Stage 9 TDF - Tuesday, July 17: Val-d’Isère - Briançon, 159.5km



Non working award goes again to Evans. Funny how he can't come forward to work, but can attack and come up to Contador only to not work again. Glad to see Contador drop him like a rock again. I was surprised Popo and Contador could not stay free of the chasing group with the time gap they had on top. Vino is pretty well done at this point unless he has a major recovery in the P's.
 
Eagle of Toledo said:
What a cracker of a stage that was, most riveting so far. Almost had a tear in my eye as I remembered shades of Lucho Herrera (I have a soft spot for Columbian riders). I guess we should have taken note of Soler Hernandez after his 4th placing on the day Linus won.

Cadel-knockers take note of his ride today.

Here, here.

Great stage today : very very good rider by Soler.
Delighted for him and his team, Barloworld.
Remember the Barlo's were not invited to the 2006 TDF : so it's one in the eye for ASO.
Memories of Lucho Herrera - too.

I thought todays stage was superb.
Young Contador really climbed well : Ras stayed with the main contenders :
Moreau showed great guts : Kloden rode a very good stage : Evans was aggressive and deserved his time bonus and Valverde and his team are positioning themselves nicely.
Spare a thought for Vino - his ambition to win finished today.

A very very good stage, I thought.
 
Rasmussen on Menchov: "[size=-1]It was disappointing that Menchov couldn't get his ass over the Galibier."

That's hilarious. What a team leader. :rolleyes:

http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/details/articles/12792.0.html

I also liked this quote from Soler:

[/size]
[size=-1]"I attacked like a crazy man," said Soler. "I didn't know the Galibier, but I looked at the road book and I knew it was hard."

That's guts when you can make your move into the unknown.

[/size]
 
azdroptop said:
Non working award goes again to Evans. Funny how he can't come forward to work, but can attack and come up to Contador only to not work again. Glad to see Contador drop him like a rock again. I was surprised Popo and Contador could not stay free of the chasing group with the time gap they had on top. Vino is pretty well done at this point unless he has a major recovery in the P's.

C'mon, enough of the Evans bagging, on today's stage this is totally unjustified. When Evans bridged up to Contador after the Spaniards brutal acceleration could he really be expected to go to the front as soon as he got there? The reason Popo and Contador couldn't stay away was because of the headwind and Contadors weakness on the flat, something Chris Carmichael conveniently omits from his mailout today, although the same thing didn't seem to bother Soler who was on his own. All that bravado on the Galibier came to naught so what was the point when you consider the end result?
 
I remember seeing popo tell contador to slow down, i think they were letting levi catch up and with 3 men in the pack, one of them could have led leipheimer for 2nd place and get a decent time bonus. To me(opinion of course) it looked like Levi couldn't keep up with the pace Popovich was setting at the end.
 
I just caught the replay. Contodor is an exciting rider. He has a bright future.

Leipheimer is either a big sissy or Discovery is waiting to unleash his wrath in the Pyrenees.
 
Eagle of Toledo said:
C'mon, enough of the Evans bagging, on today's stage this is totally unjustified. When Evans bridged up to Contador after the Spaniards brutal acceleration could he really be expected to go to the front as soon as he got there? The reason Popo and Contador couldn't stay away was because of the headwind and Contadors weakness on the flat, something Chris Carmichael conveniently omits from his mailout today, although the same thing didn't seem to bother Soler who was on his own. All that bravado on the Galibier came to naught so what was the point when you consider the end result?
Sorry..but the more I see Evans ride the more I dislike him. What a bag of sand. The way he let that gap open up on the run to the finish is inexcusable. Who ended up pulling it back? Kloden. He may get away with that stuff a couple times but I guarantee you it will come back to bite him.

I'm not a Disco fan, but you got to give them props. They clearly had the best strategy today with 3 riders in the front group. Having Popo up ahead for Contador was perfect and almost worked.

