Leipheimer does it again at the Tour of Germany

[acoggan]

Gives up significant time in a TT, that is...this time losing ~1.5 s/km to not only an on-fire Jens Voight, but to other strong TTers such as Sebastian Lang. Not quite as poor a performance as at the TdF, but nonetheless rather surprising from someone who desires to wear the yellow jersey...

Despite Leipheimer's move to Discovery next year, I'll stick w/ my prediction: he won't make the podium in '07, just like he hasn't made the podium in previous years. He'd be better off concentrating on the Vuelta, which suits his abilities (i.e., great climber, but relatively-speaking only good TTer) better.

 

[HammerHead]

Why the unsolicited Levi criticism? Don’t like him much? Or just trying to get Warren going? ;-)

 

[acoggan]

Why the unsolicited Levi criticism? Don’t like him much? Or just trying to get Warren going? ;-)

Not criticism, really, just some commentary by one of millions of armchair quarterbacks. If it winds Warren up, well, that's just a bonus.

Seriously, though, I am curious as to why Leipheimer seems to have backslid a bit re. his TTing ability (note that I say seems)...one has to wonder if perhaps he's pushed the pursuit of high W/kg via weight loss a bit too far. If so, it might serve as a wake-up call for others...

 

[ewan52]

[/QUOTE]Despite Leipheimer's move to Discovery next year, I'll stick w/ my prediction: he won't make the podium in '07, just like he hasn't made the podium in previous years. He'd be better off concentrating on the Vuelta, which suits his abilities (i.e., great climber, but relatively-speaking only good TTer) better[/QUOTE]
theres more to cycling than the tour de france. why do you have to look at a race then think about what it means for the tour which is about as far off as it could be right now. why cant you see other races like the D tour as races and not something which is used for tour predictions?

 

[acoggan]

theres more to cycling than the tour de france. why do you have to look at a race then think about what it means for the tour which is about as far off as it could be right now. why cant you see other races like the D tour as races and not something which is used for tour predictions?

Um, I'm not someone who considers the Tour the be-all and end-all...Leipheimer, however, is.

 

[ewan52]

Um, I'm not someone who considers the Tour the be-all and end-all...Leipheimer, however, is.

leipheimer aye. id support someone with more hair myself. like pippo pozzato.

 

[padawan]

leipheimer aye. id support someone with more hair myself. like pippo pozzato.

Yeah, Laurent Brochard is my pick to win the 2007 Tour. Wait... he cut his long hair off. Scratch that.

 

[HammerHead]

leipheimer aye. id support someone with more hair myself. like pippo pozzato.

I'm bald. What are you saying? It's well known that those with a follicle impairment have higher testosterone levels. And I’ve read that there are some who dope with testosterone to improve recovery. Therefore, Levi should have extraordinary recovery abilities, because he’s really bald. Think about it....

 

[palewin]

...one has to wonder if perhaps he's pushed the pursuit of high W/kg via weight loss a bit too far.

Is there anyone around Leipheimer's size/weight that can TT consistently on anything other than a hillclimb? My simplistic impression is that regardless of his final target weight, as a small climber he simply doesn't have the muscle mass to compete favorably with the usual TT winners.

 

[ewan52]

one has to wonder if perhaps he's pushed the pursuit of high W/kg via weight loss a bit too far. If so, it might serve as a wake-up call for others...

i dont think that leipheimer is one of the thinnest in the grand tour peleton, what is he like 62kg and 5'8? and when ive seen him on tv hes seemed quite a well muscled man, thats why i thought he was capable of a half decent tt when others of his height are pretty tragic.

 

[palewin]

i dont think that leipheimer is one of the thinnest in the grand tour peleton, what is he like 62kg and 5'8? and when ive seen him on tv hes seemed quite a well muscled man, thats why i thought he was capable of a half decent tt when others of his height are pretty tragic.

Per VeloNews, 5'7" and 61.4kg (only slightly smaller than your numbers, but at the low end of the curve it all adds up). LL himself has commented that his size puts him at a disadvantage descending and in the wind. Thinking back to Andy Coggan's watts/kg comment, at least for TTs I thought the issue is really watts/frontal-area, and this is where smaller riders are at a disadvantage relative to bigger riders, the big guys have more watts and only slightly more frontal area (remembering that we're comparing riders near the top end of the ProTour level).

 

[mmerchant]

Not criticism, really, just some commentary by one of millions of armchair quarterbacks. If it winds Warren up, well, that's just a bonus.

Seriously, though, I am curious as to why Leipheimer seems to have backslid a bit re. his TTing ability (note that I say seems)...one has to wonder if perhaps he's pushed the pursuit of high W/kg via weight loss a bit too far. If so, it might serve as a wake-up call for others...

i agree, i was there and he looked unhealthy! being light may help going uphill, but to generate raw power you have to walk a fine line. two to three pounds of "good" weight can increase FT power with no change in drag (anecdotal). By the way, Hincapie fell into the same trap IMO.

mmerchant

 

[Dr.Hairybiker]

Levi has one of the most comfortable positions on a bike I've ever seen. The dude looks like he was made to ride.