The official debate: Should Contador have waited for Schleck?

[CogCrazy]

Classy would have been to assert to Sanchez and Menchov the correctness of waiting for the yellow jersey. Where's a hyper-doped Hamilton when you need him???

Yes! Blast from the past...hyper doped Hamilton acting out the the exigesis of exogenous testosterone patches and assorted inner demons! I don't remember Armstrong waiting for Beloki on that stage or at least getting confirmation Beloki was out before proceeding in earnest. Joseba was Lance's most significant competition, at least at that moment and he was offered no quarter.

 

[Anonymous]

This is starting to go round in circles

I wonder how many thousand pages would have been written had the internet existed when Hinault required Lemond to wait for him, that day. <giggles>



I also am surprised no one has of yet emitted the hypothesis that Riis fixed Schleck's bike out of spite for leaving him soon and engineered Contador's win to make his future team look better. Are there no tinfoils on this forum?!?

Dude, THAT would have been an impressive thread indeed.

 

[scribe]

I am going to repeat myself: where were those who are slamming AC when Schleck attacked while his brother was on the ground? Did he wait for the favourites? NO

Racing on cobbles is hazard and part of the race. That is exactly why everyone was piling onto the front of the race. The hazards force the selection and become part of the race.

Did he wait for Maillot Jaune (Chavanel) who had mechanical problems as well during Arenberg stage? NO

Chavanel was not a race favorite and never will be. To continue the race without him does not cheapen the win in Paris.

Not to mention the day before the whole peloton waited for Andy when his TdF was pracitacally over...

The entire race was neutralized by the majority of teams because half the peloton was on the ground with significant injury. This is very rare and called for on that day.

so I believe Andy has no moral right to criticize Alberto who definately would have waited if the circumstances allowed him to... had he waited for AS, Menchov and Sánchez would have won at least a minute on them making it a 4-horse race for Maillot Jaune come the ITT
and I just add that Andy made a mistake today which caused the whole chaos

we all want drama and as a cycling fan I am obviously dissapointed taht only drama we have seen so far was Schleck´s controversial attack in Arenberg and the incident today... what I lacked so far is true cycling and less tactics

They could have waited at the top when it was clear the real group of racers was not gaining advantage on one another. But they continued to attack a mechanical for advantage. The race was decided here as AC took Schleck's mountain advantage away from him.

 

[TahoeNL]

YES!!!! what a hollow and stupid victory for Contador can he really be proud?? I hope he gets switched into a ditch

Welcome to the forum on your first post.
Please keep on enlightening us.
And don't forget to bring your Shrekster friends along!

Sartoris- you had a first post to once. Maybe this poor display of sportsmanship has stirred up some some real frustration. Part of the point of a forum like this is for people express their opinions (even if they differ from yours) I agree with AK - "Was'nt à nice Move from Alberto on this moment. But this is cycling now :-(" from Andreas Klöden.

 

[Publicus]

I don't think the comparison between what happened on today's stage and what happened on the cobblestone stage is entirely valid. On the cobblestones the most important think for a rider to do is to be at the front going into the cobbled section in part to reduce the risk of getting caught behind a crash. Andy Schleck ended up at the front not just by pure luck but because Saxo was drilling the pace at the front going into the cobblestones and had Schleck perfectly positioned at the front. Contador and others were caught behind the crash in part because they and their teams were not aggressive enough in getting them into the right position for the cobbles.

Isn't the most important thing to do when laying down an attack in the mountains to shift properly? If I understand this situation correctly, this was a mistake by Andy. Just like it was a mistake by AC to allow himself to be caught out at the back of the pack.

 

[nia O'Malley]

Dude, THAT would have been an impressive thread indeed.

I think the inarnets would have imploded, clean and simple.

 

[Biological Entity]

Nah, what you write is as plausible as anything else written because none of us are AC or AS. We all just have opinion...and as evidenced by the alarming rate this thread is expanding, we all have A LOT of opinion.

Yet AS expressed an opinion on the inclusion of cobbled stages in a tour - hardly a controversial thing to speak out against - but you call him a pathetic little pussy and a weakling for this. Seems you you don't like people expressing opinions if they disagree with your own.

Yet you already have said on this thread that if Armstrong had done this you would never have forgiven him. What is the point of posting if you have no credibility at all?

Lets not forget you're also pretending AC had a problem when AS attacked.

 

[velosopher54]

AC showed no class today. I've been watching the Tour for many years and in this race people don't take advantage of the MJ crashing or having a mechanical.

And what I saw, and maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed to me that AC passed AS while AS was stopping to fix the chain, in fact Bertie had to pass waaay on the outside of the road to get by. NO CLASS.

I know bike racing, and usually it's pretty cutthroat, but the tour is a bit different, maybe because it's the toughest of all.

And DM and SS would have chilled if AC had so I call B.S. on Bertie having to go to save his place.

Which person would I spend a day with? Andy could be a friend, Bertie, I wouldn't turn my back on.

 

[The Crusher]

If you really want to understand cycling fans, you need to understand that today, on the descent, when Vino caught up to Andy, a large number of fans were hoping that Vino would get greedy and tow Andy back up to Alberto. Just so that we could all go online and talk about that too.

 

[Anonymous]

Well like the english football team who blame failing to win the world cup on the dissallowed goal in a complete hammering, Baby Schleck can now blame finishing the tour 4 minutes behind contador on a slipped chain.

Im the last person around here to stick up for AC, but schleck needs to stop moaning and learn some basic bicycle maintainence.

Seriously, picture yourself out racing, your biggest contender ballses up a gear change and drops his chain.. do you wait for him, or do you shout "Sucker, learn to ride a bike" and shoot of up the hill.

