Tour of Catalunya: Tour de France Warmup

[gntlmn]

Some big guns will line up in Catalunya, Spain for a 7 day Tour. It begins Monday and will be featuring Jan Ullrich, Iban Mayo, Alejandro Valverde, Denis Menchov, Santiago Botero, Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero.

Friday will feature a climb which may serve to enable Ullrich to recapture his pychological edge. It's the setting of the only mountaintop stage win of his career, which occurred during the 1997 Tour de France. This will be a 17.1 km mountain TT up Arcalis.

The race ends in Barcelona.

 

[Dead Star]

There's a Giro on right now as well y'know?

 

[limerickman]

I will be watching Catalunya with interest, I have to say.

Apart from Ullrich (as I am an Ully fan), I will be particularly interested to see how Valverde and Mayo perform.
Menchov had a great 2004. Mayo did not seem to live up to expectations in
2004, so it will be interesting to see how he does in Catalunya.

 

[gntlmn]

I will be watching Catalunya with interest, I have to say.

Apart from Ullrich (as I am an Ully fan), I will be particularly interested to see how Valverde and Mayo perform.
Menchov had a great 2004. Mayo did not seem to live up to expectations in
2004, so it will be interesting to see how he does in Catalunya.

Mayo says he will be sure not to peak early this year. So if he doesn't win, but makes a very good showing in this primer tour, I might take him very seriously in the Tour de France. I bet he kicked himself so many times last year for flaming out to the crowds up Dauphine Libere at exactly this time of year last season. He says he won't make the same mistake this year. That kind of experience burns deep. He wants the Tour de France, and badly.

 

[limerickman]

Mayo says he will be sure not to peak early this year. So if he doesn't win, but makes a very good showing in this primer tour, I might take him very seriously in the Tour de France. I bet he kicked himself so many times last year for flaming out to the crowds up Dauphine Libere at exactly this time of year last season. He says he won't make the same mistake this year. That kind of experience burns deep. He wants the Tour de France, and badly.

I really don't know what to make of Mayo.
He did have a great Dauphine as you say but I always get the feeling that there is more going on in his head and that he can run very hot/cold.

 

[gntlmn]

I really don't know what to make of Mayo.
He did have a great Dauphine as you say but I always get the feeling that there is more going on in his head and that he can run very hot/cold.

I've heard it may be more than in his head, like perhaps in his veins. But then this thread might end up in the "new" forum if we go that route.

 

[limerickman]

I've heard it may be more than in his head, like perhaps in his veins. But then this thread might end up in the "new" forum if we go that route.

Let's not go there.

I think it's his head that causes him to run hot/cold.
If you read his comments about having to cycle over the pave in the early stages of the 2004 TDF, you'd realise that his head is not where it should be.

I know the Spaniards have an aversion to the Belgian classics but if he was serious about an assault on the 2004 TDF, he could have ridden P-R just to get the feel of the cobbles.
Instead, he waited until TDF to familiarise himself with the reality of cycling on cobbles and it mentally broke him having to cycle over difficult terrain.
If he was serious about contesting overall on GC, he would have prepared better.

 

[gntlmn]

Oh yeah. I remember the cobbles now. That's where the Posties made their attack. If you weren't ready for that, it would be like stepping onto a train track, thinking you're going for a peaceful walk in the middle of nowhere and turning your head only to see a runaway freight train bearing down on you with no room to spare. What a brutal stage.

 

[Virenque]

I will be watching Catalunya...

Where

 

[limerickman]

Where

I'll be watching the results from Catalunya........... (sorry for the confusion)

 

[musette]

Results of TTT at Cataluyna are interesting:

2. Discovery Channel; at :21
3. T-Mobile; at :45

The T-Mobile team finished the TTT with its whole team and with JU leading, and still was beaten by a DC team with only 5 cyclists crossing the finish line together:

13 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) T-Mobile Team (possibly on TdF)
14 Stephan Schreck (Ger) T-Mobile Team
15 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team **
16 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger) T-Mobile Team
17 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) T-Mobile Team **
18 Francisco José Lara (Spa) T-Mobile Team **
19 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz) T-Mobile Team
20 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) T-Mobile Team

DC:

8 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Discovery Channel
9 Roger Hammond (GBr) Discovery Channel
10 Stijn Devolder (Bel) Discovery Channel
11 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel **
12 Benjamin Noval (Spa) Discovery Channel **

** Denotes likely TdF riders from each team

So, a depleted DC team with 3 classics or other riders and with only two TdF men (Popo and Noval) wins over a JU team with 2 other TdF shoe-ins (true, they are climbers, but Noval is ostensibly partially a climber as well, as is Popo; the DC people are just better TTTists, leaving aside JU of course).

