Talking about team priorities, wtf is up with Caisse today? With Uran they have a young and exciting talent positioned just 2 seconds behind Valverde on the GC before the stage, yet they simply refuse to have anyone except Piti ride for some personal glory at any time (except when it's all lost anyway, like Rodriguez at LBL last week).
So we get this situation where a group of 15 riders with lieutenants of all sorts forms between the peloton and the escapees (Casar and co), with Uran and another Caisse rider I forgot in it. The peloton is nearly 2 minutes behind them. What does Caisse do? Do they play the card Uran, who was one of the strongest climbers up front and definitely one of the best-placed riders? All the whilst knowing that within a week or so mr. Valverde might be facing a lengthy ban? No, they freaking chase down the break with the rest of the team, then have Uran pull like a beast in the final 10 km for Valverde who proceeds to not do jack.
WTF. Seriously. They totally paved the road for Kreuziger with this 'tactic', much as I admire the young Czech. All for the personal and continued glory of their Great Leader. A lot of things have changed in recent years in cycling (Spanish riders in the P-R finale! Norwegians and Czechs shining brightly! Kahzak teams!), but one constant remains: Spanish teams are tactically speaking still completely retarded.
