posted Jul 30, 2008

Couldn't agree more about the obnoxious Australian - mentioning no names; Cadel Evans (oops!) has a lot to learn about being media friendly. Perhaps he needs to be reminded about how his salary and sport are funded. Given the doping difficulties of the past you would think he would have adopted a different approach in an effort to keep his sponsors happy and ensuring their continued funding. Well done to Sastre and CSC for winning and conducting themselves with class and style. Good luck next year.

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posted Jul 30, 2008

A few comments on doping;

1. Yes it was getting out of hand (doping) and cycling was certainly tarnished. This tour will go along way to mending that reputation.

2. I don't think a whole team should pull/get thrown out when one team member gets caught for doping. Was Man Utd relegated when Rio Ferdinand missed a drug test? (I suppose many people will say they should have been There wouldn't be many nations left to compete in the Olympics if this approach was used.

3. Doping cheats were caught (good) because the tour is under intense scrutiny. If the same level of testing was applied elsewhere then maybe people wouldn't just point the finger at cycling.

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posted Jul 31, 2008

Peter Slater,

I have to pretty much agree with your "All-star team" line-up as I only make 2 changes..

1. Carlos Sastre. For the guts to attack when he simply knew he had to, and a huge amount of spirit to prove those useless ITV commentators (and much of the world for that matter) wrong in the final time trial. Showed patience, skill, and courage.

2. Mark Cavendish. Amazing talent and amazing ability to graft a win in the rain, a win having been boxed in towards the finish, and a couple with comfortable margins. Made the Tour notable for the RIGHT reasons.

3. Gerald Ciolek. A very strong team member who led out Cav well and could well have won a stage too if he hadn't have had such a strong sprinter for a team-mate.

4. Stefan Schumacher. Won both time trials and was aggressive on the mountains too. But... I am somewhat suspicious of him, if you catch my drift.

5. Andy Schleck. Fantastic job for his team, both Frank and Sastre. He also showed great strength on many mountainous stages and was the deserved winner of the white jersey.

6. Jens Voigt. Just edges out Stuart O'Grady as the man who did all the tough tough work for Team CSC who were by far the greatest team on the tour. Used experience well.

7. Sylvain Chavanel. Somehow mustered up the strength to attack and attack on surely a third of all stages! Deserved a stage win when it came.

8. Bernhard Kohl. What a surprise package this man was to the Tour this year. A King of the Mountains title, a 3rd place finish in the G.C. An outstanding performance in both the mountains and the final time trial.

9. Roman Kreuziger. Would have won the white jersey but for the strength of Andy Schleck. Good performance in the mountains and a future star.

Other stars... Stuart O'Grady, Oscar Freire, Frank Schleck.

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posted Jul 31, 2008

As far as CSC team members go, how about a mention for Arvesen who, apart from an incredible work rate topped it with a stage win?

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posted Aug 1, 2008

Evans comes second by less than a minute after going over the handlebars in the first week & smashing his helmet. Then becomes the target (as favourite) of a strong & brilliantly organised team CSC. Other equally favoured riders like Menchov & Valverde fail to come close (Rabobank seemed as weak as Silence-Lotto). He is beaten by a man who smartly wheel sucked on every stage except one & then had a good time trial (for him) but did little attacking on any of the other stages. But Evans fails to make anyones top ten? He was under more media scrutiny than anybody else in the tour as favourite & then holder of the yellow jersey for 5 days - his reaction to the media did seem a bit paranoid at times but they were all over him & with 5 previous collar-bone fractures I can understand he was keen to get it properly assessed instead of jostling with the media. I'm sure Cadel doesn't feel the great failure that he has been portrayed on this 606. I'm not sure some of you were watching the same TDF as I was & I think we had the same coverage as you did (& same commentators) here in Australia. Good luck to your boy Cavendish - an amazing sprinter. But I have been amazed by how mean-spirited people have been towards Evans on this 606. He may not be exciting uphill but there would be no more courageous descender in the TDF & as an all round rider I would like somebody here to say that there was a better rider than him in TDF 2008. And don't say Sastre - lovely bloke but won due to his strong team - and good luck to him - that is the game!

