How important is it to stay in the front?

[Angliru]

I'm certainly not saying he should have been at the front for the entire stage, but the last 20-30k yes, he needs to be up there.

I think we all can agree with that over the course of the last 20k postioning near the front is a never ending battle, with an ebb and flow that results in constant losing and gaining of position. It seemed to me that Contador was let down by his team. At the time of the crash and in the chase to get back with the lead group Contador appeared to be relatively isolated with maybe 2 or 3 teammates at most. This leads me to believe that at the time of the crash he was likely limited in the support he had to get him to the front and keep him there.

 

[Derrick]

How important is it to stay at the front? Not important at all. Look at Cavendish , he never sees the front, except with 150 to go of course.

 

[Oldman]

I think we all can agree with that over the course of the last 20k postioning near the front is a never ending battle, with an ebb and flow that results in constant losing and gaining of position. It seemed to me that Contador was let down by his team. At the time of the crash and in the chase to get back with the lead group Contador appeared to be relatively isolated with maybe 2 or 3 teammates at most. This leads me to believe that at the time of the crash he was likely limited in the support he had to get him to the front and keep him there.

That's a good point. I wonder if he has an abundance of light-weight climber types that can't hold position well. BMC, Leopard each have some burly guys that can command some space for their leader. Granted that advantage flops on the mountain stages but the crashes seem more disastrous on these early flat events.