CSC needs Riis to make a mid-tour appearance. He's obviously missed.
 
thebluetrain said:
I just caught the replay. Contodor is an exciting rider. He has a bright future.

Leipheimer is either a big sissy or Discovery is waiting to unleash his wrath in the Pyrenees.
He's a sissy.
 
scottmilk9 said:
I remember seeing popo tell contador to slow down, i think they were letting levi catch up and with 3 men in the pack, one of them could have led leipheimer for 2nd place and get a decent time bonus. To me(opinion of course) it looked like Levi couldn't keep up with the pace Popovich was setting at the end.

No way, they were intent on reeling in Soler but hit a head-wind which was too much for Contador and the group behind was gaining on them, which makes the Columbians ride all the more impressive.
 
fscyclist said:
He's a sissy.
Concur.

Whilst I am not a Disco fan I thought they rode a great tactical race. And Contador continues to impress.

But as for LL - he did (understandably) no work at all on the climb, and no work at all on the descent / flat section, and still had no legs to steal 2nd place at the end, despite the best efforts of several team-mates.
 
fscyclist said:
Sorry..but the more I see Evans ride the more I dislike him. What a bag of sand. The way he let that gap open up on the run to the finish is inexcusable.
For all the people getting stuck into Evans, you must be watching a different race. Contador's explosive attack on the Galibier was something else. And the only person willing and able to bridge the gap by himself - Cadel. Sure, Evans could not stay with Contador, but rather than take the easy option and slip back into the pack he had a crack by himself. Valverde had a bit of a go initially, but where was LL, Kloden, Mayo, Menchov, Sastre etc - you didn't see any of them having a go.

The real work yesterday was done by Gutierrez and Cobo while the rest took shelter except for Evans and Contador.

And in the last 1.5km, Evans dragged everyone up the climb only to have Valverde steal the glory (and time) for 2nd (for the 2nd time in 2 stages).

Letting the gap open on the descent was a lapse in concentration from Cadel - but it had no bearing on the result of the race.
 
fscyclist said:
I'm not a Disco fan, but you got to give them props. They clearly had the best strategy today with 3 riders in the front group. Having Popo up ahead for Contador was perfect and almost worked.
It may be good strategy but they still ended up with sweet FA to show for it.
 
Andrew76 said:
For all the people getting stuck into Evans, you must be watching a different race. Contador's explosive attack on the Galibier was something else. And the only person willing and able to bridge the gap by himself - Cadel. Sure, Evans could not stay with Contador, but rather than take the easy option and slip back into the pack he had a crack by himself. Valverde had a bit of a go initially, but where was LL, Kloden, Mayo, Menchov, Sastre etc - you didn't see any of them having a go.
Yeah, gotta give props to Evans today. He rode well.
 
jhuskey said:
BTW: Where is Mussette? She should be here praising Contador as the new god of the universe.
She has never heard of him. She only knows about his disappearing twin called Cantador.
 
fscyclist said:
Sorry..but the more I see Evans ride the more I dislike him. What a bag of sand. The way he let that gap open up on the run to the finish is inexcusable. Who ended up pulling it back? Kloden. He may get away with that stuff a couple times but I guarantee you it will come back to bite him.

I'm not a Disco fan, but you got to give them props. They clearly had the best strategy today with 3 riders in the front group. Having Popo up ahead for Contador was perfect and almost worked.

CSC needs Riis to make a mid-tour appearance. He's obviously missed.

I have to agree about Evans. He flew up to Contodor on the Galibier, but then couldn't manage to put his bike in front???

Then the gap on the flat, he did it twice. Twice at the front of the group he pulled off wide like he was attacking slowing the group and causing them all to look around to see what the F was going on.

Disco has certainly as a whole had the best team trip through the Alps. They've managed to create breaks that have required the main contenders to chase and expend energy while Levi has mainly stayed protected. We'll now have to see how the first week and the Alps will affect the time trials and the last week in the Ps.
 
Andrew76 said:
For all the people getting stuck into Evans, you must be watching a different race.

