El Pistolero said:I said, I doubt Roche stood still for 4 minutes waiting for a new wheel.
There is a difference between getting a wheel, chasing up to a group and hanging on the back... and riding solo up the mountain.
Roche was by himself once the neutral service car got him a wheel.
If he was hanging with a group further up the road then the one Gadret was hanging on with, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that with a quick wheel change he'd be able to hang on to the group Gadret was with (at 3:55). If not then maybe the next one back (the Kreuziger/Armstrong/Kloden/Rodriguez/Sastre group at 4:08).
But instead all of those riders passed him, along with the next bunch including LuLu, Basso, Lloyd, Garate, Plaza and Horner at 5:44, and he chased solo.
I don't think I'm stretching all that much. When Evans had his neutral service fiasco at the Vuelta a few years back, he was only off his bike for what... 45 seconds? Maybe less? But he lost a minute and a half because he had to chase solo and burnt himself out... and the part he was chasing on was not as mountainous. I'm sure Gadret not giving up the wheel didn't result in Roche waiting on the side of the road for 4 additional minutes. That doesn't mean it didn't cost him 4 minutes worth of time.