andrew_s said:
It's not as useful as people make it out to be, but it's quite handy depending on the circumstance. Say Contador and Wiggins are in the lead together going up the final mountain, then what Contador will do is attack violently to get a gap. This is because if he didn't accelerate and just rode a hard tempo Wiggins would latch onto his wheel and be pulled up, and Contador wouldn't want that. So attack violently to get a gap, then each rider will have to ride tt up that mountain by himself with no one being advantaged by riding on the others wheel.
In the case of Contador vs Team Sky, it's not as handy. Why? Contador will attack violently to obtain a gap, then ride up the mountain at a hard tempo to try and ride away. Meanwhile, Team Sky will accelerate slowly until their tempo exceeds that of Contador and slowly drag him back. What will hurt though is that while Contador is putting in a lot of work trying to ride away, Wiggins will be having an easier ride behind Porte, Rogers and Froome in the peloton.
However, if Contador violently accelerates away with 3 or 4 other genuine contenders and they gap team Sky, that will hurt. Because you'd bet on a group that consists of Contador, Schleck and Sanchez to be able to ride a hard tempo up a mountain quicker and for longer than Team Sky.
...And now I've forgotten the point I was originally trying to make
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