After watching some older races and checking out today's Giro, we got a discussion going on in another thread about the pro's/cons of attacking early or late in a GT.
My thoughts are that riders should attack as early as possible in weeks one and two of tours. It gives them a chance to attack when they are more fresh, it gives them an oppurtunity to take an early lead and it gives them a safety net incase their attack fails, as there will be other days ahead.
After thinking about it, alot of guys have won GT's more from their early exploits than their later exploits. Take Contador last year at the Giro. He had it pretty much secured after a few mountain stages while others were practicing track stands. Take Cadel from last year. He attacked early and had a great opening week, which let off some of the pressure during the later weeks and helped him win. We could also mention Lance in 2005 who took care of buisness early and had it wrapped up.
Attacking late also has a case too. It's great to put in that final nail in the coffin to seal off your competitors. Theoretically, all of your competitors should be the most wiped out at the end of a tour, so an attack might work. But the big problem is, what if it doesn't? We've seen tons of guys over the years who tried to use the last day on a tour to attack who have failed. And once they do fail? No dice as the tours over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
My thoughts are that riders should attack as early as possible in weeks one and two of tours. It gives them a chance to attack when they are more fresh, it gives them an oppurtunity to take an early lead and it gives them a safety net incase their attack fails, as there will be other days ahead.
After thinking about it, alot of guys have won GT's more from their early exploits than their later exploits. Take Contador last year at the Giro. He had it pretty much secured after a few mountain stages while others were practicing track stands. Take Cadel from last year. He attacked early and had a great opening week, which let off some of the pressure during the later weeks and helped him win. We could also mention Lance in 2005 who took care of buisness early and had it wrapped up.
Attacking late also has a case too. It's great to put in that final nail in the coffin to seal off your competitors. Theoretically, all of your competitors should be the most wiped out at the end of a tour, so an attack might work. But the big problem is, what if it doesn't? We've seen tons of guys over the years who tried to use the last day on a tour to attack who have failed. And once they do fail? No dice as the tours over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.