Official thread TdF Stage 14 Colmar - Besançon - 199 km

[BroDeal]

It will be funny if someone from Garmin has a few choice words.

This could be like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

 

[klodifan]

I think a lot of you are missing the subtext of what George said to Frankie. He is ****ed at Astana, particularly LA, because he tipped him in stage 3. Now that George had his chance to wear yellow, LA didnt pay back the favor. Watch the interview again.

 

[Carl0880]

Garmin hate Columbia and vice versa. It was an opportunity for them to get one back over Columbia and frankly I don't blame them.

My question is why did Silence pull for about a half of a km around the 2k mark. Looked like Wegelius on the front, with Cadel 2nd wheel.

Some interesting tactics.

 

[BroDeal]

I think a lot of you are missing the subtext of what George said to Frankie. He is ****ed at Astana, particularly LA, because he tipped him in stage 3. Now that George had his chance to wear yellow, LA didnt pay back the favor. Watch the interview again.

LA stabs another friend in the back. Big surprise.

And fwizzlefwy goes nuts in three...two...one...

 

[Cobber]

He didn't deserve anything. Cav was asked what the others needed to do to beat him a couple of days ago and he said something to the effect of "Cross the line before I do." Well, if George wanted the yellow, he should have ridden 7 seconds faster than he did. End of story.

+1 He was pretty passive over the last 5k. He should have time triealed to the finish instead of blaming everyone but himself. Ivanov couldn't stand up at the finish, Hincapie wasn't even out of breath.

 

[Cobber]

My question is why did Silence pull for about a half of a km around the 2k mark. Looked like Wegelius on the front, with Cadel 2nd wheel.

Some interesting tactics.

Payback for stage 8 is the only thing I can think of.

 

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of you are missing the subtext of what George said to Frankie. He is ****ed at Astana, particularly LA, because he tipped him in stage 3. Now that George had his chance to wear yellow, LA didnt pay back the favor. Watch the interview again.

I don't think he realized how much Garmin did in the last few km when he gave the interview. He is correct about Astana in that it was not their responsibility to pull today. That should have been on AG2R and Astana decided to make sure it stayed close. It looked to me like without Garmin's help at the end, George is in yellow. I think once he gets all the details of the stage, his anger will shift a bit.

I for one am happy about it. Good for Garmin.

 

[BroDeal]

+1 He was pretty passive over the last 5k. He should have time triealed to the finish instead of blaming everyone but himself. Ivanov couldn't stand up at the finish, Hincapie wasn't even out of breath.

That whole chase group was a joke. Some real gamesmanship there as they tried to outwit each other to take second place.

 

[benpounder]

Yeah, I mean, they did pull for an entire kilometer, Astana only pulled for 2 hours

Astana let the lead grow from 5 minutes to 8.5 before AG2R took over. Also remember the similar stage in 2001 where a large break took 35 minutes on the peloton (on similar roads - into Strasbourg I think). It took Lance a number of days (not until the Pyrenees) until he was back in yellow. Why let the break gain that much time again. And third, George is no rookie - he is a strong rider - why let him get a 5+ minute head start.

As to why Garmin pulled at the end? Payback for Cav's comments at the beginning of the Giro. I suspect had they won the TTT last week, they wouldn't have felt so compelled.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Cavendish relegated to 154th, in the process.
So, in trying to give George a day in yellow, they've screwed up the pursuit of green.
Hushovd now has an 18 point lead.....

 

[Anonymous]

Cavendish relegated to 154th, in the process.
So, in trying to give George a day in yellow, they've screwed up the pursuit of green.
Hushovd now has an 18 point lead.....

"The World's Most Pissed Off Cycling Team"

 

[Publicus]

Cavendish relegated to 154th, in the process.
So, in trying to give George a day in yellow, they've screwed up the pursuit of green.
Hushovd now has an 18 point lead.....

Karma can be a real [female dog] sometimes. So much for wearing green in Paris.

 

[Cobber]

Cavendish relegated to 154th, in the process.
So, in trying to give George a day in yellow, they've screwed up the pursuit of green.
Hushovd now has an 18 point lead.....

