Zabriskie is a disgrace to Americans in the international peleton

Originally Posted by homeycheese

I went back and looked and in the Tuesday morning edition of the USA Today was a brief comment and profile on DZ in which Riis questioned DZ's peloton riding skills.

I'd say that was quite foreboding.

As for DZ being a disgrace, BS. The peloton has a way of dispensing justice and will take care of that issue.

The real disgrace is investing time and money in a rider and then abandoing him and the yellow jersey when you have used him up. Riis has shown his true colors, win at all costs, screw the rider, screw the respect for the Yellow Jersey. DZ was the only one exhibiting class with his solo ride to the line. Riis and the team should hang their heads in shame. Not one went back down the line to check on DZ and that is disgraceful.

Originally Posted by rejobako

...

Given the stress and excitement of that unfortunate moment, it seems unfair to condemn Riis and his team so harshly.

Originally Posted by DiabloScott

If it were Team Discovery and they had Hincapie in yellow and didn't wait for him you can bet you'd have heard a lot of condemnations. Disgraceful, scandalous, etc.

Originally Posted by rejobako

Paul Sherwan offered similar (not quite so damning) sentiments, saying that he thought it would have been appropriate for at least one or two of his CSC teammates to hang back and shepherd DZ home.

But it's awfully easy to second-guess in this kind of situation, when in real time the decision needed to be made without hesitation. The reports I heard were that Riis and his team discussed what to do if DZ had a problem late in the stage, and the decision was to leave him and go for the sponsor's main goal of winning the TTT and also to minimize any GC impact on Basso. When the incident happened, CSC could, in theory, have pre-assigned a couple of riders to stay with DZ and send the rest to the line, but they would have had to be doubly sure they had the minimum 5 riders get to the line to stop the clock. Given the stress and excitement of that unfortunate moment, it seems unfair to condemn Riis and his team so harshly.

Originally Posted by mitosis

To Captain crankster and Injury,
This discussion has been wrung out on another thread.

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t241449-.html

You sound like you've been following LeTour for a few years at the most.

Read the posts on that thread before you start dashing out your uninformed ideas because all this has shown is how little you know about cycling.

Originally Posted by House

A few things I find humorous about this thread:

1) When Chechu was in yellow and went back for bottles for the team all hell broke loose that Lance and USPS didn't respect the yellow jersey. While the reasoning for leaving DZ is sound, it is a bit hypocritical for the same things not to be said.

Originally Posted by Banesto2007

Youre smug and gay with all of your little smiley faces. You dont understand on-the-road tactics and I shouldnt have place any importance on quoted sources. An Anglo correspondant for an Anglo publication/site, regarding an Anglo rider on an Anglo team. Enough said. Its a Latin sport with Latin ethics. Yall are outsiders. This isnt gay ass, ball busting Paris Roubaix where everyone rides for themselves, destroying their nuts over cobbles. Ok , first of all CSC is overrated. Riis isnt a great strategist, he just had a flukish plan to change tempos on Indurain in the mountains to win in 1996. He took his earnings and secured a sponsor. If Basso's objective was to do well at the Giro, how does Zabriskie expending his reserves on a selfish ITT effort benefit him. Ill repeat again the fact that Riis bitched them all out for losing contact with Basso when he lost :30 on stage 3 and it wasnt even mountainous. Its easy to win an ITT when everyone else is much more tired because they have a job to do on all the other stages. You quoted Zabriskie ..."I WANTED TO WIN TODAY" and from your propaganda filled sources thats all that can be verified. IF Riis wanted him to try and win , thats a horrible tactic because Basso doesnt need the 150th riders' time splits.... (Dave) , when he himself is 6th from last to go. Zabriskie should have conserved for the race itself. Now, Danielson and Zabriskie both are EXTREMELY limited as cyclists. Neither have any muscle mass and the only reason Danielson has shown potential is because hes lived for years at altitude in Durango, CO. and raced against Crit. oriented riders who are only good at riding for an hour or two . He cant go longer than 7-8 days , hes just flat out not an athlete. Zabriskie is 5'11 150 , hell never do well in the tour because he cannot climb with that undersized frame. I wouldnt even consider him to be a good TTT specialist because at his waifish size he doesnt provide much of a draft unless hes got a small guy behind him, for Basso hes comporable but they wont be a good TTT team even with Voigt, Julich. Basso is not even a great athlete even without mentioning the fact that he has no intensity. Fassa Non-Tendered him because he was overrated. Basically the amateurish Riis has been signing everyone elses garbage. Hamilton,Julich,Basso,Voigt Jaksche,Sastre. Theyve dominated Paris-Nice, Tour Med, Crit Int., and Romandie but that is their niche. Bassos podium was a fluke because Jan caught a virus from his kid, and because everyone dropped out. Ullrich, Vino, Lance, Ekimov, Popo, Azevedo, Rubiera, Savoldelli, Cioni, Flecha, Pettachi, Pozzato, Velo, Brusegin , Cancellara , Kirchen , Frigo. Even Sevilla knows what his role is. All of those guys are real riders so that is why Zabriskie, Julich,Hamilton,Landis,Danielson and Basso were all disposed of by those teams. Botero will do better than Landis in July for the Phonak squad. Americans are overrated because they only ride for themselves. They all should go to CSC. Then they can go win all the races in March when its snowing out. Their victories in Romandie were with a blood doping Hamilton.