I think a bit of the school-yard bullying mentality is creeping in here. OK, Evans doesn't have a testosterone-induced deep voice, he's a bit goofy but the undeniable fact is that his legs did the talking today. The way a guy finishes a stage like todays says a lot about his underlying strength. Disco may have had the better tactics and more men up front but what do the race results say? Good tactics are only good if they actually work. Are we also forgetting there's a little lump on the horizon called the Pyrenees? It's early days folks.
 
Andrew76 said:
For all the people getting stuck into Evans, you must be watching a different race. Contador's explosive attack on the Galibier was something else. And the only person willing and able to bridge the gap by himself - Cadel. Sure, Evans could not stay with Contador, but rather than take the easy option and slip back into the pack he had a crack by himself. Valverde had a bit of a go initially, but where was LL, Kloden, Mayo, Menchov, Sastre etc - you didn't see any of them having a go.

The real work yesterday was done by Gutierrez and Cobo while the rest took shelter except for Evans and Contador.

And in the last 1.5km, Evans dragged everyone up the climb only to have Valverde steal the glory (and time) for 2nd (for the 2nd time in 2 stages).

Letting the gap open on the descent was a lapse in concentration from Cadel - but it had no bearing on the result of the race.

Why in the world would Levi chase down his own man. The whole plan of a break is to force the other teams to chase while you sit on.
 
Andrew76 said:
Concur.

Whilst I am not a Disco fan I thought they rode a great tactical race. And Contador continues to impress.

But as for LL - he did (understandably) no work at all on the climb, and no work at all on the descent / flat section, and still had no legs to steal 2nd place at the end, despite the best efforts of several team-mates.
He didnt have to do any work because he had teammates up ahead. Disco's strategy is either genius or idiotic.
Genius because they are saving LL for the Pyrenees by not having him attack and tire(ex. Christoph Moreau) and staying sheltered in the peleton only to have him attack and destroy in the pyrenees. Also put the peleton's focus on Contador who could quit attacking in the Pyrenees and stay back and pull LL up the mountains.

Idiotic because they are putting all there hope on LL and wasting Contador's talent and abiltity to possibly win or get a podium spot.
 
fscyclist said:
Sorry..but the more I see Evans ride the more I dislike him. What a bag of sand. The way he let that gap open up on the run to the finish is inexcusable. Who ended up pulling it back? Kloden. He may get away with that stuff a couple times but I guarantee you it will come back to bite him.
I'm not quite sure about that, for memory Evans was on the front of that second group when the gap opened but he rolled off to the side to slide back making the hole and nobody came through causing the hesitation. Some went out behind him leaving a bigger hole.
Kloden saw the danger and went to the front to give chase, when he rolled back nobody came through, the confussion continued and the gap got bigger.
Once they settled down a bit it was Klodi that seemed to do the biggest portion of the chase.

Don't forget Evans was out on his own giving chase for quite some time (plus his charge up the Galibier) so probably needed a breather hence why he was moving back further down the line.

I'll have to watch it again though. Running of my memory of watching the stage late at night :p


Half the problem was a few of those guys did not work, Leipheimer, Mayo, Moreau, Cobo.
I remember seeing Leipheimer give those guys a gob full for not helping out chase down the front group. Pot kettle black scenario, but then Popo & Contador where in that group ahead. Just seemed very hypocritical, he was happy to take advantage and get dragged up so he wouldn't loose time, but had the hide to chastise the others for not doing it. Thats the way the game is played though.
 
Trev_S said:
I remember seeing Leipheimer give those guys a gob full for not helping out chase down the front group. Pot kettle black scenario, but then Popo & Contador where in that group ahead. Just seemed very hypocritical, he was happy to take advantage and get dragged up so he wouldn't loose time, but had the hide to chastise the others for not doing it.
That's part of the genius of Disco: Putting your team leader in a position to lose time but unable to work to prevent it because teammates are up the road. :D
 

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