95th Tour de France - Australia's year!

[Aussiejeff]

Aussiejeff, I agree with you in that they still need to put more time on Cadel and are going to attack over the next 2 stages. Great to see Cadel take the lead in the end (but he had to!!)....

Well, YIPPEE! We were wrong, wrong, wrong.... at least LAST night, which really surprised me.

IMHO if that is the *best* that Cadel's *opposition* could do on what was ostensibly the last stage in the Tour that might have offered anything like an opportunity for climbers like Sastre, Kohl and Schleck to pull some more gaps, then those guys are all but finished and just rode for 3rd, 4th and 5th places. Seeing them all roll over and pay ultimate respect like that (even Menchov made no effort - is he riding for 2nd?) suggests to me now that Cadel is indeed all but in the Yellow!

Roll on time trial..... :aus:


AJ

 

[dutchie]

I can't understand why there was not more pressure put on Cadel.

Especially from the strong CSC team. Surely they could have at a minimum fatigued Cadel by making him cover any breakaways by the leading riders.

Every second will count in the last stage for Sastre so 10 seconds or a more buggered Cadel might be the difference.

Anyone able to explain this (non) tactic?

 

[refined silver]

I can't understand why there was not more pressure put on Cadel.

Especially from the strong CSC team. Surely they could have at a minimum fatigued Cadel by making him cover any breakaways by the leading riders.

Every second will count in the last stage for Sastre so 10 seconds or a more buggered Cadel might be the difference.

Anyone able to explain this (non) tactic?

On flatter stages, Cadel doesn't have to do anything, his team can do it for him. So their attacks would tire themselves and Cadels' team, but not Cadel. Its only the super mountainous stages where his team is all dropped and he has to do everything himself.

Secondly, all the other teams and riders know they only have a couple of stages left to try for stage wins, so they also race harder, chase things, so they keep things together or get in breaks by themselves.

Finally, its not just Cadel's team, just as when Menchov was dropped on the early part of Alpe D'Huez, guys further down GC (General Classification) started riding hard at the front of Cadel's group, becasue then they would move up from say 6th to 5th. On the flatter stages if a high up guy got away, he would have 4 or 5 teams chasing as those teams don't want their leaders dropping down places, or losing further time on the overall standings.

Thats why barring very unusual circumstances, (which do happen, but very rarely for the above reasons,) things will most likely stay as they are til the T/T.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Maybe!!
When did you start and finish racing?

Started racing opens around 92 all washed up by 96. Mostly Vic. But some NSW, QLD and TAS racing.

 

[Aussiejeff]

On flatter stages, Cadel doesn't have to do anything, his team can do it for him....

But, by doing NOTHING to at least TRY to gain some time, his competitors are playing 100% into Cadel's plan to *smash* them in the final TT. So, why did they not throw caution to the wind and try to mix it up with some "unexpected" attacks? If any of the three riders currently in front of Cadel had gone nuts and tried to pulled out 5-6 mins or so on a series of independent breakaways, Cadel himself would have been forced to chase like crazy each time - not just his teammates - and his plans for the TT might just have been shaken up a bit. But not now.

They are clearly not going to win now, so what REALLY stopped them from at least giving it a go? All we saw were 5 of the weakest riders in the Tour last night going out on breaks. I wasted 4 hours of sleep for a boring stage that should have had some final, desperate grit? Don't get me wrong, I WANT Cadel to win - and it looks more likely than ever now that he will - but I would have liked to see the other contenders show a bit more gumption in the process.... even the usually laid back "expert" TV commentators were also surprised at the lack of aggression last night by his main contenders.

Time to put the glasses and Champers on ice.... and not bother watching tonight's limp stage.

 

[dutchie]

I agree Aussiejeff. Cadel would have been laughing all the way to the bank.

Hope he wins!

 

[Agentm]

its not possible to break away if your a top 10 rider.. simply cant happen..

there is no need to try and break cadel down in these stages as your going to do the same to your own top riders, so all are taking it easy for the TT..

cadel is clearly a good chance to make an impact, with 4 riders on the course at the same time the time trial will be amazing.. i think cadel has practice ridden it 4 times already, he knew the tour would be won in the last TT..

there is no pressure on cadel right now.. he only has to ride to win..

the question is can the others time trial as fast as cadel?? is 1.30 enough time to be infront of cadel?? if you look at previous 60k time trials you may see that it probably isnt enough time to be ahead of cadel.. but you can look at the time trial earlier in this tour to see some examples of how good he is!!

imho they have to be more concerned about their own abilities to time trial.. cadel can grind like nothing else.. the others are mainly climbers, menchov is behind cadel and will have to put in a blinder to beat cadel

last time trial 29.5 km.. this one is nearly twice that!! 53 km...

look at these times over 30 km... and imagine that on a short sprint like that how much faster cadel had to have been going to get those times!! he can do that over 53 km also.. imho its harder for the ones in the lead than it will be for cadel!!

4. EVANS Cadel 1 SILENCE - LOTTO 14h 05' 02" + 00' 21"

11. MENCHOV Denis 131 RABOBANK 14h 05' 53" + 01' 12"

23. SASTRE Carlos 11 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 14h 06' 24" + 01' 43"

24. KOHL Bernhard 115 GEROLSTEINER 14h 06' 28" + 01' 47"

28. SCHLECK Frank 17 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 14h 06' 49" + 02' 08"



dont write off cadel just yet..

 

[Agentm]

this guys heart is twice the size of a person his height weight and age..

aerobic fitness... at 18 years old the VO2 max was 80 (oxgen consumption per minute per kg) which is twice the rate of a normal person and higher than lance armstrong..

good luck to the contenders, but they need to be doing nearly the impossible to match this elite athelite

 

[nomore4s]

Cadel to finish 2nd again, this time by over a minute.

But wow what a ride by Sastre and even Kohl to finish 3rd. The effect of the yellow jersey can't be underestimated, Sastre lost less then 30sec to Cadel.

While I would have liked to see an Aussie in yellow in Paris I think Sastre and the CSC team have been the strongest team and have controlled the race and taken the chances when they needed to. Sastres ride up the Alpe d'Huez was awesome.

Cadel and his team need to rethink thier tatics imo. Firstly Cadel needs a team that is willing to work for him like CSC work for each other, also Cadel can't leave it all up to the T/T - 1min 34sec was just too much, proved too easy to defend that much time.

 

[2BAD4U]

Nice of Schleck to ride a "bad" TT and act as the proverbial carrot for Sastre

By far this 2nd for Cadel is better than last years. Last year some of the top guns left under controversy this year Cadel has done it all on his own (literally) and had to battle the whole CSC team.

Well done Cadel, now rip up that contract and start looking for a new team.

 

[Dezza]

Last leg just starting now on SBS...

Unless Sastre falls off a cliff, looks as though Cadel will be planting his feet on the runners up box again. Pity he's a one man team...otherwise he would've killed them this year.

Time to concentrate on the Olympics and 2009 Tour.