Dauphine Libere - Prologue - 6th June

[joy118118]

Van Garderen, new best time. Well done "kid" (like I'm any older )

surprise you are still younge

 

[Libertine Seguros]

But luckily, without the "I'm awesome. Everyone should kiss the ground I step on. That wreck totally wasn't my fault" attitude.

Hahaha. At least he wasn't Paul Tracy. That guy was a wazzock. "I'll just pull out of this escape road without looking *SMACK* that wasn't my fault. In fact, the other guy who I hit cos I didn't look is a *** because he wouldn't fight me". Next week "I'll just banzai up the side of the championship leader with no chance of even getting close to making the pass *SMACK* that wasn't my fault. In fact, that guy WOULD fight me but he's a *** cos he wouldn't take his crash helmet off."

To be fair to Bourdais, in Champ Car he WAS awesome. Irritating, whining, moaning and crying, but he was still awesome. Then in F1 he had terrible luck from the get-go, and because he's such a whiner, it's very hard to motivate him when things aren't going right.

He and Madrazo are still dorks. File Daniel Vettori under that heading too.

 

[issoisso]

Hahaha. At least he wasn't Paul Tracy. That guy was a wazzock. "I'll just pull out of this escape road without looking *SMACK* that wasn't my fault. In fact, the other guy who I hit cos I didn't look is a *** because he wouldn't fight me". Next week "I'll just banzai up the side of the championship leader with no chance of even getting close to making the pass *SMACK* that wasn't my fault. In fact, that guy WOULD fight me but he's a *** cos he wouldn't take his crash helmet off."

To be fair to Bourdais, in Champ Car he WAS awesome. Irritating, whining, moaning and crying, but he was still awesome. Then in F1 he had terrible luck from the get-go, and because he's such a whiner, it's very hard to motivate him when things aren't going right.

He and Madrazo are still dorks. File Daniel Vettori under that heading too.

Tracy's just an *** pure and simple
That "pass" attempt was beyond ***. Braking that late is ridiculous, but on concrete? That was a Webber-like level of retardation.

Bourdais has the talent but not the mindset. Either it's going his way, or he'll whine.

Who the heck is Daniel Vettori?


Anyway.....back to cycling. I was hoping Madrazo would show something last year, but nope. So I was hoping he'd show something this year. Nothing. Not even the slightest glimmer of a glimpse of a result.

Sure, he's one of the youngest guys in the peloton, and he doesn't tend to ride many races that suit him, but surely he'd show something, somewhere? For example, in youth categories he was pretty reasonable in the TT (the one place where you'd expect him not to show something, since he doesn't have to work for anyone else), but so far he's yet to even be decent in one as a pro.

 

[craig1985]

Tracy's just an *** pure and simple
That "pass" attempt was beyond ***. Braking that late is ridiculous, but on concrete? That was a Webber-like level of retardation.

Bourdais has the talent but not the mindset. Either it's going his way, or he'll whine.

Who the heck is Daniel Vettori?


Anyway.....back to cycling. I was hoping Madrazo would show something last year, but nope. So I was hoping he'd show something this year. Nothing. Not even the slightest glimmer of a glimpse of a result.

Sure, he's one of the youngest guys in the peloton, and he doesn't tend to ride many races that suit him, but surely he'd show something, somewhere? For example, in youth categories he was pretty reasonable in the TT (the one place where you'd expect him not to show something, since he doesn't have to work for anyone else), but so far he's yet to even be decent in one as a pro.

This can explain more

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bourdais has the talent but not the mindset. Either it's going his way, or he'll whine.

Sébastien Bourdais = Cadel Evans. Only Sébi has won lots.

Who the heck is Daniel Vettori?

Bespectacled, fantasy book-reading New Zealand cricket captain.

Anyway.....back to cycling. I was hoping Madrazo would show something last year, but nope. So I was hoping he'd show something this year. Nothing. Not even the slightest glimmer of a glimpse of a result.

So far this year he has raced:

2 races in the Trofeo Mallorca
the Volta ao Algarve
GP dell'Insubria (with Rojas and Urán in the front group he didn't need to show much)
Giro del Friuli (sprint)
GP Cholet-Pays de la Loire (sprint)
Gent-Wevelgem (grupetto)
GP Miguel Indurain (well down the order)
Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire (teammate won, very few riders per team, sacrificed himself as a domestique for LLS)
Paris-Roubaix (DNF)
GP Llodio (showed nothing)
Vuelta a La Rioja (well down the order)
Quatre Jours du Dunkerque (well down the order, teammates 2nd and 3rd, flat)
Tour de Picardie (miles down the order)

From looking at the races he's been entered into, there's only a couple - Algarve, Llodio, GP Big Mig and La Rioja - where you could reasonably expect him to show anything. Hopefully as the season wears on he'll get a bit of freedom to try something, somewhere like Burgos perhaps. Maybe Caisse should go to the Volta a Portugal (haha! ha! hahaha! ha! Oh, I wish).

 

[Christian]

Big congrats to Van Garderen, that's an excellent result. I think it's true what someone said about him in the thread about Taylor Phinney - he (TJ VG) will be the next American GC rider, not Phinney. Plus, he gets much less exposure on cyclingnews, which is a very good thing.

Luxembourger Ben Gastauer (who rides for AG2R now) beat him in last year's Tour des Pays de Savoie in their last year as U23 riders - there you can see how some riders adapt better and faster to the pros than others, cause Gastauer has been unable to get any results this season. Hopefully next year!

 

[Angliru]

I appreciate that it's nice to see a grand tour GC rider who goes all-out to win in every race he enters, but I don't think Contador is necessarily completely unique in that aspect, and frankly I got bored of seeing him win everything with ease about when he showed up to the Giro from vacation and slaughtered everyone.

I hope you realize that he didn't actually "slaughter everyone". He never won a mountain top finish stage as he usually does and was consistently falling behind his competition on the climbs although he limited his losses and was saved by his performance in the ITT's. His racing history shows that he generally maintains a high level of competitive fitness throughout the season.
By the way the post that you were responding to did say that "unlike most of his competitors", so he in no way implied that Contador was unique in being competitive in every race he enters. Evans and Valverde also should be mentioned in that category.