The official debate: Should Contador have waited for Schleck?

[Biological Entity]

BPC - serious question - have you the quote where AC said he had no idea of Schlecks mechanical.

He said this in the post stage interview. He said he had no idea Schleck had a mechanical. Therefore we know that he did NOT wait.

It just shows you how good Schleck was today that he made back at least 20 seconds. I think he would have attacked again and put some time into AC today.

But instead the tour is now over.

 

[Barrus]

while all the blame is on AC, SSanchez told RTVE that Andy's mechanical problems is simply part of racing- and nobody remembers that he(SSachez) had a mechanical problem, a puncture & a crash on stage 3 and "nobody waited for him"......
and Menchov is happily quiet too....

Nor did they wait for Gesink on stage 2

Really, this is quite hypocritical for many people. Yes, perhaps AC did not need to attack, but AS should never have the yellow if the rules were taken consistently, even if the wait on stage 2 and waiting now are the rules, than they should've waited on stage 3, or should wait anytime a genuine contender has a mechanical, something they obviously don't do. Either follow the rules consistently or acknowledge that you only follow them when they are beneficial for them and not when other contenders are having problems

 

[hrotha]

BPC - serious question - have you the quote where AC said he had no idea of Schlecks mechanical.
EDit Found it in VN.

http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20100719/contador-no-sabia-nada-averia-schleck/832985.shtml
edit: damn, I began looking for the video before you edited your post

 

[Parrot23]

Good! he got over it (as he should.). Great stuff.

Agree. Great reaction from Andy +1

Twitter: "I lost yellow today!**** happens but the race is not over yet!!!I be back!"

He's coming out of this looking pretty good. Gone way up in my estimation.


Folks, let's look on the bright side. Lots of character from Andy on this.

 

[scribe]

Nobody waited. Not one single person.

To be expected from you.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

from a former doper any moral lesson would be like punch in the face

Since all the other directors are also former dopers we have a peloton without any morality. So that equals it

 

[bill1109]

I agree. From replays it looks like Vino matched AS then AC was doing a counterattack. I would think Vino would automatically slow down so as to not pull AS back up to AC. I don't think Vino slowed down due to seeing it was a mechanical.

Now maybe this tour turns aggressive instead of one in which the top two guys vacation together. Track stands on a mountain? come on. Schlek even went back to the team car yesterday on a climb? When does the yellow jersey do that? I could see someone that HAS WON yellow before doing that, but for someone that is clearly weak on time trials and not attacking on his first chance to win the tour, I just think their tactics are silly. I hope AC buries AS on the next two stages and in the time trial, but the time trial will be enough to prove the point.

 

[Biological Entity]

you must live in a dream world. without the mechanical schleck would have gained nothing (zero seonds) on contador. contador did respond to schlecks attack and what would have most likely happened is that they would have been together over the mountain top.

No at all. Look at how much time AS made back on the climb, against AC who says he was not waiting. I think there would have been a gap. Even if they finished together by the end then that of course would still have been a great ride by Schleck and he would have kept the yellow and a 30 second lead.

 

[la.margna]

Tweet collection:
Klöden: Bad luck for @andy_schleck He had technical problems. Was'nt à nice Move from Alberto on this moment. But this is cycling now :-(

AS:
I lost yellow today! **** happens but the race is not over yet!!!I be back!

Btw, post stage interview he was rather defensive on it, but clearly said that he would not have taken yellow this way.

MarkBrownESPN:
Contador has taken the Yellow Jersey from Andy Schleck in a move that will be debated for decades in tour de France lore

RobbieHunter:
From a person who rides in the peleton..Contador should have waited,had he waited everybody would have waited..my opinion this was not cool!

Graham Watson:
I think Tour etiquette just took on a whole new meaning - should spice up the last few days!

cyclefilm:
It's not a question of should he/shouldnt he have attacked, it's a question of character & sportsmanship #fairplay #tdf

 

[ozymandias]

In the record books, Alberto Contador's 3rd Tour de France win will always have an asterisk next to it.

 

[VeloCity]

Yes. Andy opens a significant gap to Alberto. Andy has a mechanical. Vino waits while Alberto attacks.

Alberto didn't "attack", he was flying back up to AS behind Vino and just kept on going. If you watch that again, he doesn't even look back until well after he's past AS.

 

[christianpetrin]

That was incredibly unfair... it seems Andy was dropping Contador and likely put a lot of time on him when Contador took advantage of such a situation... if Contador win this Tour, it will be completely unfair... he does not deserve the win and doing something like this, showing the kind of person he is, he doesn´t even deserve our respect!

