What's up with Cervelo?

[Goldberger]

What the hell are Cervelo doing in this Tour De France???

They are giving Hushovd literally no help in the sprints and in his quest for the green jersey, and today they ride like madmen to catch the break, only to see Sastre hanging off the back as usual.

What are they doing, and why did they ride their asses of to catch the breakaway?, makes no sense.....

 

[crispy]

I suspect Sastre told them he was feeling good only to have the mountain tell him otherwise.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

I suspect Sastre told them he was feeling good only to have the mountain tell him otherwise.

Pretty much. If Gerrans hadn't abandoned they would have had a better contender for today's stage.

 

[roundabout]

Gerrans is with Sky now

 

[JesusManzano]

Agree! alone in the sprints and alone in the breakaways. Good thing they use a lot of power to help carlos get 15-20 in the GC/ abandon in the last week...

 

[Denkoff]

hos

Think houshovd good shape

 

[Anonymous]

I'll say this;

If I were on that team the next time Sastre asked me to ride I'd tell him to go eff himself.

 

[Publicus]

I suspect Sastre told them he was feeling good only to have the mountain tell him otherwise.

Fabulous line.

 

[hrotha]

A team needs to have something to fight for, you know. It's not geared towards helping Thor, so there's not much they can do in that regard.

That said, seeing Sastre's current form it would have been better to just ride, see how the climb goes, and save everyone else's energy to try and get into the breakaway the next couple of days.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

I suspect Sastre told them he was feeling good only to have the mountain tell him otherwise.

I laughed out loud at this one!

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Even if Sastre was in the form of his life he would have had absolutely zero chance of winning today

I can only think that it was a favour returned or lent or a few euros changed hands

 

[Silhouette]

Even if Sastre was in the form of his life he would have had absolutely zero chance of winning today

I can only think that it was a favour returned or lent or a few euros changed hands

I have a feeling that they were either defending Sastre's gc position or trying to set him up for the win. Both options make no sense to me, but I'm no DS.

 

[ManInFull]

I'll say this;

If I were on that team the next time Sastre asked me to ride I'd tell him to go eff himself.

The press talks up Sastre as if he was a real GC contendor. The fact is, even with his 2008 TdF win, he is a super domestique who owes his TdF crown more to having the luck to go up against a weak field that year. He's never a GC threat when the real adults show up at the table.

 

[hrotha]

The press talks up Sastre as if he was a real GC contendor. The fact is, even with his 2008 TdF win, he is a super domestique who owes his TdF crown more to having the luck to go up against a weak field that year. He's never a GC threat when the real adults show up at the table.

Now don't be stupid.

 

[goggalor]

I don't think Sastre even wanted to be in this year's Tour. He learned from doing the Giro/Tour double last year, but apparently the Cervelo management didn't.

And now he'll be too tired to have a shot at the Vuelta. Shame.

 

[ingsve]

I think they are a team where ambition exceeds realism together with somewhat inexperienced DSes. Before last year they didn't have any experience at all apparently in leading a team in a GT.

I also think the strong start to last year was very bad for them. It set a standard for them that the team isn't strong enough to live up to. Poor Sastre practically gets forced to do the Tour eventhough it is not in his best interests after having done the Giro injured.

There was also a story before the Tour about Van Poppel pretty much being upset at Hushovd who after having a though season of illness and injury only had the goal of one stage win in the Tour.

 

[Yossarian12]

Seems to be a team of guys just content to finish the Tour. Maybe no work for Thor because he is not sprinting well, and just needs to surf the pack for points.

I gave up on Sastre last year when he failed to at least deliver the stage at Ventoux. I had the hope that he could at least have shot for the Mountains Jersey in the way of Herrera and Millar from the 80s (or even Soler and Rasmussen from this decade!). In some ways his two stages in the 09 Giro were as inspiring as his Alpe d'Huez victory.

 

[euanli]

they really are missing haussler

 

[Anonymous]

they really are missing haussler

+1

And Hushovd is not 100%. Still, they have no GC threat and what they did at the end today was dumb unless there was some payola going on.

