Inch Worm said:
The Giro top 10 is often misleading as it's a weaker race
That depends on your definition of "weaker"
Inch Worm said:
but also because those riders have peaked for the Giro not the Tour and often come to the Tour with different ambitions.
Quite right.
Inch Worm said:
But the 2008 TDF might go down in history as one of the weakest modern Tours, especially when you allow for the fact that the Schlecks were riding for Sastre not the GC in 2008.
FYI, Sastre and Andy had the legs to attack on the Bonette but were asked not to by Frank who was in yellow and didn't have the legs.
This prompted Riis to drive up next to Frank about 4 kms from the top of the climb, and yell several things at him about his lack of mental toughness, finishing with "If you want to win the Tour it's got to hurt a lot, and it's got to hurt NOW."
At this point, Sastre asked Frank to attack and Frank told him not to.
Also, Sastre said after the Alpe d'Huez stage that he was told in no uncertain terms that if he couldn't shed the favorites early on in the climb, he wouldn't be allowed to try later on since Frank was in yellow.
So, no, they weren't riding for Sastre. They were riding based on the moment's circumstances
