auscyclefan94 said:
Put it this way, would you agree that Evans would of been with all the favourites if he hadn't had the puncture on Sierra Nevada?
imo, yes. Therefore he would of not lost time to Sanchez who was dropped but he would of gained time on him. Without that puncture Sanchez would of not finished ahead of Evans. In saying that, I can not be definetly sure about that therefore imo Samuel Sanchez was the winner of the Vuelta a Espana.
Did anybody wait for Samuel Sánchez when he crashed before Xorret del Catí? You know what? They didn't.
Even taking out that Sierra Nevada stage, Evans is 6" behind Valverde. Hence why I say you should blame de la Fuente for sitting up in the sprint at Xorret del Catí allowing Valverde to take those 8 bonus seconds more than Valverde. Valverde didn't accelerate after Evans was dropped - he didn't need to. The pace was already high because they'd dropped Sánchez and didn't want to let him back on. If Sánchez hadn't been dropped, maybe they wouldn't have been so callous when Evans had his puncture.
But either way - Samuel Sánchez finished just 20 seconds down on Valverde on that stage. Evans had been in Sánchez's group after the puncture. Yet Evans lost a further minute. Maybe Evans did his usual job of going too hard too long and blowing up, maybe Sánchez dosed his efforts better. But for better or worse, Sánchez actually halved his deficit to the leading quartet (Valverde, Gesink, Mosquera and Basso), whereas Evans' deficit doubled. It's like saying Chaingate won Contador the 2010 Tour because there was 39" between them on that stage - yes, but Schleck was only 17" down at the summit, he lost 22" by being a weaker descender than Contador. Similarly, Evans lost time to that mechanical, but was in a group 43" back shortly afterwards. But that doesn't account for the other 43" that he lost that day.
Look at the Vuelta contenders in 2009
Valverde - shouldn't of been competing, didn't ride the tour.
Sanchez - didn't ride the tour.
Evans - rode the tour and a heavy race program all year.
Mosquera - didn't ride the tour
Gesink - had some bad luck during the Vuelta which possibly cost him a podium place.
Evans would of not gone into that GT overly fresh. If he did then he would of crushed the rest of that competition anyway.
Valverde's stripping of results was common sense. He shouldn't of been competing. He was later found to be guilty even though his legal team manipulated the system a fair bit. It is really that simple.[/QUOTE]