Stage 17: boring, not boring
It was the longest stage of the Tour not only this year, but in 5 years. When the 17 man breakaway reached a gap of 20 minutes, it seemed like the only action of the day would be finding out who wins the stage.
How the stage was won turned out to be an illustration of what separates the men from the boys. Almost all of the 17 were domestiques. Paolo Savoldelli is a two time Giro d'Italia champ. First there was an attack that separated 9 from 8 chasers. A little cat. 3 climb precipitated a couple attacks to thin it out even more. At first Savoldelli didn't respond to Hinault's attack, but then climbed up to the lead with ease. He outclassed everyone on the climb. When a group of 4 came together with 2 km to go, Savoldelli outclassed them again. Unlike Sylvain Chavenel, who lost a stage because he played cat & mouse for positioning, Savoldelli kept his pace up. Instead of losing the stage by out-maneuvering himself, he rode hard, got the wheel of the man in front of him, and out-sprinted all for a stage win. Savoldelli is doing the Tour just to be a team player for Discovery--it's not like his main goal was to win a stage. But he was in position and just outclassed everyone around him.
Does Alexandre Vinokourov ever give it a rest? No. He attacked on that dinky little climb just after there was a crash in the peloton--cycling is such a cut-throat sport. Vino and the Tour leaders--Lance, Ullrich, Basso, Rasmussen, Popovych all put the hammer down to keep a 20 second advantage over the rest of the peloton. It was really a little thing, but the 20 seconds moved Vino into 7th place, jumping ahead of Floyd Landis and Cadel Evans. It's what Phil Ligett would call a cheeky move. This is just one day after another cheeky move--announcing that he's leaving Telekom when his contract is up. Well, Duh.
There were no changes in the green jersey race, but there was a huge change in the team competition. Telekom had a large lead at the start of the stage, but they only had one man in the breakaway. Discovery had two, so they made up 20 minutes. Telekom's 20 minute lead is now a 37 second defecit. It was just dumb that they let the breakaway take that much time. It's almost like they are trying to lose. Kloden abandoned because of a broken wrist, so that'll make it harder for them to overcome Discovery. Here's a wild guess--Ullrich & Vino will attack on the rolling hills at the end of stage 18.
How the stage was won turned out to be an illustration of what separates the men from the boys. Almost all of the 17 were domestiques. Paolo Savoldelli is a two time Giro d'Italia champ. First there was an attack that separated 9 from 8 chasers. A little cat. 3 climb precipitated a couple attacks to thin it out even more. At first Savoldelli didn't respond to Hinault's attack, but then climbed up to the lead with ease. He outclassed everyone on the climb. When a group of 4 came together with 2 km to go, Savoldelli outclassed them again. Unlike Sylvain Chavenel, who lost a stage because he played cat & mouse for positioning, Savoldelli kept his pace up. Instead of losing the stage by out-maneuvering himself, he rode hard, got the wheel of the man in front of him, and out-sprinted all for a stage win. Savoldelli is doing the Tour just to be a team player for Discovery--it's not like his main goal was to win a stage. But he was in position and just outclassed everyone around him.
Does Alexandre Vinokourov ever give it a rest? No. He attacked on that dinky little climb just after there was a crash in the peloton--cycling is such a cut-throat sport. Vino and the Tour leaders--Lance, Ullrich, Basso, Rasmussen, Popovych all put the hammer down to keep a 20 second advantage over the rest of the peloton. It was really a little thing, but the 20 seconds moved Vino into 7th place, jumping ahead of Floyd Landis and Cadel Evans. It's what Phil Ligett would call a cheeky move. This is just one day after another cheeky move--announcing that he's leaving Telekom when his contract is up. Well, Duh.
There were no changes in the green jersey race, but there was a huge change in the team competition. Telekom had a large lead at the start of the stage, but they only had one man in the breakaway. Discovery had two, so they made up 20 minutes. Telekom's 20 minute lead is now a 37 second defecit. It was just dumb that they let the breakaway take that much time. It's almost like they are trying to lose. Kloden abandoned because of a broken wrist, so that'll make it harder for them to overcome Discovery. Here's a wild guess--Ullrich & Vino will attack on the rolling hills at the end of stage 18.
posted by uberschuck at 11:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home