovery might win the team competition. Popovych is almost a shoo-in to win the white jersey. For the first time since Armstrong started winning yellow, one of his teammates won a stage. And they won two of them. If I told you going in that discovery would win three stages, you would never guess the three winners were the team (in the TTT), Salvodelli, and Hincapie. Seriously, George Hincapie winning a mountain stage? That's like Jose Azevedo winning a bunch sprint. You don't expect it to happen. Looking at their fabulous prizes, this will go down as the most successful Tour in the team's history. The odd thing is, they don't seem as dominant. Bizarre.
COFIDIS
Why the hell are Cofidis and Lotto allowing so many breakaways? Don't they know their lead sprinters can beat Hushovd? These points are important, and Hushovd is happily watching them go to riders who are no threat to his lead.
posted by Poseur at 8:27 AM
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