Buffalo Soldier said:I know, 2012 will be of the Dutch, 2013 of the French.
2014 will be the year of GvA
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Buffalo Soldier said:I know, 2012 will be of the Dutch, 2013 of the French.
Yeahright said:Frank dragging Phil across to Andy was one of the dumbest tactical moves I have ever witnessed, followed closely by Frank not making one move in the final two kms to test Gilbert out. Even if he just went for it and blown after 200m it would have forced Gilbert to respond and tow Andy along. Gilbert must have been laughing to himself all the way up the final climb at their ineptitude.
JMBeaushrimp said:The kicker for me is that both Schlecks came in together. Without trying anything in the last 5km...
They know that keeping Gilbert with them guarantees a loss, and yet nothing...
And that lame 'lead out' at the end? Cummon!
Last week I posted how stoked I was to see Andy actually try to race in AGR, and now it seems to be back to normal - waiting for attrition rather than dictating anything.
Cowardly and lame.
KassyC said:I find it amazing that you are all slating the Schlecks so much.
quiensabe said:To me, the real disgrace was Andy's behaviour on the podium. Frank literally took his hat off to Gilbert - a nice gesture, with wit. Then up comes Andy, walks past Gilbert, hugs big brother, ignores Gilbert, turns his back to shake hands with a lot of surprised guys in suits, then faces front with a face like the spoiled little brat that he is. A display of bad manners from a sour loser.
ElChingon said:Then there's the camp of, Gilbert was the strongest in the world there's nothing they could of done. Fine, so why race then?
ElChingon said:I wish I could of been within in ear shot of Hinault or Kelly (after they broke away on EuroSport) or any other ex-Pro actual racer on what they thought at the moment of this travesty.
Waterloo Sunrise said:I knew he was no sprinter, but 600Watts as a peak attack - yikes. I hope distance is reducing his anaerobic power by 33% or that is just plain weedy.
Libertine Seguros said:The problem was, Sky had, ultimately a quite mediocre roster, so weren't above being cut down to size.
Leopard perhaps shouldn't expect instant success, but given the quality of their roster, they do and the fans do.
Libertine Seguros said:What makes it so ridiculous is that Fränk has played wingman perfectly before - on the Alpe in 2008 and in this very race in 2009. Why he lost his mind and thought it was a good idea to drag the strongest man in the race over to his brother, thus sealing both of their fates, I have no idea.
Libertine Seguros said:In that case, if you have two cards to play, why play them together when both cards are the same?
Christian said:. After Lance stepped down the forum was in need of a new target to project their hatred on, and Andy was first choice. Other riders you'd better not defend are Loseheimer, the c0cky c0ck (Cancellara) and Wigans, never bait Vino, Di Luca, Gesink, any Colombian or TGBM. Follow those guidelines and you'll fit in just fine.
dlwssonic said:haha you forgot to tell them not to bait BMC, evans and vanavermaet
Mellow Velo said:ACF has found a true soul mate.
Hard not to bait BMC fans, when the words of Manuel Quinziato, from February, are still fresh.
The PT's strongest "classics" squad fail to get a single podium out of their Spring 2011 campaign.
Apart from Greg van Averaege, another epic fail.
Libertine Seguros said:It's not shifting the goalposts.
I have made hypothesis A.
You have made hypothesis B, which is irreconcilable with hypothesis A.
If hypothesis B is to be correct, it then raises new questions not posed by hypothesis A.
Hence I have posed this question.
If both of your cards are the same, why put them on the table together?
roundabout said:Actually you're shifting the goalposts. Tactics and execution were pretty good until St. Nicolas but apparently having an advantage in numbers is now a bad thing (which is easy now for you to say after the event since they were unable to execute it)...
Yeahright said:Well i actually agree with you that it was disappointing that Frank did not at least try to attack on the last hill up to the finish. However Gilbert had already showed on the earlier climb that they were no match for him when he gapped Andy. I guess that after that they figured it was game over.
As always you're always talking after the fact.Libertine Seguros said:OK, the numerical advantage is a pretty good justification. But then what's the point of having a numerical advantage if you won't, or can't, do any of the things that people with a numerical advantage use to take advantage of that?
Christian said:You are disappointed with the race and that is your good right, even though your posting history suggests you generally set the bar quite high. The Schlecks tried a tactic that focused on their winning rather than on Gilbert losing - hence the high pace in the peloton for example. Should they have focused more on Gilbert losing (I'm not talking about the last 2 km, which seems to be what ticked most people off, but about the team's tactics all day)? We'll never know and it is futile to speculate.
Christian said:You seem to be new to the forum, so let me give you a little bit of context: The Schlecks in general and Andy in particular have taken over the position of most hated rider in the forum, after the position was left void by Lance's retirement 2.0. To a lesser extend, this can be said of LEOPARD TREK as well, taking over the position of most hated team from RadioShack and Team Sky. You should know that in general the middle ground is very thin in this forum and most users take extreme positions. After Lance stepped down the forum was in need of a new target to project their hatred on, and Andy was first choice. Other riders you'd better not defend are Loseheimer, the c0cky c0ck (Cancellara) and Wigans, never bait Vino, Di Luca, Gesink, any Colombian or TGBM. Follow those guidelines and you'll fit in just fine.
KassyC said:Ah right, thanks for that. Maybe they should make that a sticky so that newbies understand all the bizarre ranting
Not really sure that fitting in is going to be my thing with that criteria... I tend to give credit where it is due regardless of whether I like someone or not.
I think the Schlecks did the best with what they had on the day. Gilbert was in a different class in this race, and I think that was evident to everyone.
Mellow Velo said:ACF has found a true soul mate.
Hard not to bait BMC fans, when the words of Manuel Quinziato, from February, are still fresh.
The PT's strongest "classics" squad fail to get a single podium out of their Spring 2011 campaign.
Apart from Greg van Averaege, another epic fail.
Publicus said:And somewhere in Christian's post you should also have figured out that if you say an unkind word about Team Leopard Trek, he's going to be on you like white on rice.
Libertine Seguros said:You don't keep continually throwing deep over the middle against the Ravens because Ed Reed will pick you off.
beer_thirty said:OK, so after some of the initial dust has settled, if you REALLY want something to go after, how about this gem from (a rider I really like, by the way) Alexandr Kolobnev:
"I wasn't very focused in the very moment when the Schleck brothers attacked. It was a fatal distraction, which conditioned my race"
Seriously, you weren't very focused on Roche aux Faucons, the one place you KNEW an attack was going to happen? I'm pretty sure a certain Mr. Tchmil might have had words with Alexandr regarding that one.