Stage 18 Pinerolo-Galibier

[Ney the Viking]

By the way, I saw Frank taking a suppo yesterday. What was in it? He was yelling at the camera to go away... Doping in front of live TV? Wow. I'm guessing there was caffeine in it or something. But why would he be angry at the camera man?

The poor guy needed to put some chafing cream into his pants. I for one think its quite alright he didnt want pictures of himself with his hands buried in his pants on live telly. Give it a freaking break

 

[R.0.t.O]

There were enough of them not to have to be watt-monsters. Andy was helped by only one man and only for some time.

Please, do not feel sory for me, it is not needed or appreciated.

Your logic is wrong. You accept that he lost time on climb (he did, only at he very end) but not on the false flat and into the wind against group of men killing themselves and against flatout Evans? Really?

The gap came down almost immediately and pretty quickly once Evans committed to the chase. He had done a few turns before in the valley and on the lower slopes, but only rolling through to try to get a paceline going. Once it was clear noone would help then he got on with it and did a great job - the gap fell very consistently from over 4 minutes until stabilising for a while at just over 3, then dropping quickly to 2.30 as Schleck struggled on the steep bit above the tunnel.

There were a few problems for the bunch:
1. They were deliberately waiting for helpers to come back up, they didn't push too hard on the descent because they assumed Andy would be slowish downhill and would give time for the dom's to reappear and do the donkey work chasing
2. The dom's that arrived weren't the right guys for the job and didn't have the gas to do it properly.
3. Voeckler was playing a brave tactic of refusing to put his guys to ride. It was a good tactic from him but it also made everyone else nervous of committing since they didn't really know how good Voeckler was or wasn't.
4. As seen at the end, Evans (and presumably Fränk) was the only one properly strong enough to make a worthwhile chase and he couldn't do it until he was confident enough that nobody else could and he had no choice in the matter
5. There may also have been a feeling that they wanted to leave Andy out there. The worst case was burying themselves to get Andy back and then Fränk taking off and getting a minute fairly easily. For Evans the ideal situation would have been to close Andy's gap to about 1 minute and then leave him out there - quite easy to miscalculate the chase in that situation - he had BMC riders there but he may have been telling them not to go too hard because Evans wanted a biggish gap on the climb so he could put the hurt onto Basso, Cunego, Contador without actually quite catching Andy and giving Fränk the chance to go.

 

[Lanark]

He gained time on some flyweight's from Euskaltel (when an Euskaltel climber is on the front on a false flat section with head wind, you're lucky if you're not standing still) and Chris Anker Sörensen who was dropped already, but got back because of the slow pace. Even Uran, who fell on the descent, could get back to the peloton easily. The only people riding were tired domestiques who were dropped already and aren't made to ride a high pace on a section of road like this.

Meanwhile, on the front Montfort and Devenyns were working their asses off, and Andy Schleck himself was doing massive pulls. It's not surprising at all that they gained time, and as you would expect, Schleck lost a lot of time in the last kilometers for the work he did earlier.

 

[gerrans for the win]

is it normal to sweat powder? cose andy was ......... don't care for evans but it's unlucky he is going againts the biggests dopers ever ...

maybe he can take up a new sport? bird watching maybe

 

[thehog]

Even Roche thinks the performance was doped:


“Even if he had asked me to help, I would have been incapable even of taking a symbolic turn,” Roche admitted. “I was already very happy just to be able to stay on his wheel given that he was going so fast.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/roche-impressed-by-schlecks-galibier-ride

 

[samerics]

Even Roche thinks the performance was doped:


“Even if he had asked me to help, I would have been incapable even of taking a symbolic turn,” Roche admitted. “I was already very happy just to be able to stay on his wheel given that he was going so fast.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/roche-impressed-by-schlecks-galibier-ride

What? Where does he say that??? Ridiculous.

 

[roundabout]

Even Roche thinks the performance was doped:


“Even if he had asked me to help, I would have been incapable even of taking a symbolic turn,” Roche admitted. “I was already very happy just to be able to stay on his wheel given that he was going so fast.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/roche-impressed-by-schlecks-galibier-ride

Not that it means anything but Devenyns was able to do many symbolic turns.

Edit: ah, he must be talking about the point when both Schleck helpers had dropped off. Makes more sense.

 

[T_S_A_R]

Even Roche thinks the performance was doped:


“Even if he had asked me to help, I would have been incapable even of taking a symbolic turn,” Roche admitted. “I was already very happy just to be able to stay on his wheel given that he was going so fast.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/roche-impressed-by-schlecks-galibier-ride

perhaps roche is just a bit ****?

do you think he is accusing the other 17 guys who finished ahead of him as well?

 

[craig1985]

TBF neither Evans or Roche have actually said Schleck's ride was the result of doping.

 

[Highlander]

I felt the same as Roche the last time I got dropped on a group ride. Now I know that it wasn't because I wasn't good enough, but because everyone else was doping. Thanks for explaining this for me, so that I can sleep better tonight.

 

[craig1985]

I felt the same as Roche the last time I got dropped on a group ride. Now I know that it wasn't because I wasn't good enough, but because everyone else was doping. Thanks for explaining this for me, so that I can sleep better tonight.

Yeah I'm coming back from a broken collarbone and on my first ride in the hills on Tuesday morning I got dropped pretty quickly, and wasn't my lack of fitness, but the whole bunch, including a couple of guys who are masters racers, who quite obviously dope. I mean my flatmate was in the group ride and has liking for smoking a certain weed.