Classy win for Chavanel!



doctorSpoc

Member
Nov 18, 2005
1,491
8
38
too bad for Flecha.. but that was a very classy win for Chavanel... did a lion's share of work and still pulled out the win... and has the yellow jersey. only has 30 sec on Garate but over a minute on the other climbers... he has a chance...

Astana... that looks really bad on them... don't know who the DS was on this one but he needs to be taken out to the woodshed.. how could they be caught out like that?
 
doctorSpoc said:
too bad for Flecha.. but that was a very classy win for Chavanel... did a lion's share of work and still pulled out the win... and has the yellow jersey. only has 30 sec on Garate but over a minute on the other climbers... he has a chance...

Astana... that looks really bad on them... don't know who the DS was on this one but he needs to be taken out to the woodshed.. how could they be caught out like that?
Doesn't look like Astana has a superb team to support Contador partly because Leipheimer got that fracture and couldn't race P-N (I think he was supposed to). He would have been a great rider for a situation like the one on today's stage.

Besides Astana are porbably counting on Contador taking enough time on stage six so a minute behind Chavanel isn't a big deal. Didn't Chavanel have the jersey last year going into the Ventoux stage? If I recall correctly he was crushed already on the lower slopes. Anyways, I wouldn't worry for Contador. If he is on form he will kill everyone on the Montagne de Lure.
 
RdBiker said:
Doesn't look like Astana has a superb team to support Contador partly because Leipheimer got that fracture and couldn't race P-N (I think he was supposed to). He would have been a great rider for a situation like the one on today's stage.

Besides Astana are porbably counting on Contador taking enough time on stage six so a minute behind Chavanel isn't a big deal. Didn't Chavanel have the jersey last year going into the Ventoux stage? If I recall correctly he was crushed already on the lower slopes. Anyways, I wouldn't worry for Contador. If he is on form he will kill everyone on the Montagne de Lure.

in winds like today the last person on earth i'd like to be drafting behind is Levi Liephiemer.. he doesn't even provide a draft for you wheels much less your body... might as well be there by yourself. pacing on i mountain is another story. but they have a solid team.. you want to tell me Popovych, Noval, Zubeldia, Paulinho (great classics rider) couldn't help him? that was just pathetic..
he bridged a huge gap by himself up to the second group.. and almost didn't make it... he was giving up just as Moreau came past and then he got on and work with him to get up.. that was really, really bad.. i'm not saying he can't come back from that, but to leave the best rider in the world alone and struggling like that in a target race for him is just pathetic! that looks really bad on them. imagine he didn't make it back to the second group.. his race would have been over.
 
doctorSpoc said:
in winds like today the last person on earth i'd like to be drafting behind is Levi Liephiemer.. he doesn't even provide a draft for you wheels much less your body... might as well be there by yourself. pacing on i mountain is another story. but they have a solid team.. you want to tell me Popovych, Noval, Zubeldia, Paulinho (great classics rider) couldn't help him? that was just pathetic..
he bridged a huge gap by himself up to the second group.. and almost didn't make it... he was giving up just as Moreau came past and then he got on and work with him to get up.. that was really, really bad.. i'm not saying he can't come back from that, but to leave the best rider in the world alone and struggling like that in a target race for him is just pathetic! that looks really bad on them. imagine he didn't make it back to the second group.. his race would have been over.
Yes because Contador is such a huge rider that Leipheimer wouldn't provide draft for him :) My point was that maybe one of the best TTers in the world atm might have provided power to the chase group. But maybe not...
The team that Astana has at P-N is good but it's not the kind they have brought to Grand tours lately (=superb). The exception was 08 Giro where the team was good on paper but the riders themselves weren't. Popo for example hasn't performed anywhere near the level he had with Disco a few years ago so for me it wasn't a huge surprise that he couldn't chase back the front group. Neither could the other Astana riders that were with Contador in the chase group.
The team clearly wasn't awake when Rabo broke the peloton up but neither did they have enough horsepower to a) help Contador back to the chase group and b) pull the front group back. Maybe this was just tactics but I would think that they had pulled the group back a little more if they could have done that.
 
