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Cadel's only hopes

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Jul 4, 2009
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It seems politics has taken a bit out of Cadel. He said he had his worst day of all his tours combined in the most recent stage and put it down to politics.

I can only conclude that the rest of his team is ******ed and wasnt up to doing anything to help him and were told to have an easy day in the saddle.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Considering he has shown good form....it was a bit of a surprise to hear him say that...I will refrain from concluding anything, and hope whatever it is has passed, and hope it's not his team politics that are causing him to feel like ****.
 
Apr 27, 2009
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Like many I have been surprised by Cadel's 'supposed' comments. Having said that it has been obvious for some time that the managment at Silence Lotto aren't the smartest heads in the game. Considering that they let Horner go (against the wishes of their only GC rider), employed Kohl and then Dekker and announced Evans was doing the Giro without clearing it with him first to run a GC team, they obviously have no idea how to make the transistion from a classics team. I would go as far as saying that in recent years the sucess of McEwen has allowed arrogrance to seep in. Afterall what other team management would go to a grand tour with a team unable to defend the yellow jersy knowing full well that they would probably be in situation to do so (2008)? No idea why Evans stayed with Silence Lotto, for his fans the only hope is that aonther teams buys out his contract ... or bring on the tour 2011, when he hopefully is on a very different team. Kudos to Evans for tyring though, can't think of many other dual podium place getters at the tour in recent years to do it with such a weak team.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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J VdB really hasn't helped evans a whole lot. IMHO he seems to be interested in personal glory at this year's tour. Llyod is behind evans, but really hasn't been the soilder i thought he might be for cadel. His team is as weak as ever, and he isn't a good enough climber to di it on his own.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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TibetT said:
Like many I have been surprised by Cadel's 'supposed' comments. Having said that it has been obvious for some time that the managment at Silence Lotto aren't the smartest heads in the game. Considering that they let Horner go (against the wishes of their only GC rider), employed Kohl and then Dekker and announced Evans was doing the Giro without clearing it with him first to run a GC team, they obviously have no idea how to make the transistion from a classics team. I would go as far as saying that in recent years the sucess of McEwen has allowed arrogrance to seep in. Afterall what other team management would go to a grand tour with a team unable to defend the yellow jersy knowing full well that they would probably be in situation to do so (2008)? No idea why Evans stayed with Silence Lotto, for his fans the only hope is that aonther teams buys out his contract ... or bring on the tour 2011, when he hopefully is on a very different team. Kudos to Evans for tyring though, can't think of many other dual podium place getters at the tour in recent years to do it with such a weak team.
no disrespect to evans, but I kinda really think of a stronger team then silence that would want Evans. I don't see Astana, Highroad, Columbia, Rabo, Liquigas, Cervelo, Saxo having any interest in him anytime soon... Maybe AG2R, but they really aren't that great either.
 
Apr 27, 2009
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Maybe the aussies will have a team by then LOL's. Actually I suspect the fact that the guy is not from one of the traditionally strong cycling nations has alot to do with his staying at Silence Lotto. Also agree can't see too many other teams taking an interest, maybe the new LA team, Sky will be focused in other directions, Katusha has some problems :), Garmin may be a good fit, but they now have Wiggins, Cassie well poor Cadel is not spanish, Milram roster is primarily german riders, Quickstep is a classics team... Lampre probably no better than Lotto.. If you look at the options outside of the above teams well he may not even get a tour start. Cadel needs to become very very good friends with LA... he should be re-retired by 2011!
 
Apr 11, 2009
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Right now, it looks like a Kawasaki "bike" is his best bet against, say, Alberto.

At least, there's an off-road dimension to it too; useful for some shortcuts on the course. :D

NB: more seriously, even if he's having a "bad" Tour, minus the distortion of the TTT, he's still ahead of the "old guy" Lance (finished ahead of him in initial TT and in BOTH mountain-top finishes so far). That's nothing to sneeze at. He's still strong despite all.

It's been tough for him, but by no means a disaster.
 
Jul 4, 2009
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Parrot23 said:
Right now, it looks like a Kawasaki "bike" is his best bet against, say, Alberto.

At least, there's an off-road dimension to it too; useful for some shortcuts on the course. :D

NB: more seriously, even if he's having a "bad" Tour, minus the distortion of the TTT, he's still ahead of the "old guy" Lance (finished ahead of him in initial TT and in BOTH mountain-top finishes so far). So he's still strong despite all.


LOL

Its all a bit sad really. He might just join the list of greatest riders never to win a tour. Theres hundreds of them. It just gets harder every year. If I had won the 100 million lotto, betchaarse, we would have had an aussie team in 2010.

Hes an interesting bloke, has certainly come out of his shell in recent tours. I am just hoping for a stage win somewhere along the way. He remains a sleeper, IMO his team is killing him.

Fingers crossed anyway. Ive followed him since junior MTB.
 
