Why did Zabriskie pull the same **** he did at the end of last year when he finished 150th every day for the first 12 days of the Vuelta and then attacked FIVE KILOMETERS into stage 14 or whatever it was. The peleton crashed and the sprinters teams couldnt real him in before the end. Im sure that Zabriskie completely spent all of his domestique energy on the last 20k of that stage. Pettachi, who wanted to win that stage, basically acknoweledged in the least possible manner by saying "Zabriskie certainly rode well , BUT...". If everyone raced in that fashion, there would be no team concept. Most guys in the bottom 50 of the GC could win stages but they are there to work for their teamleaders. Maybe FLoyd Landis would have held the Overall Leaders Jersey in the Vuelta last year if he had the help of coheisive teammates. For all of the people who are scratching their heads as to why US Postal Service non-tendered (no contract offer) Zabriskie , it was exactly for this reason. Bjarn Riis doesnt care about this stuff though because he just wants Anglos and English speakers on his team. Plus he wants any publicity he can get. Its this same attitude that had half of the sport suspecting that he DOPED to enable himself to deny the great, Miguel Indurain, his 6 TDF in succession. That basically ended Migs career permaturely.
Back to the point. Zabriskie was supposed to be working for Basso , and he did well for him in the mountains and in the first week, but he could have been responsible for Basso not having the morale to recover on the bad days. First of all 3 days into the race , Riis had to take corrective measures to get David to protect Ivan. Then a few days later Zabriskie went 120% on the first ITT and ended up finishing 1) Zabriskie 2)Basso. Basso should have won 3 stages in the 2005 Giro D' Italia if it werent for his traitor leuitenant. This just shows how the UCI system is so flawed because the Pro Tour only rewards this type of selfishness with 3 Points in a 3 Week Tour. Unless someone is a pure sprinter going for Points Jersey they should be working for the GC either for themselves or for their teamleader. Also Zabriskie blowing off an interview with Phil Liggett and not even wearing his Stars and Stripes Jersey as National Time Trial Champion is a disgrace. Americans are outsiders in Europe and we should approach the sport with the Big Picure in mind and not how we can squeeze out maximum exposure for ourselves.
Also its sad that a mediocre sprinter such as Issac Galvez can accure more UCI points for sitting on till the last 10k of the sprint stages, finishing 6th in those stages, compared with someone who can finish in the 1st group , climb and TT their way to a top 15 in the final GC. Im sure Zabriskie got more points than someone like Cauchiolli and that is just wrong.
Back to the point. Zabriskie was supposed to be working for Basso , and he did well for him in the mountains and in the first week, but he could have been responsible for Basso not having the morale to recover on the bad days. First of all 3 days into the race , Riis had to take corrective measures to get David to protect Ivan. Then a few days later Zabriskie went 120% on the first ITT and ended up finishing 1) Zabriskie 2)Basso. Basso should have won 3 stages in the 2005 Giro D' Italia if it werent for his traitor leuitenant. This just shows how the UCI system is so flawed because the Pro Tour only rewards this type of selfishness with 3 Points in a 3 Week Tour. Unless someone is a pure sprinter going for Points Jersey they should be working for the GC either for themselves or for their teamleader. Also Zabriskie blowing off an interview with Phil Liggett and not even wearing his Stars and Stripes Jersey as National Time Trial Champion is a disgrace. Americans are outsiders in Europe and we should approach the sport with the Big Picure in mind and not how we can squeeze out maximum exposure for ourselves.
Also its sad that a mediocre sprinter such as Issac Galvez can accure more UCI points for sitting on till the last 10k of the sprint stages, finishing 6th in those stages, compared with someone who can finish in the 1st group , climb and TT their way to a top 15 in the final GC. Im sure Zabriskie got more points than someone like Cauchiolli and that is just wrong.