First of all: Congratulations to Landis. He showed heart and moral and did a great race, which (I think) will pave his way to the yellow jersey in Paris, since Sastre and Pereiro are simply not in his league in TT and Klöden is too far away. (Though you never know with this tour).
However, that does not excuse the horrid tactics used by the other teams. If any of them (besides CdE, who did what they could) had done anything to follow Landis instead of letting him gain 9 minutes, he would not have been in the race for the Posium anymore. Landis what strong, but what made him a serious contender again, was the complete inability of the other teams and their chiefs.
Phonak, T-Mobile, CSC, Rabobank and Davitamon at least already behaved very foolishly, when they let Pereiro gain half an hour last week, (And Klöden probably lost the podium place on this stage). But this really was the icing on the cake. CdE at least tried. They simply weren't strong enough, but they tried. Klöden wasn't in a very good shape today, even before the last climb, and mostly at the end of the group. Therefore I will give T-Mobile the benefit of a doubt and assume, that they didn't made any pace on the earlier climbs, because they knew Klöden had problems to follow and wanted to minimize the damage. But what CSC did, was so incredibily dumb, that they totally deserve to lose the Tour just for this. Sastre was the overall best rider of this Tour (and in fact the only one, who didn't have a weak day). He could have been a clear overall leader by now and on his way to win the Tour. But instead CSC created their own "enemies", in letting Pereiro (on Sunday) and Landis away, making the distance Sastre already pulled between himself and them absolutely worthless. Therefore the strongest rider might very well not win this Tour, and I certainly will not cheer him on anyway. (Go, Landis, Go. At least he had the balls to do anything).
Bjarne Riis was taught, that it was obviously much easier in the previous years, where he and Basso simply decided to not attack Armstrong and simply concentrate on T-Mobile and Ullrich for the second place. Now, that they actually had to use some tactics, they failed utterly.
However, that does not excuse the horrid tactics used by the other teams. If any of them (besides CdE, who did what they could) had done anything to follow Landis instead of letting him gain 9 minutes, he would not have been in the race for the Posium anymore. Landis what strong, but what made him a serious contender again, was the complete inability of the other teams and their chiefs.
Phonak, T-Mobile, CSC, Rabobank and Davitamon at least already behaved very foolishly, when they let Pereiro gain half an hour last week, (And Klöden probably lost the podium place on this stage). But this really was the icing on the cake. CdE at least tried. They simply weren't strong enough, but they tried. Klöden wasn't in a very good shape today, even before the last climb, and mostly at the end of the group. Therefore I will give T-Mobile the benefit of a doubt and assume, that they didn't made any pace on the earlier climbs, because they knew Klöden had problems to follow and wanted to minimize the damage. But what CSC did, was so incredibily dumb, that they totally deserve to lose the Tour just for this. Sastre was the overall best rider of this Tour (and in fact the only one, who didn't have a weak day). He could have been a clear overall leader by now and on his way to win the Tour. But instead CSC created their own "enemies", in letting Pereiro (on Sunday) and Landis away, making the distance Sastre already pulled between himself and them absolutely worthless. Therefore the strongest rider might very well not win this Tour, and I certainly will not cheer him on anyway. (Go, Landis, Go. At least he had the balls to do anything).
Bjarne Riis was taught, that it was obviously much easier in the previous years, where he and Basso simply decided to not attack Armstrong and simply concentrate on T-Mobile and Ullrich for the second place. Now, that they actually had to use some tactics, they failed utterly.
Pereiro lost half an hour in the first mountain stage, and it therefore may be understandable that he was underestimated. But still, he finished Top 10 last year and to let him this much away was a game with the fire, and obviously several riders (most notably Klöden and the TMO Team, who probably lost the Podium Place in this stage) burned themselves. And it's really not that I expected them to catch Pereiro or Landis. That wa snot necessary. What I found foolish was, that they let them that much away. Okay, Phonak obviously wanted to lose the yellow jersey last Sunday, but couldn't the others have done a bit more? Keep pereiro on a distance of 20 minutes (or even 23 or 24!) and Landis today on maybe three or four minutes, and there would have been no problem. But to let them this much away is really unfathomable for me.
