Which team has the best climber squad?

[Cerberus]

Navarro and Vino were excellent.
BMC were better than Saxobank (wtf...!)
But in the end the Rabobus and Leakygas were the only teams left with two contenders in the finale.

BRING ON THE PYRENNEES. THIS TOUR IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!

Yeah, Saxo Bank was a major disappointment, the only ones who did well were Andy (which counts for a lot) and Breschel (which counts for next to nothing since Breschel in fantastic shape still isn't an A-grade climber).

 

[Ryaguas]

Soooooo where are those who said that Astana had a bunch of noobs and they were the weakest team in La Grande Boucle???

Tiralongo - Dani Navarro et Vino did an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, OUSTANDING job today... seeing Vino as a domestique bringing water to AC, Dani and Tiralongo... where are those Vino haters???

Soooo what's up with those that said that The Shack had the better team for mountains???

I'm not going to forget NEVER what Dani Navarro did today on Morzine - Avoriaz... I just only hope that they can recover A LOT today and tomorrow cuz on tuesday we have La Colombiere, Des Saisies et La Madeleine!!!!!

Liquigas besides is letting me down again... Kreuziger and Basso saved the day but all the domestiques are cooked

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

One has to wonder how badly hurt are Navarro and Hernandez. Hernandez was getting treated by the medical car today. They have both struggled to finish the last 4-5 days. I know Astana said they are resting climbers. But I guess we will see if these two are hurt the next few days. It would not be a surprise to see them both abandon Sunday.

Pretty epic post right there.

I think i will up this post yet again in a few days when Hernandez will start doing his usual job as the last domestique left for AC in the big mountains.
________
ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE

 

[ScottyMuser]

Is it just me, or, despite their strength (having 2 riders left in the final group) did Liquigas actually do very little work and rest the likes of Szmyd and Vandborg for Tuesday, whilst all the others used up their domestiques to push the pace/? That could be important, especially if Szmyd can recover enough to do what he did in the Giro. Basso also didn't look under a huge amount of pressure - looked at least as conforatble as Evans, and Roman K was one of the best 3 racers with Conti and Schleck for me.

 

[Thee_chisa]

Is it just me, or, despite their strength (having 2 riders left in the final group) did Liquigas actually do very little work and rest the likes of Szmyd and Vandborg for Tuesday, whilst all the others used up their domestiques to push the pace/? That could be important, especially if Szmyd can recover enough to do what he did in the Giro. Basso also didn't look under a huge amount of pressure - looked at least as conforatble as Evans, and Roman K was one of the best 3 racers with Conti and Schleck for me.

i thought basso was really struggling, looked like he was going to have a heart attack

 

[Mambo95]

Pretty epic post right there.

I think i will up this post yet again in a few days when Hernandez will start doing his usual job as the last domestique left for AC in the big mountains.

I notice that you never seem to have any opinions of you own. You just criticise others with the benefit on hindsight

 

[Angliru]

Not sure why people think without Frank it would be harder for Andy to get the podium. If anythign, it *consolidates* it, as last year, they had the 2 of them as join leaders, with the domestiques working for *BOTH* and time and again, Andy *waiting* for Frank in the mountains when he could have attacked and dropped EVERYONe apart from Conti - and maybe EVEN Conti on those days. The 2/3 times in the high mountains Frank was there and on for,. the 3 of them dropped Lance, Wiggo, Kloden, Nibs, Roman K et al so easily it was like watching 2 different races.

Anyway, strongest *climbing* team - toss up between LG and Astana for me - RS are just a bunch of old men putting all their eggs in 1, even older, basket, with a talented youngster in Janez who could in the future challenge for a top 5, but not with Lance on the team forcing him to do domestique work and tiring himself out.

Andy's podium spot was virtual certainty by Ventoux. The times when Contador attacked and Andy attempted to answer, the first on Arcalis he was so discouraged by the wind and Contador's explosion of acceleration he ended up falling back to the pack and on Verbier, well he tried but of course he still lost 40+ seconds. Once Contador's lead became insurmountable Andy began working to get Frank on the podium.

 

[Angliru]

Well here we are on stage 8 and all that early talk about DDLF being a key Lt. for AC has been proved wrong the today and yesterday. He was dislodged early.

A contender usually has one lieutenant. DDLF has never been that. He is a domestique and stage chaser. One would think that Vino would be Contador's lieutenant but today showed that Navarro, at least on this stage is his chief support. I would say Tiralongo should be in the equation also. I was surprised that Hernandez was able to stay up at the front for so long.

 

[Angliru]

i thought basso was really struggling, looked like he was going to have a heart attack

I recall Basso struggling on the first summit finish of the 2005 Tour also. I believe it was the stage to Courcheval that Valverde beat Armstrong in a sprint. He came back strong in the following mountain stages though.

 

[Angliru]

Soooooo where are those who said that Astana had a bunch of noobs and they were the weakest team in La Grande Boucle???

Tiralongo - Dani Navarro et Vino did an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, OUSTANDING job today... seeing Vino as a domestique bringing water to AC, Dani and Tiralongo... where are those Vino haters???

Soooo what's up with those that said that The Shack had the better team for mountains???

I'm not going to forget NEVER what Dani Navarro did today on Morzine - Avoriaz... I just only hope that they can recover A LOT today and tomorrow cuz on tuesday we have La Colombiere, Des Saisies et La Madeleine!!!!!

Liquigas besides is letting me down again... Kreuziger and Basso saved the day but all the domestiques are cooked

Agreed, awesome job by the Astana riders.

Are they (Liquigas) using the same domestiques from the Giro? I know Szmyd was there. Maybe they're struggling finding their climbing legs on the first seriously contested mountain stage.

 

[Ryaguas]

Are they (Liquigas) using the same domestiques from the Giro? I know Szmyd was there. Maybe they're struggling finding their climbing legs on the first seriously contested mountain stage.

Liquigas Team for Il SuperGiro d'Italia

131 BASSO Ivan
132 NIBALI Vincenzo
133 AGNOLI Valerio
134 BODNAR Maciek
135 DALL'ANTONIA Tiziano
136 KISERLOVSKI Robert
137 SABATINI Fabio
138 SZMYD Sylvester
139 VANOTTI Alessandro

Liquigas Team for La Grande Boucle

41 BASSO Ivan
42 BELLOTTI Francesco
43 KOREN Kristjan
44 KREUZIGER Roman
45 KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr
46 OSS Daniel
47 QUINZIATO Manuel
48 SZMYD Sylvester
49 VANDBORG Brian

Szmyd is the only one that is repeating... the other should be "fresh" cuz they weren't in the giro but seems that they have not find their legs for the mountains