S
Shawn Jelley
Guest
although i have not looked at elevation profiles of these TT stages, it seems 'odd' to me that
riders like virenque and pantani suddenly improve to within only 2-3 minutes of excellent time
trialists. two examples, stage 20 of the 1997 TDF, results below:
20ème étape samedi 26 juillet DISNEYLAND-PARIS contre-la-montre / timetrial 62km 1 OLANO Abraham 151
en 1h15'57" 2 ULLRICH Jan 008 a 00'45" 3 GAUMONT Philippe 064 a 01'12" 4 JULICH Bobby066 a 02'24" 5
DEKKER Erik 124 a 02'39" 6 MOREAU Christophe 017 a 02'56" 7 BROCHARD Laurent 013 a 03'10" 8 DUFAUX
Laurent 014 a 03'11" 9 VIRENQUE Richard 011 a 03'32" 10 KASPUTIS Arturas 137 a 03'48"
in a 62KM TT, are you telling me that dickie virenque is within 2:47 of a young ullrich and within
3:32 of Olano, a world TT champion ? juding by this TT being held at the end of the race, it had to
have been pretty damn flat. regardless, a 48.5 k/hr clip for virenque ?
another example, how about pantani in the '98 giro (which he won) finishing 3rd in the final TT.
anyone who knows anything about pantani knows that he only won grand tours because of superior and
outlandish gains in the mountains, surely a rider like Armstrong or Ullrich would take 6+ minutes
out of Marco in a long TT. this is the closest i could find to actual results of the final TT:
Stage 21 : 1.S.Gontchar (ukr/cta) 2.M.Podenzana (ita/mer) 3.M.Pantani (ita/mer) 4.M.Velo (ita/mer)
5.P.Tonkov (rus/map) 6.M.Serpellini (ita/bre)
7.O.Camenzind (swi/map) 8.P.Savoldelli (ita/sae) 9.A.Zuelle (swi/fes)
7.P.Moeller (den/tvm) Leader: M.Pantani (ita/mer)
look at the results above, gontchar (world TT champion), velo (several time Italian TT champ),
Zuelle (world TT champ and winner of prologues and TT's in several Grand Tours). are you telling me
that marco 'all of a sudden' went all aero and learned to time trial, increased his TT power output
by leaps and bounds ?
i just don't know, this all seems a bit odd to me, of course we all now know that virenque was
probably doped up like a thoroughbred racehorse thanks to the scandals of '98. as for pantani, well
i will leave that one up to the imagination because i am sure this group is rampant with his tifosi.
the only logical reason that i can think of for pantani's 3rd place is the possibility of a rolling
TT, instead of the usual flat we could come to assume.
anyway, let me know what y'all think.
shawn
riders like virenque and pantani suddenly improve to within only 2-3 minutes of excellent time
trialists. two examples, stage 20 of the 1997 TDF, results below:
20ème étape samedi 26 juillet DISNEYLAND-PARIS contre-la-montre / timetrial 62km 1 OLANO Abraham 151
en 1h15'57" 2 ULLRICH Jan 008 a 00'45" 3 GAUMONT Philippe 064 a 01'12" 4 JULICH Bobby066 a 02'24" 5
DEKKER Erik 124 a 02'39" 6 MOREAU Christophe 017 a 02'56" 7 BROCHARD Laurent 013 a 03'10" 8 DUFAUX
Laurent 014 a 03'11" 9 VIRENQUE Richard 011 a 03'32" 10 KASPUTIS Arturas 137 a 03'48"
in a 62KM TT, are you telling me that dickie virenque is within 2:47 of a young ullrich and within
3:32 of Olano, a world TT champion ? juding by this TT being held at the end of the race, it had to
have been pretty damn flat. regardless, a 48.5 k/hr clip for virenque ?
another example, how about pantani in the '98 giro (which he won) finishing 3rd in the final TT.
anyone who knows anything about pantani knows that he only won grand tours because of superior and
outlandish gains in the mountains, surely a rider like Armstrong or Ullrich would take 6+ minutes
out of Marco in a long TT. this is the closest i could find to actual results of the final TT:
Stage 21 : 1.S.Gontchar (ukr/cta) 2.M.Podenzana (ita/mer) 3.M.Pantani (ita/mer) 4.M.Velo (ita/mer)
5.P.Tonkov (rus/map) 6.M.Serpellini (ita/bre)
7.O.Camenzind (swi/map) 8.P.Savoldelli (ita/sae) 9.A.Zuelle (swi/fes)
7.P.Moeller (den/tvm) Leader: M.Pantani (ita/mer)
look at the results above, gontchar (world TT champion), velo (several time Italian TT champ),
Zuelle (world TT champ and winner of prologues and TT's in several Grand Tours). are you telling me
that marco 'all of a sudden' went all aero and learned to time trial, increased his TT power output
by leaps and bounds ?
i just don't know, this all seems a bit odd to me, of course we all now know that virenque was
probably doped up like a thoroughbred racehorse thanks to the scandals of '98. as for pantani, well
i will leave that one up to the imagination because i am sure this group is rampant with his tifosi.
the only logical reason that i can think of for pantani's 3rd place is the possibility of a rolling
TT, instead of the usual flat we could come to assume.
anyway, let me know what y'all think.
shawn