Armstrong drops A.Schlek who is 15 min out the back WTF???

[Black-Balled]

...This is a race for him to enjoy the Califronia lifestyle and build base racing miles ...will show himself on one or two stages of the Tour de Suisse before the Tour ...

Just between us, I saw him smoking weed in the woods before the stage!

 

[BikeCentric]

Just between us, I saw him smoking weed in the woods before the stage!

LOL did he stop in La Honda on Ken Kesey's old spread to burn one down in honor of Kesey's Magic Bus tours? "You're either on the bus or your off the bus Andy!"

 

[flicker]

There is a lot of training in between base miles and peaking--that he's not challenging for the win doesn't mean he's in base miles.

Andy was not challenging for the win yesterday. He was stuck in a rut.

His only excuse was he could have had a contact high from a spectator smoking hi/her medicine.

Andy looked worse at Bonny Doon then a cat5 rider with a white wine male leaf hangover. SICK!!!!

 

[Ferminal]

lol @ the trolls who fail to realise that Andy Schleck has never done anything in a stage race prior to his participation in the Tour.

He is the same breed as Lance.

 

[cawright1375]

Didn't Andy go out on a break last year during LBL, or was that Frank?

 

[Joey_J]

lol @ the trolls who fail to realise that Andy Schleck has never done anything in a stage race prior to his participation in the Tour.

If you don't count his 2nd in that little stage race they run every year in Italy. I forget the name of it...something Giro-ish

 

[Polish]

lol @ the trolls who fail to realise that Andy Schleck has never done anything in a stage race prior to his participation in the Tour.

He is the same breed as Lance.

Yes, Andy is the same breed.

However, Andy has not won the coveted "Best in Show" 7 times lol.

 

[theyoungest]

If you don't count his 2nd in that little stage race they run every year in Italy. I forget the name of it...something Giro-ish

He wasn't exactly preparing for the Tour then, was he?

 

[Eyjafjallajokull]

Surprised that he allowed himself to get dropped by a fellow tour podium contender with six weeks to go.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Surprised that he allowed himself to get dropped by a fellow tour podium contender with six weeks to go.

Don't be silly - Leipheimer has little chance of a podium.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

This surprises a surprising amount of people, but most riders don't have this tour pegged as one of their season's main goals. It's not a small race, but it's really only huge to certain fans and some US based sponsors. So when those riders aren't having a great day in the saddle, which Andy certainly wasn't today, they find an echelon and come in when they come in. Don't let the ATOC results fool you - Levi won't be leading RS in July, and Andy won't be climbing hills with the sprinters.

Sigh - did I just reply to a troll?

The surprise for me was how much time AS lost - but having a look at the finishing times he obviously sat up early and just came in with the 'aurobus'.

I didn't expect him to be too competitive in this race so I was pleasantly surprised to see him in the mix of stage 2 but expected more from him on st 3 - this could be a timely wake up call.

 

[biokemguy]

fixed?

This whole race has a very 'manufactured' feel to it. The only teams that really care are the American teams. It's like saxo came here and is intentionally not racing. Kinda sad really. I guess they can say they took it seriously when Cancellera wins the TT without any threat to the GC.

 

[flicker]

The surprise for me was how much time AS lost - but having a look at the finishing times he obviously sat up early and just came in with the 'aurobus'.

I didn't expect him to be too competitive in this race so I was pleasantly surprised to see him in the mix of stage 2 but expected more from him on st 3 - this could be a timely wake up call.

Why wasn't Andy in the Lars Boom group? As a champion Andy should be able to coast in with those calibar riders?

 

[2wheels]

Wow, so many authorities-- any of you happen to hear Voigt saying all spring that ToC was his main priority this year? Therefore I presume that Andy Schleck and everyone else is riding for him in this race. . . and when you're riding support, you don't have to treat every stage like it's the race of your life.

If I'm Bjarne Riis or Bobby Julich, I don't see much sense in having my TdF hopeful risk life and limb just to help Voigt on a wet Bonny Doon descent with only 30K left in the stage. The odds favored that Voigt and fifteen other chasers would catch back on by the finish-- and, but for a remarkable job by Z-man to keep the front three away, they would have.

For some reason the media, and most of their readers, have reached the mistaken conclusion that either Schleck or Cancellara was here to try and win the race. Forget it; that was never the plan.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Why wasn't Andy in the Lars Boom group? As a champion Andy should be able to coast in with those calibar riders?

I gave my opinion on why Andy wasn't in the LB group by saying 'he sat up early'.
I don't believe the report from his team - he appeared to just switch off when it came time to push.

 

[Eyjafjallajokull]

Lets face it, guys, Andy felt the full force of the Shack Attack. When the Shack are on form, nobody can stand up to that sort of punishment.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Errrr, The Zee man and Australia's answer to Tom Danielson stood up to it.
Not sure that Lance did, though.

That well known mountain goat, Henrich Haussler attacked twice on the climb.

