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

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

 

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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

Almost at the same place where Augustyn went off?

 

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.

 

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.

 

He didn't say that.

He said "We crashed, and then a cofidis rider crashed as well. That compounded things and we completely lost our rhythm"

and You are a POS for starting a false rumor.

 

You referring to Hincapie?

 

of couse, I could have misheard him, but it definitely sounded like VandeVelde said he was hoping the others crash too.

 

He did want the break to succeed. As long as no-one in it was a threat to Cadel Lotto would have been happy to see Popovych take the stage - would have been a good morale boost for the next stage. Of course Lotto would want Popo to save his energy but he was needed in the break away all the way to the top of the last climb. There's no point him dropping back to save energy on the descent, so he was free to go for the win.

Confusedfan explained it pretty well. Popo was not needed by Cadel today. If Cadel had cracked you would have seen Popo drop back immediately. Popo has been paid a lot of money to support Cadel. Even if he hates Cadel's guts he's not going to sabotage his own career by rebelling against team orders. These guys are professionals.

Seriously, what telecast are you watching and who are the commentators, because on the one I'm watching all this is being explained.

 

Never ever doubt me. 3 in the break including Siutsou. I know this team inside out.

 

I guess if you say the same thing every day, it'll be right sooner or later...along the lines of , if you give 10,000 monkeys a pen & paper, sooner or later they'll write the complete works of shakespeare