A curse over Rasmussen



mareblu said:
Whatever he had it must have felt like a curse!!!!!

Poor thing.......... :mad:


In retrospect he came into the Tour with the goal to be KOM. He accomplished that, and I imagine he'll be pretty proud tomorrow.

He's not a good TT rider, and lost a combined 13 minutes between the individual and team TTs.
 
dasnootz said:
In retrospect he came into the Tour with the goal to be KOM. He accomplished that, and I imagine he'll be pretty proud tomorrow.

He's not a good TT rider, and lost a combined 13 minutes between the individual and team TTs.


But 4 bikes and 2 crashes later, he's going to wonder what the heck happened!

I felt so bad for him.
 
ras very unlucky today,ive never seen soething like that in cycling at one point i tought he would quit.
 
Ras' problems cannot be attributed necessarily to bad luck. For example, the first crash had at least something to do with his line near the French roundabout.
 
I agree that the first crash was definately his own fault. He underestimated the curve. But after the problems with his bike, I think his nerves and concentration just took a dive. He is a perfectionist in terms of both preparation and gear requirements, so I bet he had alot of frustrations in him after the almost comic bike changing scene. Usually, he is describes as one of the most technical riders in the peleton, so I'm guessing that the pressure after the fall got to him.

The thing is, since the crash happened so early in the stage, we'll never really know how well he really would have done. Dispite a double fall, 4 bike changes, and a huge psycic plunge, he still finished ahead of the majority of riders. I still think he'd have lost to JU, but thats about it.
 
Spot on........it was all due to an enormous pressure to stay on the podium. Which, if youre realistic, was never ever going to happen. However 4th was and soooo he lost more to all those stupid crashes and bike changes.......

musette said:
Ras' problems cannot be attributed necessarily to bad luck. For example, the first crash had at least something to do with his line near the French roundabout.
 
mareblu said:
Whatever he had it must have felt like a curse!!!!!

Poor thing.......... :mad:
But he survived the day. You have to learn to survive the TDF before you win it. He was never a realistic competitor for the podium. You have to be able to beat the clock. But he was a revelation of the tour. He won the KOM jersey and he held off all of the attacks of the others. There should be a jersey for "Classy rider status."
We , the fans were denied today by his bad luck to see what he could have pulled off with a proper ride under pressure. We are left wondering if he could ride a decent TT and with some work on the TT would he ever be a real Contender ???? Maybe his age will make that impossible. Quality TDF for him!!!!
 
I gained a lot of respect for him today. Extremly tough day, and he did not quit.

Good for him, and a great tour for him as well.
 
musette said:
Ras' problems cannot be attributed necessarily to bad luck. For example, the first crash had at least something to do with his line near the French roundabout.

yes, emphasise the FRENCH why don't you, you freedom fries-advocating fool! :D ARRARG I HATE ALCOHOL! :D
 
Dead Star said:
yes, emphasise the FRENCH why don't you, you freedom fries-advocating fool! :D ARRARG I HATE ALCOHOL! :D

French roundabout again - non ?
Quelle surprise !
 
Rasmussen's performance today was reminiscent of Jason Priestley's (Brandon Walsh) performance in the opening skit when he hosted Saturday Night Live. Anyone remember this?

It's an Olympic figure skating competition as he does his first jump and smahes into the boards - he gets right back up as the announcers are saying "ooohhhh, that's not going to help his chances on getting to the podium." He goes into his second jump and ends up sliding halfway across the ice into the boards again. The announcers are saying "he's got to just try and keep his composure here and finish this thing" as he's skating across the ice trying to smile as blood is streaming down the side of his face.

I feel bad for Rasmussen - just a disaster.
 
musette said:
Ras' problems cannot be attributed necessarily to bad luck. For example, the first crash had at least something to do with his line near the French roundabout.

Yeah, he screwed up to start it all, but it got ridiculous after that. I wonder if a couple of the team mechanics will still have jobs when they wake up Sunday; or will be hitchiking their way back to the lowlands. Kudos to him for just not heaving the bike off into the roadside shrubbery and walking away!!
 
well, what happened to Rasmussen is what I think we call "cracked under pressure?"....... :( :( :(
 
supergrill said:
Yeah, he screwed up to start it all, but it got ridiculous after that. I wonder if a couple of the team mechanics will still have jobs when they wake up Sunday; or will be hitchiking their way back to the lowlands. Kudos to him for just not heaving the bike off into the roadside shrubbery and walking away!!
I suspect it had a lot more to do with Rasmussen's state of mind than with the team mechanics and the bikes.
 
No it was the curse of Saint-Etienne:

Rasmussen falls to the curse of Saint-Etienne

Few riders would have experienced a day as bad as Michael Rasmussen's in the stage 20 time trial in Saint-Etienne. Two crashes, one puncture, and three bike changes saw him lose 7'47 to Lance Armstrong and plummet from third to seventh on the general classification. Surprisingly, there was a precedent, as cycling historian and author Benjo Maso recalled on the rec.bicycles.racing newsgroup.
"It's the curse of Saint-Etienne that strikes again. The Tour de France of 1956, the TT starts in Saint-Etienne. Third on the GC: Wout Wagtmans. He's very optimistic, but after five minutes all his hope seems to be shattered when he crashes. 20 km later a second blow: he has a flat and loses a lot of time because the mechanic brings a front wheel instead of a back wheel. 15 km before the finish, he is overtaken by Stan Ockers, who started six minutes behind him. Wagtmans finishes 61st at 8'26 and the following day, drops to sixth place on GC."

That's not to say Michael Rasmussen's Tour was a failure. On the contrary, he won the polka-dot jersey and took a very impressive stage win, both of which were his main goals coming into the Tour. He was also only the second Dane - after Bjarne Riis - to win a stage of the Tour. He'll be back.
Crankster said:
I suspect it had a lot more to do with Rasmussen's state of mind than with the team mechanics and the bikes.