RdBiker said:
Yes because Contador is such a huge rider that Leipheimer wouldn't provide draft for him :) My point was that maybe one of the best TTers in the world atm might have provided power to the chase group. But maybe not...
The team that Astana has at P-N is good but it's not the kind they have brought to Grand tours lately (=superb). The exception was 08 Giro where the team was good on paper but the riders themselves weren't. Popo for example hasn't performed anywhere near the level he had with Disco a few years ago so for me it wasn't a huge surprise that he couldn't chase back the front group. Neither could the other Astana riders that were with Contador in the chase group.
The team clearly wasn't awake when Rabo broke the peloton up but neither did they have enough horsepower to a) help Contador back to the chase group and b) pull the front group back. Maybe this was just tactics but I would think that they had pulled the group back a little more if they could have done that.

actually is even worse than you describe.. no Astana rider even made it into the second group with Contatdor... even Contador didn't make the second group initially.. that bridge up the the second group that he just barely made (looked like he actually had given up 'til Moreau came past) he did on his own.. it was do or die and no one from astana was able to give him even an ounce of help.
 
doctorSpoc said:
actually is even worse than you describe.. no Astana rider even made it into the second group with Contatdor... even Contador didn't make the second group initially.. that bridge up the the second group that he just barely made (looked like he actually had given up 'til Moreau came past) he did on his own.. it was do or die and no one from astana was able to give him even an ounce of help.
Ok that clears things up. I read from the Cyclingnews text feed that there were two other Astana riders in the second group and was wondering why they didn't drop back and help. But since there weren't any riders up the road it's clear why Contador had to go alone :)
This reminded me a little bit of Valverde in the Vuelta, except that the gap was bigger and he didn't make it.
 
Cadel Evans... 10mins back... loses 30 sec in a prologue... what's up with that? frig man... go home and do some training!
 
doctorSpoc said:
Cadel Evans... 10mins back... loses 30 sec in a prologue... what's up with that? frig man... go home and do some training!
Poor guy. I just went through the stage results and it seems that all the other GC contenders finished with Contador. (L.L. Sanchez, Colon, Schleck, Karpets etc)
 
doctorSpoc said:
Cadel Evans... 10mins back... loses 30 sec in a prologue... what's up with that? frig man... go home and do some training!

I wouldn't worry about Cadel. He's here for training not to win & has stated as much. The same thing happened last year although he didn't lose as much time as today. He's not taking risks or going to burn himself out. He'll be fine come July.

I'll watch the highlights tonight before I comment on Astana. After Stage 1 I'm sure Conti will have no problems in gaining a minute if not more on any of his rivals.
 
RdBiker said:
Poor guy. I just went through the stage results and it seems that all the other GC contenders finished with Contador. (L.L. Sanchez, Colon, Schleck, Karpets etc)

yup... totally caught out.. didn't see where he was in the mix, but they had a shot of him riding totally by himself too.. guess he didn't make it where ever he was trying to get to...

in the cross wind Rabo really tore it up.. it was awesome! they didn't even look around for help from anyone... just had a gatekeeper at the back so just their guys got in and had a good draft and just took turns... and just rode all but a select group off of their wheels. even after the got a big gap they still wheren't letting other in. the quickstep boys.. killed it when they saw Burghardt get a flat.. increased chances for the stage win astronomically.. and they got it too... that's RACING... real racing.
 
As Sean Kelly said it was old style Flemish racing at it's best. Even thou it was in France. Great use of the wind & narrow roads by Rabo. Astana were caught napping & Contador wasn't close enough to the front to make the break. Poor riding for a yellow jersey of a major stage race. This is not the Tour of California where by every other team will let you win. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come & that some teams won't put up with Astana trying to win everything. Finally to the Chav - Bravo ! What a ride & he did a lot of work & still won along with putting time into the chasing group even thou the likes of Voight & Kroon were chasing. Chavanel would have won the Tour 3 times by now if he was on the gear.
 
whiteboytrash said:
As Sean Kelly said it was old style Flemish racing at it's best. Even thou it was in France. Great use of the wind & narrow roads by Rabo. Astana were caught napping & Contador wasn't close enough to the front to make the break. Poor riding for a yellow jersey of a major stage race. This is not the Tour of California where by every other team will let you win. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come & that some teams won't put up with Astana trying to win everything. Finally to the Chav - Bravo ! What a ride & he did a lot of work & still won along with putting time into the chasing group even thou the likes of Voight & Kroon were chasing. Chavanel would have won the Tour 3 times by now if he was on the gear.
I hope you're right about the other teams laying down the law on Astana. It is going to be a long and painful season for me if this doped-to-the-gills team runs away with everything.

