Is Schleck betting everything on the Tourmalet?

[sida-mot]

Maybe he just didn't have the legs for it yesterday. Seeing how much stronger Astana looks in the mountains it would make sense to attack as late in the race as possible though.

 

[Mellow Velo]

"I'm definitely an outside observer. Andy and Alberto are at the same level at the moment but Alberto has the advantage of the time trial. He will probably gain two and half minutes and that will difficult for Andy to get that. If I had a crystal ball, I'd say Alberto."

Guess who?

 

[LeakyBoat]

Maybe he just didn't have the legs for it yesterday. Seeing how much stronger Astana looks in the mountains it would make sense to attack as late in the race as possible though.

The counter-argument is that the longer AS leaves it, the more predictable it becomes.

 

[ttrider]

Im worried for contador due to the luxemburg tt championship win Andy got admittedly its a 4 man field but he beat Frank by maybe a minute? and we all know frank was really good in the suisse tt so maybe andy has made a massive improvement to and will not be that far off contador and better than we think..... add the yellow jersey effect and its very dodgy for contador to wait for the tt

 

[El Pistolero]

Im worried for contador due to the luxemburg tt championship win Andy got admittedly its a 4 man field but he beat Frank by maybe a minute? and we all know frank was really good in the suisse tt so maybe andy has made a massive improvement to and will not be that far off contador and better than we think..... add the yellow jersey effect and its very dodgy for contador to wait for the tt

Seriously, you're worried because he won the Luxemburg TT lol? And you're worried that Andy rode a better TT then Fränk? Fränk sucks even harder in TT then Andy...

 

[Archibald]

Thanks. It didn't seem to work well as a strategy, but I think they were unsure at the start if Schleck was done or not. AC's digs didn't look whole hearted to me. More like he was probing to see if he was ready to crack. I think AS refusal to share the work totally pised off AC. He shouldn't let the emotions bait him into useless efforts.

I was surprised that AC was constantly attacking like that. It's not like he needs to as he has the advantage.
Perhaps it plays into AS's hands should AC be constantly attacking like that and waste so much effort? Or is he confident that he can just grind AS down by doing such?

 

[LeakyBoat]

I was surprised that AC was constantly attacking like that. It's not like he needs to as he has the advantage.
Perhaps it plays into AS's hands should AC be constantly attacking like that and waste so much effort? Or is he confident that he can just grind AS down by doing such?

I’m not sure how serious those attacks were. I think AC knew how much he was going to push it, if he broke AS good, if not nothing lost.

 

[eljimberino]

Reading this thread, just realised how contained this tour has been. How long has Schleck been in yellow? A week?

Bring on the boys in green.

 

[nia O'Malley]

That's pretty cool really, the two best guys on top of the sport being best mates. Just wondering, does Andy speak Spanish? cause I know AC's English isn't too flash.

IIRC Andy speaks 7 languages.
Frank is the dumb one in the family with 5 languages only, though his english is much better than Andy's. (and bear that in mind if you watch Andy's interviews exclusively in english)

As for why on earth AC would need to speak english to talk to AS, this is a mystery, neither of them is english to start with, and english is not particularly a relevant language in pro cycling on the continent anyway.

AFAIK, only Lance Armstrong ever refused to speak french. Stephen Roche, Sean Kelly and Greg Lemond are entirely fluent french speakers. Any top rider on the tour is more or less expected to know french, or at the very least italian / spanish.

 

[The Hitch]

He is now.

 

[Anonymous]

He is now.

I must admit, I'm really, really looking forward to the Tourmalet.

I didn't really care which of these two won as I was just hoping for an attacking style race. But after today, I would really like to see Andy turn some serious screws to Bertie.

I don't know if that's in the cards, but man would it be fun to see Andy have about 1:20 lead on AC going in to the ITT.

 

[RedheadDane]

He is now.

And he'll be so ****ed!

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I doubt he dares to attack tomorrow

 

[Anonymous]

Well, we essentially have a non-racing stage 16 amongst the leaders which means stage 17 is where everything must happen if Schleck wants to take enough time to win.

So how do you see Stage 17 playing out? Does Astana let Voigt or O'grady go early? Does Astana mash all day to discourage Saxo from getting helpers up the road? Does Andy wait until the lower slopes of the Tourmalet or does he test AC earlier? If Schleck is able to drop AC will he be able to get enough time?

And what of the Menchov/Sanchez battle? Whom attacks first or do they wait for the ITT to sort it out?