Redemption from Popovych
There’s a reason why we say Johan Bruyneel is the best manager in the Tour, and it’s not because we’re on the OLN payroll (we're not!). Yesterday was a disaster for Discovery, but Bruyneel has taken his lemons and made lemonade. After Yaroslav Popovych won stage 12 he said that just before the start Bruyneel told him “Okay, now you go and win a stage.” Popovych beat the peloton to the line by over 4 minutes, taking him to 10th overall and 4:15 behind Floyd Landis’s lead. Yesterday Disco had no GC contender and no stage wins to its name. Today it has both.
Popovych played his hand perfectly. The attack was launched just after one breakaway had been run down, but with nearly 100 km still to go. That’s a good time to catch the peloton in a lazy mood. Popovych was helped by the fact that two of the other three men in the breakaway were highly motivated to see their attack survive—Freire was chasing points, and the Frenchman Le Mevel, wanted to be a national hero on Bastille Day. Popovych knew that he couldn’t out-sprint Freire or Ballan, so he attacked repeatedly in the final 10 km to drop them and avoid a sprint. Perfect tactics.
Popovych was also helped by mistakes from the guys leading the peloton. McEwen wanted to chase down Freire, but Evans and the other guys in Lotto didn’t consider it a priority. As a result Freire picked up 11 points on McEwen today. His lead is still pretty big, but giving away points can’t please McEwen.
The other mistake was by Phonak in letting the breakaway get nearly 5 minutes ahead. Popovych was out of contention, but now they’ve let him back in with 3 big days in the Alps still to come. And don’t be fooled by people saying Phonak did a good job driving the peloton. Know how many teammates Landis had with him when he crossed the line? Two. Yeah, on a flat finish they only had two guys cross the line with the yellow jersey that they are “defending.”
It's a good thing for Floyd that he can climb.
Popovych played his hand perfectly. The attack was launched just after one breakaway had been run down, but with nearly 100 km still to go. That’s a good time to catch the peloton in a lazy mood. Popovych was helped by the fact that two of the other three men in the breakaway were highly motivated to see their attack survive—Freire was chasing points, and the Frenchman Le Mevel, wanted to be a national hero on Bastille Day. Popovych knew that he couldn’t out-sprint Freire or Ballan, so he attacked repeatedly in the final 10 km to drop them and avoid a sprint. Perfect tactics.
Popovych was also helped by mistakes from the guys leading the peloton. McEwen wanted to chase down Freire, but Evans and the other guys in Lotto didn’t consider it a priority. As a result Freire picked up 11 points on McEwen today. His lead is still pretty big, but giving away points can’t please McEwen.
The other mistake was by Phonak in letting the breakaway get nearly 5 minutes ahead. Popovych was out of contention, but now they’ve let him back in with 3 big days in the Alps still to come. And don’t be fooled by people saying Phonak did a good job driving the peloton. Know how many teammates Landis had with him when he crossed the line? Two. Yeah, on a flat finish they only had two guys cross the line with the yellow jersey that they are “defending.”
It's a good thing for Floyd that he can climb.
posted by uberschuck at 6:42 PM
1 Comments:
Lesson learned: Floyd ain't Lance.
That's not a cheap shot, no one is. But this is the second straight day in which Landis failed to put the stake in the heart of a rival. Landis' group negotiated for positioning a little too much yesterday instead of just putting Kloden away. Kloden didn't lose nearly as much time as he should have because Landis got cute.
But that was forgiveable. I mean, he still wasn't entirely sure he wanted the yellow jersey yet. And he did blow apart the field. but today? How do you let Popovych up off the mat? He was in 23rd place and 9 minutes back. Disco didn't have a GC contender. You had successfully knocked out the strongest team. And then, one day later, Popovych is in the top ten at 4:15 down. Not only is he back in it, so is Discovery.
How do you let that happen? Inexcusible error by Phonak.
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