Apr 27, 2009
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Yep his tour is over.. nothing left to salvage. He had good form coming into the tour, rode a great TT and looked good untill stage 15. Some interesting points: team managment sarying he was feeling sick with stomach complaints, Evans syas he was not sick on stage 15 just suffering from politics and stress. Then you consider JVdBs ride in the last two stages... Starting to look like Evans might have been hinting at some very serious issues at Lotto - wouldn't ne a surprise after the TTT.....
 
Why would Garmin want him? They have an impressive duo with Wiggins and Vande Velde, both of whom are Top 10 GC riders at the moment. Evans, at this point, isn't a step up from either.

Wiggins success at this tour speaks for itself, while Evans was only a crash on a descent away from Vande Velde possibly overtaking him on the final TT last year.

Evans is now 6 minutes back of Wiggins and 3 or 4 minutes back of Vande Velde, who most people gave no chance to this year, but has fought back from his Giro injuries.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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badboyberty said:
Yeah, starting to suspect management value a Belgium stage win more than a foreign podium place. Might explain Van Amaert's inclusion in the Tour squad.


maybe they were realistic enough to see a podium place wasn't an option this year.
 
Jun 18, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
There's not enough variation on the Ventoux, and as we're likely to see wind, we'll also likely see Astana try to control the climb, as it's quite possible they'll have four of the top five positions at that time.

If I were Cadel, here's what I would do. But he's going to have to plan it. First, look at some profiles: First, Let's look at Stage 16:

PROFIL.gif


Two huge climbs over the Grand then Petite St. Bernard climbs. If I were Cadel, I'd fake an early attack on the first climb, knowing I'd be caught. I'd then take it easy on that stage as much as possible, and purposefully drop back a few seconds on the second climb, and roll into the finish in Bourg-Saint Maurice looking exhausted, and a little back. Say, losing another 4-5 seconds. I might even go to the media and give interviews saying that you spent yourself on the first climb and have never been so tired in your life. But are not going to quit, and will attack again if you can, all the way to Paris.

Both the actions, and the words is to set-up the impression that you're still going to try to attack, but you are done, and don't have it.

Then, I'd get a good night's sleep, knowing I have a great plan in store for the next day. Here's stage 17:

PROFIL.gif


This stage is the final mountain stage before the ITT in Annecy, so riders are not going to want to waste themselves. We're likely to see an Astana train leading as long as possible here, with fliers from little knowns going off.

If I were Cadel, I'd ride in the mid-front of the group all day until they hit the Col du Romme, which is probably the toughest climb of the day. I'd attack here, about half-way up, as it's probably his best chance to get away. Someone may be ahead of him, or someone else may attack further down, either way, he has to time it right, and go. Others will probably think it's too far out, that he's too far back, and that after he attacked and wilted the day before, he'll wilt here too. And who's going to want to risk wearing themselves out at this point chasing, when the ITT is tomorrow? This would leave Cadel with about 15km of tough climbing where he'd have to ride his guts out, before the descent into Le Grand-Bornand.

He's not going to make up enough time on the ITT, and likely not on the Ventoux. But if he does it here, he could put himself into serious contention, or even the lead. He may lose time on the ITT, but it's his strength, and he should be able to contain that.

Comments anyone? Happy to hear other suggestions.

Bump. Alpe called Cadel's strategy perfectly. Discuss!
 
Jun 18, 2009
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perico said:
..... Evans was only a crash on a descent away from Vande Velde possibly overtaking him on the final TT last year.

2008 TdF final general clasification:
1 Carlos Sastre 87h 52' 52"
2 Cadel Evans + 58"
3 Bernhard Kohl + 1' 13"
4 Denis Menchov + 2' 10"
5 Christian Vandevelde + 3' 05"

I don't understand this comment... care to explain?
 
Cobber said:
2008 TdF final general clasification:
1 Carlos Sastre 87h 52' 52"
2 Cadel Evans + 58"
3 Bernhard Kohl + 1' 13"
4 Denis Menchov + 2' 10"
5 Christian Vandevelde + 3' 05"

I don't understand this comment... care to explain?

Vande Velde crashed on the descent down to the finish line of stage 15 and ended up losing roughly 3 1/2 minutes. He had actually been dropped on the climb, but limited his losses to around 15 seconds behind the Evans group at the summit.

If he hadn't crashed, then there would've been roughly around 30 seconds difference seperating the two riders going into the final TT, where Vande Velde ended up beating Evans by at least 30 seconds.

Would've could've, of course, but the next day he had no trouble staying in the lead group, and even attacked Evans, Menchov on the climb to Alpe d'huez.
 
Jul 6, 2009
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ak-zaaf said:
4-5 seconds loss??

he said look exhausted, not be exhausted.

He just needs a couple of Landis's pure testosterone beers tonight, then attack on the Col de Saisses and ride away 8 minutes in front of everyone else for the next 120km. No problem. Worked for Floyd.
 
Mar 16, 2009
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What was the crybaby Evans referring to today when he got dropped like a wet turd and complained that it wasn't his form but he couldn't comment for professional reasons? His team is feeding him lead pellets? Using the dark shadow of Omerta? Sorry but Wiggo/VadeVelde are riding all over him...anyone....Bueller....anyone?
 

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