2008 Tour de France Stage 16 - Tuesday, July 22: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157 km

mitosis

It was going to be tonight, now its got to be tomorrow. the tomorrows are starting to run out. come on evans!

confusedfan

As a comparison, Ryder Hesjedal was up at the front with Popovych for quite a while, I was happy to see a Canadian getting TV time at the Tour de France ... then, no more Hesjedal. Apparently he was called back to help out Vandevelde when CVV started struggling, and CVV gave a lot of props to Hesjedal for helping him out today (such that he only lost 32 sec to the top of the climb, too bad for CVV that he then crashed on the descent to the finish and lost more time). So, presumably Popovych would have been able to do the same thing had Evans needed him ... but Evans didn't need him today.

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Dermo

Am no tactician, but is popovych now shot for tomorrow when he is really needed by Evans, after using all his energy today? Silence Lotto are either the stupidest, worst or most indisciplined team the tdf has ever seen?

TheDarkLord

If a rider is in an escape group with hopes to help a team leader, I would imagine that he wouldn't waste his energy at the front (taking your turn of pulls is an entirely different matter). But Popovych was at times really pushing the pace of the front group - it almost seemed like he wanted the break to succeed.

fscyclist

my only coments on the day are:

1. CSC blew it - big time. Whether it was bad tactics or if the riders just didn't have it in them we won't know, but waiting until tomorrow is a bad idea IMHO.

2. Proves my earlier point that this current crop of riders doesn't have a champion amongst them. The legends never would have raced like these guys did just watching and waiting afraid to do anything of significance.

Crankyfeet

Perhaps without the same transfusion-style recovery doping... riders are actually getting tired towards the end of a GT again.

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thoughtforfood

That is what I see, though there also doesn't appear to be a dominate rider in the race either. I think it is a combo of what you are both saying.

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein

fscyclist

Before the days of transfusing we still saw great performances in the last week of a tour. It's just relative. Go watch some pre 1990 footage and you'll see some incredible racing. Hinault never would have pussied out like these guys and just watched wheels all day, neither would Lemond, Delgado, Roche, etc... You can make fun of Contadope and Raas all you like, but if they were in this race they wouldn't have sat in the pack like a sack of potatoes today.

thoughtforfood

Basically it all boiles down to the fact that Germans love David Hasselhoff.

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein

TheDarkLord

Chicken vs Contadope was definitely the high point of last year's Tour.

mogulhead

It seemed to me that Frank just didn't have it today. It looked like Sastre, I think, went to attack and was told to can it by Frank. Either that or Sastre is to stupid to remember team orders, even with Riis yelling them in his ear.

I thought Cadel did an excellent job driving most of the descent. Did anyone else see him nearly go over the edge near the start of the descent.

TheDarkLord

Almost at the same place where Augustyn went off?

thoughtforfood

No, but in the interview after the stage with CVV, he said that he fell, and on the decent was hoping "they would crash too." It is left out of all the quotes on CN and VN, but he said it. It sounded a little prickly.

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein

TheDarkLord

That ranks up there as the height of unsportsmanship! Unless they took advantage of his crashing to put some time on him. But considering how they reacted to Menchov, it would seem to be unlikely. Even if he feels that way, he is a fool to tell it out to the media. Even the wheelsucker is better than that.