Did we miss the shack?

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of quotes but this one got my attention the most.

Methinks the Vuelta organizers will be made to look rather silly... and the rest of you as well.
Radioshack will place at least 3 riders in the top 10 GC at Tour de France. Perhaps 4 from this list:

Lance Armstrong
Andreas Klöden
Levi Leipheimer
Chris Horner
Janez Brajkovic
Sergio Paulinho
Yaroslav Popovych
Gregory Rast
Dmitriy Muravyev

So did we miss them? In retrospect did the organisers make the right decision.. What would shack have added?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Leipheimer accelerating and then getting blown past by half the top 10
(like Montreal)

 

[TheDude]

I think Kloden and Horner in the top 10 mix. No way Levi or Lance would have brought an A game.

 

[hrotha]

Zubeldia would have been 6th and invisible. Machado would have been 29th and fairly spectacular.

 

[pugdog]

Machado, Horner, Brajkovic and Zubeldia. Yes I missed them.

 

[Hugh Januss]

They weren't there? No wonder it wasn't telecast on Versus!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

After Gilbert's and Antón's first stage wins, I completely forgot about the Shack not being there. In fact, you starting this article just reminded me they weren't there for the first time in ages.

Yea, Machado would have been a lot of fun, but in the same way that Fuglsang was last year - probably done well in a mountain stage and some intermediate stages from escapes.

 

[Moondance]

Not really.

 

[Race Radio]

Levi just lost the National TT to a 19 year old kid. Does anyone really think he would have been anything but pack filler at the Vuelta?

 

[khardung la]

Not at all. Maybe Machado and Zubeldia, but nothing that Roche, Tondo, Rodriguez or Gilbert (and a bunch of others) did not provide anyway.

 

[Francois the Postman]

No. But the same can be said for some teams that were there. Rabo springs to mind.

 

[cyclingfanatik]

I'd emphatically say "NO", but when compared to Sky, (there was no other real option to be snubbed, other than Garmin I suppose) I admit I would rather enjoyed seeing Brajkovic go for a mountain break and prefer seeing Horner, Zubeldia and Kloden all placing at least as high as Sastre in the final classification.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd emphatically say "NO", but when compared to Sky, (there was no other real option to be snubbed, other than Garmin I suppose) I admit I would rather enjoyed seeing Brajkovic go for a mountain break and prefer seeing Horner, Zubeldia and Kloden all placing at least as high as Sastre in the final classification.

I dont think we can really compare with sky bearing in mind they spent a week with the riders down with a virus and then withdrew from the race.

 

[Mellow Velo]

I'm sure that fans of the Shack, if they watched this race, will have missed their presence.
However, to the impartial viewer, their exclusion will be irrelevant.

We have final GC that is very short on big names, but have had the best Vuelta in years.

 

[offbyone]

Machado, Horner, Brajkovic and Zubeldia. Yes I missed them.

Yep. It was a great race, but I think there were a lot of teams there that didn't take it very seriously and these guys would have really added to the GC battle.

 

[issoisso]

Quite honestly, this topic just reminded me they were excluded for the first time in over three weeks.

Says everything from my point of view

 

[icefire]

I haven't missed them. I have struggled to notice some who were in as well. Next year won't be better. GTs will be forced to invite the 17 best teams leaving them one less wildcard than this year. Many of those 17 won't have a roster good enough or interested to be competitive in the 3 GTs, but few of those will be earnest enough to decline an invitation. They know pubs are open till very late in Spain.

 

[Anonymous]

I haven't missed them. I have struggled to notice some who were in as well. Next year won't be better. GTs will be forced to invite the 17 best teams leaving them one less wildcard than this year. Many of those 17 won't have a roster good enough or interested to be competitive in the 3 GTs, but few of those will be earnest enough to decline an invitation. They know pubs are open till very late in Spain.

It does create an unfortunate situation. for instance RS didnt want to ride the giro next year so if they are forced to what will they do, send a bunch of nobodies and devalue the race completely. I think the vuelta made the right decision, but you raise a good point.

 

[alanshearer]

No. Radioshack wasn't missed.

This was a very good Vuelta. Had Radioshack been there, the top 10 may have changed, some stage results may have been a bit different, but it still would have been a very good Vuelta.

But I also think the same could have been said had any of the teams that got an invite been excluded. Take one of them out, and we still have a very good Vuelta. In fact, when looking at entertainment and excitement factors alone, I think Gilbert was the only rider whose absence would have made a difference.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I haven't missed them. I have struggled to notice some who were in as well. Next year won't be better. GTs will be forced to invite the 17 best teams leaving them one less wildcard than this year. Many of those 17 won't have a roster good enough or interested to be competitive in the 3 GTs, but few of those will be earnest enough to decline an invitation. They know pubs are open till very late in Spain.

Someone is claiming in another thread that the 17 teams thing won't apply next year because of a last minute deal with the GT organisers. That seems unlikely to me, but we are talking about the UCI so few chaotic stupidities are impossible.

Assuming that the 17 team thing is in effect, who other than Radioshack won't be able to send a decent team to three GTs out of those teams? That's a serious question by the way, not a rhetorical one.

 

[tgsgirl]

Quite honestly, this topic just reminded me they were excluded for the first time in over three weeks.

Says everything from my point of view

Same here.

 

[icefire]

Someone is claiming in another thread that the 17 teams thing won't apply next year because of a last minute deal with the GT organisers. That seems unlikely to me, but we are talking about the UCI so few chaotic stupidities are impossible.

Assuming that the 17 team thing is in effect, who other than Radioshack won't be able to send a decent team to three GTs out of those teams? That's a serious question by the way, not a rhetorical one.

The issue of how to determine which teams enter a race automatically can make for a neverending discussion because of the different views of teams, organisers and fans (although our views don't matter to decision makers). I also recall discussions about the number of riders that countries send to the Worlds and how some countries send 9 riders and then their best placed man ends 50th.

Likewise, we can discuss which teams can send decent rosters to all GTs. I prefer not to enter that path, but most will agree on a few names in the list of those with automatic invites up to this year that have proved they couldn't. Some of then couldn't send a decent team to any single GT based on their results, and I'm not counting Radioshack in this list.

My personal view is that giving automatic invites using a points based system is an improvement over the situation in place so far. But as long as all points have the same value regardless of where they were won, the system is likely to work only for one race in July. I think that the system might be improved if for each race they take into account somehow as a plus the points won in past editions of that particular race. Those sending stagiaires or nightly riders and not getting results will have less points to enter next year. Don't expect the boneheads ruling the sport to come out with something like that.

 

[peloton]

for the famous team classification?

Nah, Katusha and CdE battled it out in style.

 

[Mambo95]

No we haven't missed the Shack. And as a Sky fan, I'll say that we haven't really missed them either.

But on the flip side, have we noticed Rabobank, Lampre, Milram, Footon, BBox or Astana?

 

[peloton]

No we haven't missed the Shack. And as a Sky fan, I'll say that we haven't really missed them either.

But on the flip side, have we noticed Rabobank, Lampre, Milram, Footon, BBox or Astana?

yes if you followed the race.