Rally behind Hushovd for the Green and be happy with that.

 

[The Hitch]

The press talks up Sastre as if he was a real GC contendor. The fact is, even with his 2008 TdF win, he is a super domestique who owes his TdF crown more to having the luck to go up against a weak field that year. He's never a GC threat when the real adults show up at the table.

based on this year. Yes.

Otherwise no.


He has won the Granddady of them all.
He has come 2nd in the Vuelta a Espana twice.
He has podiumed in all 3 gts.
He has been on the podium of a Gt 6 times - 3 in Vuelta 1 in Giro and 2 in tour.

Outside podiums he has got another 3 top 5 finishes and then another 5 top 10 finishes.

Or to make it easier to understand. Sastre in gts.
Top 10 –14 times
Top 5- 9
Top 3- 6
Top 2- 3
Top 1- 1

This look like a super domestique to you? His actual gt victory may have been a bit lucky, and he was definitely lucky that it was the big one, but looking at this record I think it would be really really sad if sastre retired without a gt win. He deserved at the very least 1 and im glad he got it.

 

[boomslang]

Allow me to play the philistine for a moment...
From a business perspective I think that Cervelo needs to rethink Sastre's contract. They get great value from Thor... out there all the time pushing the brand. Same from Armstrong ( Kristin not the other one ) and now Emma Pooley and Claudia Hausler (sorry, no umlaut on my keyboard) are keeping it out there. Carlos has the one TdF win but so far nothing to indicate there will ever be another one. Just sayin'... it's a business for some of these sponsors. Need to get it out there. ( just look at Milram in this year's tour... you would not know they even showed up if you did not look at the team list).

 

[Cobblestones]

Allow me to play the philistine for a moment...
From a business perspective I think that Cervelo needs to rethink Sastre's contract. They get great value from Thor... out there all the time pushing the brand. Same from Armstrong ( Kristin not the other one ) and now Emma Pooley and Claudia Hausler (sorry, no umlaut on my keyboard) are keeping it out there. Carlos has the one TdF win but so far nothing to indicate there will ever be another one. Just sayin'... it's a business for some of these sponsors. Need to get it out there. ( just look at Milram in this year's tour... you would not know they even showed up if you did not look at the team list).

Remember, without Sastre, they might not get invites.

 

[Saddlesaw]

The only reason for them to be working at the front, that I can think of, was to try to hurt Petacchi. Its a stretch, but Lampre were up and leading the chase for a while and then disappeared so I thought that maybe Petacchi could have been struggling to stay on the pace. I thought they may have been trying to make him work while Thor was cooling his jets after the intermediate. Perhaps they are thinking that if they convince him its going to be tough all the way to Paris, and we haven't even started into the Pyrenees yet, may be he'll toss it in again? Otherwise it doesn't make any sense at all.

I don't agree that they don't have anyone other than Thor though I think Lancaster has been riding well. It seems that Thor wants to try to get on Cav's wheel an onto the HTC train rather than follow Lancaster though. You can see him always looking to see if Thor is on, and more often than not...he's too far back. I think it is because as someone already said Thor is not feeling so good and is lacking the punch he would like.

Sastre is no Super Dom, that's just disrespectful. I do agree that this tour was not a good idea though as he was too wasted after the Giro. He should have looked to the Vuelta.

 

[Beech Mtn]

<snipped>

Sastre is no Super Dom, that's just disrespectful. I do agree that this tour was not a good idea though as he was too wasted after the Giro. He should have looked to the Vuelta.

I totally agree with this. Sastre + Tondo would've been a good 1-2 punch for the Vuelta. Also it would have Carlos' back heal completely and give the man a rest. He's been going and going, and that's no good.

Cervelo would've gotten a Tour invite anyway with Thor as reigning green jersey winner, plus Haussler, who would've ridden had he not crashed in TdS.

 

[benpounder]

I'll say this;

If I were on that team the next time Sastre asked me to ride I'd tell him to go eff himself.

I got the sense that Cervelo told him he was riding in the Tour.