- It's not always about attacking, it's about holding the pace. In Hautacam, Ricco attacked for tactical reasons. It was already mentioned by someone in another thread, but he forced the others to go after him, then interrupted his pace abruptly, giving precious seconds to his teammates. Today Ricco is the only one able to attack 2, 3, 4 times, but unlike Pantani he needs a pretty long "recovery period" before moving on. So what might also happen to him, is that one day, they let him go initially, then through slow acceleration come back to him, then leave him on the side.Cobblestones said:Some comments:
1) IMHO Ricco has not been 'allowed' on a break so far. He attacked and no one seemed to be able to follow. So, if his form remains that great, who would haul him back?
- Ricco was not supposed to start the Tour. Everyone knows to be good at TT, you need to train hard for months, even years. Not his thing. I agree with the 6 minutes, but if Ricco ends the Alps with yellow, might be less (motivation effect).Cobblestones said:2) On the other hand, I looked at his first TT result and it sucked. Big time. +3 min on Cadel. Did he sit up or is he always that bad? I would assume he'd need a 6 min advantage on Cadel coming out of the Alps in order to win in Paris. So, he has to get more than 8 min on Cadel from where he is right now. That's a lot. It doesn't seem likely.
- True, good point.Cobblestones said:3) I looked at the footage from stage 9. Ricco was riding for the GC. If he just thought about the stage win, he could have sat up on the finishing straight. But he pedaled all the way through.
Maybe Schleck would have won the stage?? )Cobblestones said:4) I really wonder what he could have done on stage 10. A shame we'll never know.