OH yeah, Tour of Georgia is a gay EXHIBITION race for Americans. Its not even a real race. Why do you think CSC always tries to do well there with Voigt last year and Julich, and Vandborg this year. There werent even time bonuses going into the last day when Danielson only had a 0:04 second lead against Lance,Landis,Julich,Levi, who could all care less about the race. Lance won last year without even trying. Tour of California is going to be a joke too. The only races that matter are
THE TOURS OF FRANCE, SPAIN, ITALY, PARIS-NICE, DAUPHINE-L, LIEGE-B-L, CATALUNYA, PAIS VASCO, VALENCIA, MURCIA, SAN SEBASTIAN, WORLDS, LOMBARDY(unless you dont like racing in October).

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LIEGE-B-L (which might as well be French), THE SPORT IS IN FRANCE, ITALY, AND SPAIN.

3 Days of De Panne, 4 Days of Dunkirk, Flanders, Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Amstel, KBK, Camembert, all those others are not meaningful. The races in Switzerland are not great thats why Jan screws up by racing there and Tour of Germany and Italian Criteriums instead of DAUHPINE. At least he did CATALUNYA but he should have tried to win it. CSC is going to implode in Du Tour not DE Tour.

Originally Posted by musette

Things I find humorous -- Chechu is not the same as Victor Hugo Pena, who did wear the maillot jaune. I don't recall Chechu having ever worn the TdF maillot jaune. I could be proven wrong, of course, but I doubt it.

What's so strange about VHP going back for waterbottles in 2003? He was clearly declining in Bruyneel's favor, as evident from his not even making the USPS TdF team in 2004 and his having gotten his salary cut relative to the time when he first joined USPS by Bruyneel.

Originally Posted by Banesto2007

Why did Zabriskie pull the same crap he did at the end of last year when he finished 150th every day for the first 12 days of the Vuelta and then attacked FIVE KILOMETERS into stage 14 or whatever it was. The peleton crashed and the sprinters teams couldnt real him in before the end. Im sure that Zabriskie completely spent all of his domestique energy on the last 20k of that stage. Pettachi, who wanted to win that stage, basically acknoweledged in the least possible manner by saying "Zabriskie certainly rode well , BUT...". If everyone raced in that fashion, there would be no team concept. Most guys in the bottom 50 of the GC could win stages but they are there to work for their teamleaders. Maybe FLoyd Landis would have held the Overall Leaders Jersey in the Vuelta last year if he had the help of coheisive teammates. For all of the people who are scratching their heads as to why US Postal Service non-tendered (no contract offer) Zabriskie , it was exactly for this reason. Bjarn Riis doesnt care about this stuff though because he just wants Anglos and English speakers on his team. Plus he wants any publicity he can get. Its this same attitude that had half of the sport suspecting that he DOPED to enable himself to deny the great, Miguel Indurain, his 6 TDF in succession. That basically ended Migs career permaturely.
Back to the point. Zabriskie was supposed to be working for Basso , and he did well for him in the mountains and in the first week, but he could have been responsible for Basso not having the morale to recover on the bad days. First of all 3 days into the race , Riis had to take corrective measures to get David to protect Ivan. Then a few days later Zabriskie went 120% on the first ITT and ended up finishing 1) Zabriskie 2)Basso. Basso should have won 3 stages in the 2005 Giro D' Italia if it werent for his traitor leuitenant. This just shows how the UCI system is so flawed because the Pro Tour only rewards this type of selfishness with 3 Points in a 3 Week Tour. Unless someone is a pure sprinter going for Points Jersey they should be working for the GC either for themselves or for their teamleader. Also Zabriskie blowing off an interview with Phil Liggett and not even wearing his Stars and Stripes Jersey as National Time Trial Champion is a disgrace. Americans are outsiders in Europe and we should approach the sport with the Big Picure in mind and not how we can squeeze out maximum exposure for ourselves.

Also its sad that a mediocre sprinter such as Issac Galvez can accure more UCI points for sitting on till the last 10k of the sprint stages, finishing 6th in those stages, compared with someone who can finish in the 1st group , climb and TT their way to a top 15 in the final GC. Im sure Zabriskie got more points than someone like Cauchiolli and that is just wrong.