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posted Aug 2, 2008

"I would like somebody here to say that there was a better rider than him in TDF 2008. And don't say Sastre - lovely bloke but won due to his strong team"

And that, surely is the point? Sastre is in a better team, because he is a better rider and has the palmares to prove it. Being a "good all rounder" means that you are a jack of all trades and a master of none. That is why Evans hasn't yet won a Grand Tour. When did he ever come close to Ullrich or Armstrong? They were in a completely different league.

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posted Aug 5, 2008

It is so easy to knock Cadel Evans isn't it. But look at the facts; he has come second two years on the trot with practically no team support. This is a team event and so rightly Satre won, but for Evans to finish inside a minute of him, after CSC had tried so hard to break him was a remarkable ride. Evans in a team like CSC would win, hands down.

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posted Aug 6, 2008

Interesting and debatable hevipedal.

I would certainly agree if the statement had been "I doubt Sastre would have won if he hadn't had such a strong team", but that doesn't equate to the saying that the 2nd overall rider would have done so.

My own personal opinion is that the strongest rider was Menchov - who also had a notably weak team that failed to come to his rescue when he needed them most, not only during the mountain stages, but well before them also.

Granted, Evans' should definitely have profited from a stronger team, but come the tough slopes he'd still have had to keep up with the stronger climbers.

IMHO, apart from the comparative strength of the teams themselves (Rabobank included), the race was won by the fact that CSC had two riders challenging for the GC, thus multiplying their potential race tactics - which they played well, though not superbly. Evans may not only have needed a stronger team, but perhaps also another team mate challenging for the GC - something that can work in your favour, but also against you if you don't play your cards right and the riders involved don't readily accept their submission to the team (as Andy Schleck did), dependent also on how the actual riders get on with each other.

A furter consideration is that your statement is based either on the presumtion that all Evans' rivals would also have ridden with the same tactics if Evans had had a stronger team - not so, as you adapt to the circumstances - or that his rivals would have been powerless regardless of their strategy.

There are so many possible combinations that Evans winning if only he had a stronger team is far from a foregone conclusion.

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posted Aug 6, 2008

Evansdoes not have any divine right to be 'liked', neither does anyone else. However, I do find the extent of bad feeling towards him a bit odd - yes he didn't attack very much, but then neither did Sastre, did he? WE may not like Evan's attitude and Aussie belligerence, but surely he deserves some credit for finishing second in a weak-ish team. If he is that boring and that untalented a rider, it doesnt say much about the rest of the field, does it?

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posted Aug 18, 2008

You can't 'pick the ideal team for the Tour', because Bjarne Riis has already done it for you. All credit to Sastre, this wasn't an individual win. The only person who could have seriously challenged him was Frank Schleck, also of CSC. Or Andy Schleck, also of CSC. The CSC tactics on the Alpe were clear - to give Evans and Menchov the old one-two until they cracked. But they cracked immediately (Menchov with that unlucky fall), so it was Sastre who soared away. If Menchov or Evans had been able to drag the gruppetto up to Sastre, Frank Schleck would have gone. And so on.
That's bike racing - if you have more than one shot in your locker you fire them one at a time.

Of course the Schleck brothers and big Jens deserve a place on anyone's dream team. But let's hear it for Cancellara, for Arvessen, for Sorensen (all national champions in their own right), for Gustav and for O'Grady, all of whom buried their own personal ambitions in the interests of their team. It's no accident that CSC took home the team prize and two of the jerseys - they were a class above every other team.

CSC's tactics on stage 17 weren't dashing, or romantic. They didn't win as I would have liked to see them win, destroying Menchov and Evans on the Galibier. They won by simply using up - burning out - three great cyclists, Cancellara, Voigt and O'Grady, to deliver their super climbers to the base of the Alpe as fresh as possible. Like the derailleur gear, c'est brutal, mais ca marche!

And in the whole race, who else deserves a mention? For me, not Evans. The arch wheel-sucker at last found himself in a place where there where no wheels left to suck, and he showed his (lack of) mettle. The Australian Emporer has no clothes.

Stefan Schumacher? I hope - I really hope - he's clean. But he doesn't ride like someone who's clean.

Chavanel? Certainly. Cavendish? Emphatically. John-Lee Augustyn? If not next year, the year after. And anyone who doesn't understand why Thomas Voekler always deserves a place in every dream team just doesn't understand the romance of bike racing.

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