 

[TahoeNL]

Cervélo team owner Gerard Vroomen had this to say on Twitter: “Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly.”

Well said.

 

[Biological Entity]

Isn't the most important thing to do when laying down an attack in the mountains to shift properly? If I understand this situation correctly, this was a mistake by Andy. Just like it was a mistake by AC to allow himself to be caught out at the back of the pack.

But we don't know if he did not shift properly. He flicked the gear. Generally your chain doesn't get stuck on a bike like that.

 

[alberto.legstrong]

I want to be next, pigeonhole me, please.

That's all you got?

 

[scribe]

So you are behind some riders and the only other guy in the race who can beat you attacks you because he knows you will be delayed. You go after him because, hey, that is what you are paid to do. You feel no anger or annoyance? 7 seconds later you see him struggling with his drivetrain. You stop at that point and wait? Come on. Like I said, my thought would have been "sucks for you dude." I am betting in the heat of the moment, many here decrying AC would have done the same thing.

All 3 of the 4 race leaders together with a reasonable cadence waiting for the 4th to latch back on. That's all they had to do and could have done when they were together, and I think the right thing to do.

 

[ozymandias]

I think the obvious solution is to allow Andy a 39 second head start tomorrow. If he can maintain the gap throughout the stage, he can have the maillot jaune.

How about giving the whole SaxoBank team a 39 second head start tomorrow? That could be interesting.

 

[Biological Entity]

Well like the english football team who blame failing to win the world cup on the dissallowed goal in a complete hammering, Baby Schleck can now blame finishing the tour 4 minutes behind contador on a slipped chain.

Im the last person around here to stick up for AC, but schleck needs to stop moaning and learn some basic bicycle maintainence.

I doubt he will moan about this much but he does have the right to. I mean, you're about to attack and drop your main rival in the big moment you have been building up to all year - and your chain comes off! If there was anything to moan about, that would be it.

I think the way Schleck has handled himself this year, and the way he has ridden, has won him a lot of new fans.

 

[saganftw]

i think hardcore contador fans are getting a bit too fanatic because their boy is showing some signs of LA syndrome:

1: attack when vino was goin for a stage victory
2: questionable chaingate


...nothing big so far but it shows some direction

 

[Deagol]

To be honest for me the best thing out of this stage is the fact that Schleck finally appears motivated to crush Contador instead of playing the nice guy and appearing to wait until he gets massacred in the final TT.
Another great thing that came out of this stage was finally a stage win for Voeckler, was waiting the entire tour for that one

+ 100

Great to see Voeckler take this stage, but I thought, you know,... Lance was gonna win this one in honor of Casartelli

 

[Bob Gibson]

low blow

have a feeling schleck's revenge will be sweet. lost respect for contador today. that's not cricket...

 

[BroDeal]

Messed up a shift? No, I'm going to continue to blame SRAM
Long Live Dura-Ace!

I would blame SRAM too, but Astana is also using SRAM. Of course, Contador is probably smart enought to know not to shift under full power.

 

[El Pistolero]

Some people here should really start reading "Il principe" from Machiavelli.

Who cares about "class"? When was the last time a Tour was won with class?

1999-2005? Doped
2006? Doped
2007? Doped by Rasmussen. "Lucky" victory for Conti
2008? Lol
2009? Conti and Lance insulting each other all the time like little kids. Mostly just Lance though.

Yeah, class and Tour de France don't go well together. Who needs doping when you can just break all the unwritten rules in the Tour and gain a lot of seconds by doing so? I'd rather risk breaking these unwritten rules then risk getting caught with doping.

 

[SpartacusRox]

Well like the english football team who blame failing to win the world cup on the dissallowed goal in a complete hammering, Baby Schleck can now blame finishing the tour 4 minutes behind contador on a slipped chain.

Im the last person around here to stick up for AC, but schleck needs to stop moaning and learn some basic bicycle maintainence.

Seriously, picture yourself out racing, your biggest contender ballses up a gear change and drops his chain.. do you wait for him, or do you shout "Sucker, learn to ride a bike" and shoot of up the hill.

This is right up there with your other fail posts. Just because Wiggo has crashed and burned, do you have to be so bitter?

Schleck rode his heart out today trying to bridge the gap. I think on here most real aficionado's of the Tour would say that Contador should not have attacked. He is about as classy as your post

 

[Biological Entity]

All 3 of the 4 race leaders together with a reasonable cadence waiting for the 4th to latch back on. That's all they had to do and could have done when they were together, and I think the right thing to do.

No, you don't understand that AS is a big pussy. He only trying to take it to Contador and make the running, and then also dug deep to limit quite a lot of the loss with an impressive fight back, but sitting from my nice comfy seat I have the right to call him a pussy.

I'm a tough guy, you see.

 

[Publicus]

To everyone that is comparing what happened today to Stage 3. You are comparing Apples and Oranges. It is expected to have some mechanical issues on a Stage like Stage 3. Chavanel had numerous issues, and that was unlucky, but again mechanicals were expected.

A dropped chain on the final climb of Stage 15 is TOTALLY different.

I don't think AC had to wait, it's a race. I would have had a lot of respect for him had he waited and showed a tremendous amount of sportsmanship. A hard earned win is more satisfying than a gifted one.

As I understand it this wasn't a mechanical (i.e., a flat). This was rider error. He was trying to shift into a higher gear and the rest is history. If he had succeed in shifting, maybe we are talking about great the attack was and how he solidified his hold on the MJ. He made a mistake (just like AC made a mistake that gave him the opening).

 

[DoctaDocta]

S-ram

Sram front derailleurs have always sucked.