Stage 7: more drama for the Astana team bus
Stage 7 was an enigma. The bottom line is that Alberto Contador attacked the peloton with about 1.5 km remaining, picking up 21 seconds on the other contenders and jumping into second place, 6 seconds off the yellow jersey. That sounds awfully familiar to what Armstrong did in stage 3, beating the contenders by 40 seconds to climb the leader board.
But this was a mountain top finish, not a flat stage. Picking up 40 seconds on the contenders is unexpectedly high in a flat stage. Picking up 20 seconds on them in a mountain stage is a small gap.
More substantial is the politics of team Astana. After the stage, the riders and even the manager were telling the press that the plan was not for Contador to attack, but that they weren't surprised that he did. The line dividing those comments from publicly ripping him in the press is very fine. Even before Contador attacked something on the road was very telling. When Cadel Evans attacked, Contador and Lance both responded, Contador on the left and Lance on the right. A few moments later, Kloden came up on the right side and offered his wheel to Lance. I could have been wrong, but my immediate reaction was "Kloden rides for Lance." Shortly thereafter Contador attacked and none of his teammates went with him.
From a team perspective, the way the stage finished is good in that there are now two men within 10 seconds of the yellow jersey. Hooray for Astana! The good news for the team ends there. Whatever effect the distraction of team cohesion (or lack thereof) was before, it has been magnified--big time. Assuming the talk is correct that Contador didn't have the green light to attack, Bruyneel is going to be ticked off by his insubordination. Armstrong and those teammates who favor him are going to be pissed off, and there may even be other teammates upset by his do-your-own-thing attitude. The public airing of dirty laundry is going to irk Contador, and this could snowball into something even worse.
Nevertheless, Contador's actions are defensible. You don't win the Tour by refusing to use your advantages. Contador has the best uphill acceleration in the race, and no one could match him. He doesn't have to apologize to anyone for being too fast. After the race Armstrong was playing the wounded teammate card, saying he refused to chase for the good of the team, but having seen Contador sprint away from him, I won't believe Lance can match him until I see it. Only Lance knows how much he had in the tank when Contador attacked. If Contador put doubt in his mind, then that's more valuable than the 21 seconds he picked up. Hopefully it will take all month for this to play out, because it's fun to watch.
By the way, Brice Feillu of Agritubel won the stage and Rinaldo Nocentini of Ag2r took the yellow jersey by 6 seconds over Contador. Yeah, and Italian is wearing yellow for the first time in about a decade.
But this was a mountain top finish, not a flat stage. Picking up 40 seconds on the contenders is unexpectedly high in a flat stage. Picking up 20 seconds on them in a mountain stage is a small gap.
More substantial is the politics of team Astana. After the stage, the riders and even the manager were telling the press that the plan was not for Contador to attack, but that they weren't surprised that he did. The line dividing those comments from publicly ripping him in the press is very fine. Even before Contador attacked something on the road was very telling. When Cadel Evans attacked, Contador and Lance both responded, Contador on the left and Lance on the right. A few moments later, Kloden came up on the right side and offered his wheel to Lance. I could have been wrong, but my immediate reaction was "Kloden rides for Lance." Shortly thereafter Contador attacked and none of his teammates went with him.
From a team perspective, the way the stage finished is good in that there are now two men within 10 seconds of the yellow jersey. Hooray for Astana! The good news for the team ends there. Whatever effect the distraction of team cohesion (or lack thereof) was before, it has been magnified--big time. Assuming the talk is correct that Contador didn't have the green light to attack, Bruyneel is going to be ticked off by his insubordination. Armstrong and those teammates who favor him are going to be pissed off, and there may even be other teammates upset by his do-your-own-thing attitude. The public airing of dirty laundry is going to irk Contador, and this could snowball into something even worse.
Nevertheless, Contador's actions are defensible. You don't win the Tour by refusing to use your advantages. Contador has the best uphill acceleration in the race, and no one could match him. He doesn't have to apologize to anyone for being too fast. After the race Armstrong was playing the wounded teammate card, saying he refused to chase for the good of the team, but having seen Contador sprint away from him, I won't believe Lance can match him until I see it. Only Lance knows how much he had in the tank when Contador attacked. If Contador put doubt in his mind, then that's more valuable than the 21 seconds he picked up. Hopefully it will take all month for this to play out, because it's fun to watch.
By the way, Brice Feillu of Agritubel won the stage and Rinaldo Nocentini of Ag2r took the yellow jersey by 6 seconds over Contador. Yeah, and Italian is wearing yellow for the first time in about a decade.
posted by uberschuck at 7:45 PM
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