Carboncrank said:
I wouldn't have been as interested but still, with Levi and Kloden and with Horner on the team it would have still been in the realm.
I've admitted that I began rooting for Lance just a few months ago when the real lance hating vitriol ramped up on the forums. I knew it was absurd. He was as good as his record and he proved it. Sweeping the podium would have been rubbing their faces in it, so sure that's what I had hoped for.
Don't forget stage 7. Switch the tables and have Lance attacking in that situation and a lot of Lance fans would have been jumping up and down cheering, but the team would have seen it the same way.
But mostly 17. If he had just marked the Schlecks and Kloden got a breather? I wonder if being told Lance was bridging up had anything to do with it?
Was the podium a long shot? yes, but AC's attack came just when things were getting interesting. Who was going to win the Tour was concluded by then. All he had to do was defend.
Your right all he had to do was defend, silly attack but as I said, its a 3 week race and everybody makes mistakes including Lance, maybe if Kloeden had not towed Lance at Verbier or rode a good TT, he might have made the podium also but probably at the expense of Lance, there are a few variables other than just that one attack by Contador.
There was no way Lance was gonna close an almost 3 minute gap. I know he closed a gap on a previous stage but that was more down to the front group slowing and lower down the climb, with a less severe gradient. On that climb, not realistic.
The Schlecks were setting a good pace beforehand and continued to do the same after the attack. Do you think Nibali would have closed the gap as well if Lance was going so fast, they would have needed to be going a lot faster than the Schlecks and they were not. If Contador was worried, he would have kept attacking, which happened first, Contador attacking or Lance attacking Wiggins, I honestly thought the Contador attack happened first, could be wrong on that.
Bruyneel set his team up in a certian manner for so long but this year, he decided to reverse that approach for no apparent reason. I mean every man and his dog had AC down as favourite this year, most thought the only reason he didnt win last year was because he wasnt there, the heaviest favourite since Lance in his pomp yet his team failed to back him from the start even though he was obviously in great shape. If your objective is to win the Tour, everything else should be secondary. Who remembers T-Mobile loading their team for Ullrich at the expense of Zabel shooting for the Green jersey.
My own thougths are base your allegiances based on personal opinions, not in response to what others think about riders. I dont like Lance, my opinions are based on following his career from the start and what I find acceptable/unacceptable in cycling, not what others think of Lance. His actions & behaviour turned me away from him long ago and I just got tired of the amount of coverage he receives in comparison to others in the sport. I like the sport overall, not one rider so I dont want to hear about one rider all the time.
I stay off topics like family, his cancer work(even though he has abused it in his comeback) or what art he likes. I just think his presence turns the sport into a circus and his twittering is complete media whoring and then there are too many fans that cannot accept he is less than perfect and cannot distingiush between Lance the cancer/cycling hero and Lance the jerk guy. Although there are plenty of haters who cannot do so either.
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