You fanguys are so funny.
Andy is on holiday.
After this parade.........sorry, race, he'll be hitting the beach.

 

[Christian]

If there's a type of rider I can't stand, it's the guy who only cares about 1 or 2 races a season. And he is that type of rider.

I'm sure Andy cares about and tries to finish every race that he enters. The fact that he cannot compete for the win in every race he enters is a really good sign to me. In my opinion there is only one rider who can do that and that's Contador. I think often us fans expect too much from the riders, to always compete for the win, and by doing so, we contribute to the doping problem. All of a sudden, when a rider can't put in an exceptional performance, we say he sucks, when really that's just human.

Except this is Andy Schleck. He doesn't do breaks.

He was in a break in this year's Pais Vasco I believe. And I imagine people like him and Contador have problems in getting people to collaborate with him in breaks. Imagine you were some guy from Jelly Belly and you were in a two man break with Contador. Of course you'd give your all to make the break go through, cause in the end chances of you winning are fifty-fifty. Well, almost.

Alleged stomach problems aside (see the Julich interview in Velonews, which is linked a few pages back and which I won't dig up [sorry])

THANK YOU. That's the same they said on Luxembourg radio today. Simply didn't digest his burger well or something.

So yeah. You can believe what the team says or you don't, I personally think it's plausible and a valid answer to most of the questions asked in this thread.

Plus I mean I know we all get excited when it comes to discussing cycling and we say things we maybe didn't mean that way, plus sarcasm doesn't always translate well through forum-posts, but I do feel that people are a little rude to each other sometimes in here ... after all it's just cycling!
Discussing in a forum should be fun and shouldn't make one angry!

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Lets face it, guys, Andy felt the full force of the Shack Attack. When the Shack are on form, nobody can stand up to that sort of punishment.

Indeed. Did you see the beat down RadioShack put on the Cat 1 bike shop employees at the Tour of the Gila? Epic. Shack attack!

 

[Eyjafjallajokull]

Indeed. Did you see the beat down RadioShack put on the Cat 1 bike shop employees at the Tour of the Gila? Epic. Shack attack!

(I caveated it with 'on form'.)

 

[ScottyMuser]

(I caveated it with 'on form'.)

Just because you did, that doen't mean it is even vaguely resembling the truth - unless the other teams are all out of form.
As a purely academic exercise of ranking all teams being at full strength on a tough stage, I would rank Shack, at best, 6th, definitely behind Liquigas, Astana, Saxo, Caisse and Cervelo, and about level with Rabo, Aqua e Sapone (if mountanous), Sky, Euskatel (specially for mountains) and Katyusha (if stage is vaguely Classic like)
And that is not to mention HTC or Garmin, who have a pretty impressive line up, but more geared to keeping the peloton together/chasing breaks to set up a train rather than attacking and putting the pain on others in the mountains.

 

[Eyjafjallajokull]

As a purely academic exercise of ranking all teams being at full strength on a tough stage, I would rank Shack, at best, 6th, definitely behind Liquigas, Astana, Saxo, Caisse and Cervelo, and about level with Rabo, Aqua e Sapone (if mountanous), Sky, Euskatel (specially for mountains) and Katyusha (if stage is vaguely Classic like)
And that is not to mention HTC or Garmin, who have a pretty impressive line up, but more geared to keeping the peloton together/chasing breaks to set up a train rather than attacking and putting the pain on others in the mountains.

I'm not sure how you can say this given they performed pretty well at the Tour last year as Astana. I can't remember another team really challenging them.

 

[Polish]

Wow, so many authorities-- any of you happen to hear Voigt saying all spring that ToC was his main priority this year? Therefore I presume that Andy Schleck and everyone else is riding for him in this race. . . and when you're riding support, you don't have to treat every stage like it's the race of your life.

If I'm Bjarne Riis or Bobby Julich, I don't see much sense in having my TdF hopeful risk life and limb just to help Voigt on a wet Bonny Doon descent with only 30K left in the stage. The odds favored that Voigt and fifteen other chasers would catch back on by the finish-- and, but for a remarkable job by Z-man to keep the front three away, they would have.

For some reason the media, and most of their readers, have reached the mistaken conclusion that either Schleck or Cancellara was here to try and win the race. Forget it; that was never the plan.

It would have been nice to see Andy do some work to support Jens,
ala Lance working for Levi.

Jens sure will be working his **** off for Andy come July

 

[Kazistuta]

I'm not sure how you can say this given they performed pretty well at the Tour last year as Astana. I can't remember another team really challenging them.

Well, to be fair no other team challenged Contador. Had the "Shack attack" (Then Astana) been without the Spaniard, I'm sure you and I could agree that they probably hadn't gone "unchallenged"....?

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

(I caveated it with 'on form'.)

Yep. If RadioShack does well, they're "on form". Otherwise they're "just training".

They should do well the rest of the year. They've been pretty much "just training" for the first half.