 

[HL2037]

Bjarne just said on tv2 that after seeing the incidence he thinks that AC made a fault, and that he wouldn't have done the same himself.

 

[Biological Entity]

Remember it takes longer for Schleck to get up to speed. If he had managed to put it in the big ring I think he would have taken off big time.

 

[hrotha]

Remember it takes longer for Schleck to get up to speed. If he had managed to put it in the big ring I think he would have taken off big time.

Stop saying that. We simply don't know, and at any rate it's completely irrelevant here.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Won't the AC fanboys at least admit that it's sad to see a tour decided by a chain problem?

no it won't in case you are wondering schleck will loose 2 minutes alone in the itt. schleck never stands a chance and never did.

 

[Old&slow]

In the record books, Alberto Contador's 3rd Tour de France win will always have an asterisk next to it.

His first Tour win already has an asterisk next to that as he did not win that one either.

 

[Oldman]

Seems to me like he did wait initially. But then when he saw he could put time into Schleck, he did. Didnt start going for it until he saw Schleck back on his bike. Dont forget, Schleck lost his chain attacking Contador.

That's what I saw on the coverage and Contador's response was underway while Andy was collecting himself. That's called "operator error" much like selecting the wrong gear in a sprint. If Conta piled it on and drove the split while others sat on; bad on him. Otherwise Andy shouldn't have that much difficulty with his bike.

 

[Futuroscope]

Vino didn't stop, but he certainly slowed as AC blew past and continued to counterattack. AC set the tone. He should've rode tempo plain and simple, and waited to jump on the wheels of others if they chose to attack the MJ. It was a weaksauce move. A chickensh** move. A classless move.

vino isn't as strong as contador, menchov and sanchez. he couldn't follow as contador went passed nor had he reason to try to as there were other riders coming up behind him (why should he help them up to contador...even if he could follow..which he couldn't).

 

[scribe]

Could say the same about AS not waiting for maillot jaune Chavanel on St 3, after Chav had the one or two punctures/bike changes, no? Seems to me that in that instance, AS had Cancellara go to the front and put as much time on them as he could.

No respect for Chavanel in the maillot jaune then, was there. But I'm sure this was different. Somehow.

I believe this is the at least the second time you have referenced this. You do not understand the difference between GC contenders in Yellow and a strong first week rider. An opportunist can beat his better rival during a mishap on a 3 week stage. A stronger rider with class would have waited and beat him with his strength on the road.

 

[llime76]

..this is called Racing... happened to be Road Bike racing.

Imagine a Formula 1 racing.

Two men (Driver a & Driver b) are racing on the FINISH line at the FINAL lap at the FINAL season.

Driver A is leading Driver B by a distance of (aprox)) 3 Formula 1. Driver A loose control on his F1 on the turn due to steering malfunction; overheating; oil stucked etc. he got out of control of track but able to to came back on the track loosing the momentum a bit.

Do you think Driver B would wait for Driver A to get back the momentum? and start the race?

Everything could happen..still the tour is far over...

Ok lets say AC drop the chain..would AS wait?

 

[Hawkwood]

Bjarne just said on tv2 that after seeing the incidence he thinks that AC made a fault, and that he wouldn't have done the same himself.

That from a man who doped big time to win the Tour.

 

[indurain666]

Perhaps if we wait another 20 minutes Armstrong is going to reach the finish line and see what he is going to Tweet about the incident

Too much drama and emotions going around AS fans and AC haters. I only hope AS now starts showing some cojones! Regardless of the incident, he doesn't have what it takes to beat AC. His climbing has improved but his TTing is still pretty weak. I think AS's emotional comment about Tourmalet's revenge was pretty lame.

 

[VeloCity]

That was incredibly unfair... it seems Andy was dropping Contador and likely put a lot of time on him when Contador took advantage of such a situation... if Contador win this Tour, it will be completely unfair... he does not deserve the win and doing something like this, showing the kind of person he is, he doesn´t even deserve our respect!

AS wasn't dropping AC. AS attacked when he saw AC was boxed in, which is why there wasn't an initial reaction from AC and Vino was the one to initially follow, and then AC came flying past everyone.

 

[scribe]

no it won't in case you are wondering schleck will loose 2 minutes alone in the itt. schleck never stands a chance and never did.

Why didn't he wait to beat him on the road then? Contador would agree with you if he had soft pedaled instead of attack. He attacked because he FEARED Andy. The strongest rider on the road dropped his chain during his unmatched attack.