hiero2 said:Sling mud at de Gendt? Not my intention - but it might seem that way, I'll admit. No, it is that his performance - vs that of everyone else's on the stage - reminds me too much of other "marvelous" performances I have seen in the past. Landis, Pantani, Vino - they all seemed to find that little extra to make a performance that is "too good to be true". Listen to Sean Kelly on Eurosport as it happens, if you can find it on youtube. He was thinking it was a "too good to be true" kind of performance.
Landis, Pantani and Vino all did those things while being marked though, that's completely different from having the chase group not bothering for ages. If they were going full gas, how exactly did all their domestiques magically catch up?
If I can find it on Eurosport? I take it you didn't actually bother watching the video where the entire favourites group stops riding, since that was Eurosport on Youtube. Sean Kelly would never make insinuations about doping - he is notorious for falling silent when it is discussed.
Hiero said:But I am not the only one saying that Basso and Rodriquez had no bullets left - or Basso and Liquigas at least. VdV said the same in an interview
from velonews /2012/06/ vande-velde-we-won-the-giro-with-chip-on-our-shoulders
Basso sucked, yes. That was a theme throughout the three weeks, not just on this stage. Rodríguez attacked Hesjedal late on, in fact the more pulling Hesjedal did, to more effective a Rodríguez attack was going to be.
On the other hand, I find evidence from VdV that de Gendt is indeed a young and promising rider who just happened to still have some juice left and decided to burn it up.
So, like I said, the ride still makes me suspicious. The contention that the pink jersey group was riding negatively after the Motirolo still holds no water with me. According to VdV, Katusha was riding negatively, but at the same time, when VdV was done pulling, NO OTHER lieutenants in that group had anything left to take over. They were cooked. But, the future will tell us true. I am more optimistic now - seeing that VdV noticed that De Gendt "was always there" - that he is a young rider who has juice and a future.
No other lieutenants in that group did take over. That is completely different from not being able to take over. They all knew their best chance was if Hesjedal was cooked, and they were all banking on him tiring himself out by chasing De Gendt. It's hardly surprising that they didn't send men forward to weaken themselves and ease the burden on Hesjedal. Watch the video I posted - they all just stop pedalling and start discussing who's going to take over. I would have been taking time out of them at points in that valley.