 

[Dead Star]

You read into things way too much

 

[bobke]

Let's not go there.

I think it's his head that causes him to run hot/cold.
If you read his comments about having to cycle over the pave in the early stages of the 2004 TDF, you'd realise that his head is not where it should be.

I know the Spaniards have an aversion to the Belgian classics but if he was serious about an assault on the 2004 TDF, he could have ridden P-R just to get the feel of the cobbles.
Instead, he waited until TDF to familiarise himself with the reality of cycling on cobbles and it mentally broke him having to cycle over difficult terrain.
If he was serious about contesting overall on GC, he would have prepared better.

Yes, and he also peaked too soon, over-raced, lost too much weight, then got sick with mono--at least that's what they said abotu his startling loss of form.

 

[musette]

One can't speak of Mayo's disastrous Stage 3 without noting that it was not only his own failing, but also the failing of his team that could not pace him back. If, for example, LA had fallen, his team would have been strong enough to pace him back. LA himself would have contributed more to that effort.

 

[MJtje]

The reason why they couldn't pace back was because USPS, Phonak and Telekom were powering full gas away after the cobble section! USPS would have never gotten back (if lance would have fallen) if big teams would have powered ahead at the front......The gap would be less.....that's all

One can't speak of Mayo's disastrous Stage 3 without noting that it was not only his own failing, but also the failing of his team that could not pace him back. If, for example, LA had fallen, his team would have been strong enough to pace him back. LA himself would have contributed more to that effort.

 

[musette]

USPS would have TTT'd back -- esp with Eki and Hincapie's skills on the cobblestone. LA, Padrnos and Landis would have been really kicking it up. They would have Mayo and his cohorts were just not powerful enough. Heras had some problems on the same stage (not as bad as Mayo's problems), but Liberty Seguros was strong enough to help Heras back.

 

[gntlmn]

It was a very good day for Discovery today. Popovych took the lead in the Tour of Catalunya, and Savoldelli took the stage in the Giro with a mountaintop finish, edging out Basso who took the maglia rosa.

General classification after stage 4

1 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 15.08.31
2 Aitor Osa (Spa) Illes Balears-Casse d'Epargne 0.11
3 Miguel A.M. Perdiguero (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.45
4 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
5 Santiago Botero (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.54
6 Francisco José Lara (Spa) T-Mobile Team 1.03
7 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis 1.05
8 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 1.07
9 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.09
10 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quickstep 1.17
11 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 1.18
12 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Wurth 1.30
13 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 1.33
14 Benjamin Noval (Spa) Discovery Channel 1.38
15 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis 1.39
16 Manuel Calvente (Spa) Team CSC 1.42
17 Axel Merckx (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 1.43
18 Luis Perez (Spa) Cofidis 1.44
19 Eladio Jimenez (Spa) Comunidad Valenciana
20 Josep Jufre (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 2.03

 

[musette]

Sevilla needs to make some adjustments if he is supposed to help JU in the mountains. Fortunately, JU has Vino, Guerini and hopefully Kloden working for him, and Sevilla is not the only person JU will rely on. Is TM placing undue reliance on Lara?

Popo's first win for DC. What a great situation with his winning the GC. Now, DC has had seven season wins: KBK (Hincapie), Three Days of De Panne GC (Devolder), Three Days of De Panne ITT (Eki), Tour de Georgia (stage and GC, Danielson), Tour de Catalunya (Popo), Giro stage (Savoldelli). Plus two maglia rosas. TM only has two season wins, including a small German race(Vino and Zabel).

 

[MJtje]

Oke......let's talk about teams.......if one team proved to be a good TDF team it is/was USPS/Disco. Ullrich never had that good of a team...........For example were is Kloden? what was Botero doing last year at JU TDF team? What was Zabel doing in the TDF tour? (with al respect, but if you want to beat Lance you need the TEAM). What is Sevilla doing......he didn't do anything the last two years.......so when are they gonna step up. A lot of people fail at T-mobile I don't know why? Anyone?

And ever heard how close Lance and Bruyneel are........JU and Godefroot never talk to each other...only see each other at races. Dunno about that....but that's also not a good sign. So it starts with a TEAM......and looking how Disco is doing it is allready 1-0 for Disco!!!! Aaah well I like boring tours

Sevilla needs to make some adjustments if he is supposed to help JU in the mountains. Fortunately, JU has Vino, Guerini and hopefully Kloden working for him, and Sevilla is not the only person JU will rely on. Is TM placing undue reliance on Lara?

 

[musette]

I'm glad you asked that question. I have spent months on and off analyzing it. See the thread about whose team is better.