Cycling definitely has taken a step back this compared to last. Thought we were getting somewhere with how ape the ASO was against doping. But all the capitulation since then has been very disappointing.
 
whiteboytrash said:
As Sean Kelly said it was old style Flemish racing at it's best. Even thou it was in France. Great use of the wind & narrow roads by Rabo. Astana were caught napping & Contador wasn't close enough to the front to make the break. Poor riding for a yellow jersey of a major stage race. This is not the Tour of California where by every other team will let you win. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come & that some teams won't put up with Astana trying to win everything. Finally to the Chav - Bravo ! What a ride & he did a lot of work & still won along with putting time into the chasing group even thou the likes of Voight & Kroon were chasing. Chavanel would have won the Tour 3 times by now if he was on the gear.
+1 To all of that. I agree about The Chav too. I think he is easily in the class of Evans, Wiggins etc. Right up there for me as one of the true greats of this era. He ***** all over Armstrong for class IMO.
 
Yep, Good to Chavanel win last nights stage.
Hopefully he can keep it going all the way and win the GC.
I'd like to see him win it.
 
whiteboytrash said:
As Sean Kelly said it was old style Flemish racing at it's best. Even thou it was in France. Great use of the wind & narrow roads by Rabo. Astana were caught napping & Contador wasn't close enough to the front to make the break. Poor riding for a yellow jersey of a major stage race. This is not the Tour of California where by every other team will let you win. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come & that some teams won't put up with Astana trying to win everything. Finally to the Chav - Bravo ! What a ride & he did a lot of work & still won along with putting time into the chasing group even thou the likes of Voight & Kroon were chasing. Chavanel would have won the Tour 3 times by now if he was on the gear.
Agreed. That was one of the best day's racing I've watched in a long time. Contadope's teammates were about as much use as Douglas Bader's corn plasters. I'm sure they won't be that ineffective when Armstrong is riding. I agree about Chavanel. Commentators keep saying that he's found his form. Half of this is true but it is also true that he is now competing against a cleaner peleton. I really hope he can keep the yellow all the way to Nice this year.
 
Kind of reminds me of that stage in the 2005 TdF where Discovery just dissapeared out of the front group leaving LA alone. Unfortunately they where back and killing everyone a couple of days later. They probably thought yesterdays stage was going to be easy and hadn't juiced up... they'll be back in action today. Hopefully now that Cadel has lost some time he can practise attacking and win a stage.
 
Eldrack said:
Kind of reminds me of that stage in the 2005 TdF where Discovery just dissapeared out of the front group leaving LA alone. Unfortunately they where back and killing everyone a couple of days later. They probably thought yesterdays stage was going to be easy and hadn't juiced up... they'll be back in action today. Hopefully now that Cadel has lost some time he can practise attacking and win a stage.
I recall that Paris Nice last year was similarly enjoyable. At the time I thought, "so this is what clean racing is like." Cleaner racing maybe, but still much more enjoyable than the days of the banged-up blue train.
 
Rolfrae said:
I recall that Paris Nice last year was similarly enjoyable. At the time I thought, "so this is what clean racing is like." Cleaner racing maybe, but still much more enjoyable than the days of the banged-up blue train.
Agree but don't speak to soon. Come Giro and Tour time they will be banged up to the eyeballs and no team will be able to break up the peleton like Rabo did yesterday. The Big Austin American Texas rider will be there telling everyone not to attack or he'll send Astana to front of the peleton to ride tempo at 65km per hour for 200km straight.

Right you are also that it was a great stage and the best I’ve seen since well ummm the last Paris Nice ! Contador showed some holes in his armour. He is weak tactically when he is ganged up on and he really didn’t know what to do. He did attempt to chase at one point but CSC pushed him back into the bunch. He had nothing on the flat lands to give. This Belgium styled racing is more aggressive and Contador couldn’t deal with it.

Also be interesting to see how QuickStep play it from here. The Chav is a lot stronger than last year. He has really matured as a rider.
 
whiteboytrash said:

Also be interesting to see how QuickStep play it from here. The Chav is a lot stronger than last year. He has really matured as a rider.
Chav said he has a team of climbers to help him through the rest of the race. I guess a lot also depends on how much Contadope wants to win. I guess if he's on the A game he could take that time back and more. I know who I'll be cheering on.
Do you think Rabo and Quick Step will ride together for the next couple of stages?
 
Rolfrae said:
Chav said he has a team of climbers to help him through the rest of the race. I guess a lot also depends on how much Contadope wants to win. I guess if he's on the A game he could take that time back and more. I know who I'll be cheering on.
Do you think Rabo and Quick Step will ride together for the next couple of stages?

I think they will. Yesterday was a setup. Both teams knew what they were going to do. Chav had the coat off before the push by Rabo. Contador was still wrapped up like his mother had dressed him on a cold day. I get the feeling the peleton don't trust Contador nor respect him.

Who's Rabo's hit for GC ?
 

Similar threads