Sunday, July 26, 2009

Recap & All-Star Team

Recap:
Alberto Contador is the strongest cyclist in the world. That he broke everyone in the mountains was to be expected, but his time trial was stunningly good.

If Contador is going to dominate the next 5+ years, Andy Scheleck appears to be his most likely rival. Andy has won two consecutive white jerseys. There have been lots of guys to win white and not pan out, but Andy followed up his 11th overall last year with a 2nd overall this year.

Lance Armstrong didn't win the Tour, but he was pretty impressive nevertheless. There is a theory circulating that suggests that he suffered more from a lack of racing legs than age, ergo, next year he should be stronger with an extra year of training. Maybe. I'll need to see that to be convinced. We have 11 months to wait.

Astana did a much better job of handling the problem of too much talent (Contador, Armstrong, Kloden, Leipheimer) much better than Telekom (Ullrich, Kloden, Vinokourov) did several years ago. Is it a fair comparison? Astana has the best cyclist in the world. Telekom only had the second best.

Mark Cavendish is untouchable in the bunch sprint...Zabel, McEwen, and Cipollini never dominated the way he did.

2009 All Star Team

The obvious spots: Contador and Andy Schleck as GC riders. The fact that they were holding back on Ventoux and still led the contenders says it all. My sprinters are Cavendish--6 stage wins!!!!!--and THOR!, because he beat Cav in the green jersey race.

I'll take Fabian Cancellara as my time trialist. Contador did beat him in the final ITT, but if you combine times from both time trials, no one was faster than Cancellara. Even if he weren't an All-Star as a time trialist, I would have picked him as a domestique because of his pace-setting in the mountains.

Franco Pellizotti earned a spot as a climber. He won the KoM by a very large marging. Sometimes the KoM is a goofy competition, and I have kept the winner off the team for being a point hoarder who disappears on the hardest climbs, but not Franco. Even after he clinched the KoM he made a serious attack on the Ventoux, like a climbing All-Star is supposed to do.

I'll take Mark Renshaw as a lead out man for the sprints. The whole Columbia team did a great job of leading Cavendish, but Renshaw was the best of the group.

Frank Schleck earns a spot too. After Ventoux people think of him as the fellow who missed the podium because of a bad time trial and an inability to follow his brother's wheel on Ventoux. Don't forget that throughout the Alps he was constantly attacking to set up Andy Schleck. If Andy asserted himself as a team leader, Frank is a ridiculously talented and aggressive domestique for the climbs.

I've been wondering if I should include Lance Armstrong on the All-Star Team. If not Lance, then who? Ivanov had a nice stage win and a few other good breakaways. Ditto Perrick Fedrigo. But, seriously, it would be silly not to pick Armstrong. Don't compare him to Lance of 1999-2005; he's not that good. He's still awesome. Despite the drama on his team he ended up being the team player. He showed he's as smart as any rider in the peloton by being on the happy end of a peloton split at the finish twice. Any team needs a rider that strong and savvy.

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