Anyone have a link to the bunch sprint? I wan't to see what he did as I dodn't get a good look at it earlier (probably typing something here )

 

[Carl0880]

I don't think he realized how much Garmin did in the last few km when he gave the interview. He is correct about Astana in that it was not their responsibility to pull today. That should have been on AG2R and Astana decided to make sure it stayed close. It looked to me like without Garmin's help at the end, George is in yellow. I think once he gets all the details of the stage, his anger will shift a bit.

I for one am happy about it. Good for Garmin.

It was definately frustration talking, and of course the team he heard on the race radio on the front was Astana for most of the day. Like it was said earlier I only recall seeing Rast and Murayev on the front, so it wasn't like Astana threw several guys on the front, just the 2 workhorses. If anyone knows of Hincapie capabilities, it would be Bruyneel. He kept it peg around the 8 minute mark, so he obviously wasn't comfortable giving him anymore knowing that he could stay close on the less severe climbs and can TT well.

The reference to stage 8.. are you referring to when the group asked Cadel to get so it could be the day's breakaway. . If that is the reason, sounds more petty then Garmin's reason, but I have learn that nothing surprises me in this tour.

 

[Cobber]

The reference to stage 8.. are you referring to when the group asked Cadel to get so it could be the day's breakaway. . If that is the reason, sounds more petty then Garmin's reason, but I have learn that nothing surprises me in this tour.

I would agree if Cadel hadn't initiated the breakaway.

 

[Delicato]

My question is why did Silence pull for about a half of a km around the 2k mark. Looked like Wegelius on the front, with Cadel 2nd wheel.

Some interesting tactics.

Just making sure that Evans won't lose any time in the chaos of the bunch sprint, not a big deal.

 

[Connor Pass]

Anyone have a link to the bunch sprint? I wan't to see what he did as I dodn't get a good look at it earlier (probably typing something here )

No link but I'm not surprised he's been DQd. It was just as they were going around the last bend and Hushovd was just behind Cav - Cav swerved towards the barrier closing off Husovd so he had to slow down. It was pretty dangerous and pretty obvious too. Hushovd did very well to actually get second in the sprint.

 

[weremichael]

Pretty disappointed in Johan and Jonathan

I have to say the tactics of Garmin and Astana were pretty malicious today. I understand that cycling is a sport so people are excused from being cooperative, but that was pretty crappy tactics. The interview with George after the stage really showed just how heart broken and disappointed he was.

 

[benpounder]

Karma can be a real [female dog] sometimes. So much for wearing green in Paris.

Columbia got greedy. Instead of working to secure green for Cav, the team let Hindcapie go off on a really solid break. George, being the pro he is, should have realized the implications of his move.

 

[Anonymous]

I have to say the tactics of Garmin and Astana were pretty malicious today. I understand that cycling is a sport so people are excused from being cooperative, but that was pretty crappy tactics. The interview with George after the stage really showed just how heart broken and disappointed he was.

If by "crappy" you mean "well deserved" then I agree...

 

[Cobber]

The interview with George after the stage really showed just how heart broken and disappointed he was.

As someone said earlier.. you reap what you sow. Columbia (particularly Cav) doesn't go out of their way to be friends with much of the rest of the peleton and it came back to bite them.

 

[MKirilenko]

lmao @ the tweet argument about GH yellow's. Heck, if peleton have wanted it could have given the YJ to van Hummel, but it wouldnt mean he deserved it, would it? 5 lousy seconds, George could have gone flatout like Ivanov, but no, blame the garmin pulling, cmon.

 

[Animal]

Why did Garmin chase? They didn't really need to, GH isn't a GC threat to Wiggo. And Astana didn't need to help that much too. A little maybe, AG2R were just folding under the pressure. But they could have let GH have his day in yellow.

And that sprint didn't look bad to me compared with other TdF sprints I've seen. Hushovd went in a gap betwen Cav and the barrier, that wasn't going to work.

 

[Animal]

Trrue Kirilenko, I was yelling at the screen because he was just fucking about really.

 

[Delicato]

He didn't deserve anything. Cav was asked what the others needed to do to beat him a couple of days ago and he said something to the effect of "Cross the line before I do." Well, if George wanted the yellow, he should have ridden 7 seconds faster than he did. End of story.

Yep, I agree that the Columbia tactics was pretty lame, however by the "he deserved to wear the MJ" I meant that Hincapie deserved to be in a yellow for one day at Le Tour, after all, this is his 14th Tour! Yet, he didnt dig deep into his suitcase of courage.