Predictions for La Mongie?

[musette]

According to Franky Adrieu (sp), former Postie and now OLTNV reporter, LA talked with Basso during the climb and agreed to let Basso win. Later, LA revealed he was happy Basso won, because Basso's mother has cancer and LA and Basso had been in conversations before the TdF about that.

"Lance and Basso talked before the finish and it was agreed that Lance would let Basso win. Lance has said in the past that he wouldn’t give out gifts anymore. But Lance has won here before, so perhaps that changed his thoughts."

http://www.uspsprocycling.com/newsfile/2004tdf_fa_0716.htm
(column on official Postal website)

 

[musette]

TH blames his back: "'I have no excuses today, I had no legs,' he said... 'Since my crash on stage six to Angers last Friday I've had pain in my back and climbing makes it worse because I have to sit down. I felt empty.'... 'I'm disappointed but I'm not surprised. I'm trying to be optimistic but it's not easy. What's most disappointing is that I let my team down.'"

 

[i2ambler]

What about the comment that Lance made about letting Basso win:

As for Armstrong, who won here in 2002, the 32-year-old American said he had allowed Basso to win the stage because he is trying to help the Italian's mother in her fight against cancer.

"He's a hell of a good guy," Armstrong said. "We've been friends for a long time, and off the bike we're trying to work a little bit on his mom's situation, to try and see if she can win the fight against cancer.

"It's pretty special for me to have been out there with him, and the past week we haven't spoken about the race, we've spoken about his mom. It was a pleasure for me to let him (Basso) win, and he deserved to win. He was super strong."

 

[rejobako]

Interesting. It seemed to me that Basso was incredibly comfortable on that last kilometer; he barely appeared to be under stress at all.

And this answers the question I had after watching the stage. I really thought that Basso looked like he had more left in the tank than Lance, but even so, he raised his arms before the finish without even glancing over his shoulder to see whether Lance might try to get his wheel in front. In light of Armstrong's post race comments, this now makes sense.

However, even though the riders appear to be friends and share a common interest off the bike, I'm guessing Armstrong isn't prepared to offer any gifts in the future. Basso's a mere minute behind him, and as Armstrong said, he looked "super strong" today.

 

[musette]

See my second-to-last post above. LA might have talked with Basso during the climb about letting Basso win.

 

[DiabloScott]

Basso is very impressive and he has a lot of class. He knew Lance was not going to contest the sprint to the line but he didn't just suck Lance's wheel, he didn't open up a gap on Lance to make himself look better, he rode next to Lance as they powered up together and then pulled just far enough ahead at the line for a good photo. He accepted the gift with panache even though he was probably thinking he could win the sprint anyway.

 

[musette]

He could not sprint away, because LA would not have let him win time on him. BTW, that LA allowed Basso to get the time bonus associated with 1st place versus second is unbelievable to me. Isn't LA worried those seconds could come to haunt him, if he considered Basso a very serious challenger (perhaps LA's not worried).

 

[i2ambler]

Ah.. the posts are coming fast and furious, so I missed that comment about letting him win..

 

[Ullefan]

The true measure of a man is not how many times he goes down but that he fights when he's down. Jan I hope we will see a ressurection tommorow. I don't think he will win any more but if he is going to win he has to attack hard tommorow.

 

[musette]

JU must fight on, and must keep Kloden in check and as JU's domestique (not vice versa).

 

[DiabloScott]

He could not sprint away, because LA would not have let him win time on him. BTW, that LA allowed Basso to get the time bonus associated with 1st place versus second is unbelievable to me. Isn't LA worried those seconds could come to haunt him, if he considered Basso a very serious challenger (perhaps LA's not worried).

Basso's no good at TT. -yet-

 

[musette]

Still, Basso's not far behind him. I would have thought Bruyneel would have counseled LA against gifting Basso the stage.

 

[Ullefan]

It's all or nothing for Jan now, just like his book says. What happened to that statement? They say he's pedalling a very high gear, he looks like he did in 2001, last year he was much faster. I hope he goes to sleep tonight with that thought. He has to do something. It reminds me of 98 when he attacked the day after he lost 9 minutes in the wet.

 

[musette]

Well, even if JU can't beat LA, JU needs to get second to continue to position himself as LA's main rival (including in Germany and for his status within his team). That's something that LA never has to worry about -- what his status within his team is -- he's the boss, just like in the peloton.

BTW, a nice showing from Noval. Hincapie was asked why he seemed to be climbing better. He said that, as a result of training with LA in the Pyrenees, he lost a couple of pounds. To me, it seems more deliberate than that. Hincapie has, as another member pointed out, been deliberately increasing his capabilities in the mountains, perhaps even at the slight expense of his sprinting capabilities. Way to go! It must be scary for LA's competitors that Noval and Hincapie are much better in the mountains than most people expected. My favorite mountain domestique for LA remains Chechu, though.

 

[musette]

LA: "It was a pleasure for me that I didn't win." Shows it's nice to be on LA's good side.

 

[musette]

JU, from his diary on the T-Mobile website: "There is no excuse for a day like today: I simply didn't have the legs to attack. No one was more surprised about that than I was because I felt good enough before the stage today. But form is a strange beast: Only when it comes down to the crunch, as it did today, can you really know just how you feel.... We started in 32 degree heat only to be drenched by cold rain later on. The weather was, purely and simply, awful. Not that that is any excuse, we all had to race under the same weather conditions. Nevertheless, I do feel better on warmer days. Yeah, I simply had a bad day. I knew it was coming, already, on the Col d'Aspin climb. I was chilled by the rain on the descent. It was clear from then on that it was not going to be my day. Others were in the same boat though, Tyler Hamilton seemed to have had just as bad a day as I did. It hasn't decided the Tour outcome by any means. I lost 2:30 today, but there are still chances to make good on the time. It's not over until we reach Paris. I'll be fighting all the way you can be sure, even if it means working for "Klödi", who rode a superb race today. I've always said that wouldn't be a problem for me. But we are a long way from that yet!"

Well, at least there's the indication JU is far from working for Kloden.

 

[davidbod]

The real test of a true champion is what they do after they have lost a battle. Tomorrow will show us who is worthy of winning the tour. It is now all about physical and mental recovery for those who lost major time today.

Same goes for the winners of the battle as well. Will they relax now and simply mark the moves of others or will they push their GC rivals to the limits again and see who can hang on.

The real race has finaly started and its about time.

 

[mitosis]

Please, please give some credit to other riders in the tour.

Armstrong doesn't give away stages.

He may have had reasons for not contesting the finish - have a look on his face - but a competitor like Armstrong didn't give up a stage win, Basso took it.

 

[musette]

Not a good thing -- cracking before Hincapie on the mountains (JU), although Hincapie is somewhat stronger in that terrain this year.

cyclingnews indicates: "The most disappointing aspect of today's final 10 kilometres was that most of Lance's rivals were dropped when George Hincapie, **not at the upper echelon of climbers** [my observations: that's an understatement -- prior to this tour, Hincapie wasn't even considered a climber; and he still isn't, that's the sad part for the competitors of LA], was driving the peloton. One has to wonder how much Jan would have appreciated having team omission Cadel Evans in the final few kilometres"

Interesting that in the Plateau de Beille stage, Hincapie was deployed with Landis, generally after BELTRAN/Noval!