Gotta go with Gnome over at the
Drunkards on Friday's heart-string finish by Hausler in the cold and wet. Gripping and inspired stage. And apparently,
involving gunplay!
Today’s stage was gripping drama as it appeared that George Hincapie’s dream of yellow was squashed by
Astana and Garmin, teams chockablock with George’s old friends. Phreeky Phil didn’t help matters on TV by saying that it was Lance who called Astana to the front – given Phil’s proclivity to exaggeration and flat out error, we suspected it was the coaches in the car making the call – perhaps they’d not want to have Columbia carrying yellow into the alps more than not wanting George in yellow for some reason…, later it became evident that while Astana was at the front the gap actually increased (
computers don't lie, people lie). But then it got weird and Garmin entered the mix and a lot of mud is being slung in the press as a result. Not to mention the weird sprint for 13th by Cavendish and his men that ended in regulation.
Enter the Twitterevolution Tour – cause if you really want to know what the riders think in le Grande Boucle, this year they’re telling you. Hell even Astana's
chef Tweets! And how telling it was to follow the Twitters of
Lance (
who also covers the PGA!), Zabriske,
Vaughters,
Mick Rogers and others. Lance tweets that Astana simply had a couple guys in rotation at the front, and they werent’ chasing. Well, they certainly were working more than the lame-duck teams of other GC contentders, and with more than two riders. Further, they’ve established themselves as the Patron Team, the alpha pack in the peloton, so even riding tempo and stretching out the break to 8 min, they were eventually overhauled by AG2R who then inexplicably got topped out for a bit by Garmin, claiming to be working for Wiggins but more likely fueled by the hyperbole of putting Farrar up against Cavendish. Farrar isn’t even close to points in the GJ comp, so don’t go thinkin’ it was about that – 13th freekin’ place man, c’mon. between Cav and Thor, makes sense. Farrar? Save it. Then again, as McRocket sez, it’s so easy from this side of the fence – taken at his word, Vaughters team was looking out for their GC interests. The rivalry between the two US squads Highroad and Garmin is really weird. Vaughters claim that they were looking out for Wiggins falls a bit flat (
He’s toast in the Alps anyway – don’t they know this?). First of all, his top ten wouldn’t have been effected by the split by more than one or two places if at all. Second, they were pretty obviously trying to get Farrar in position to go up against Cav. For thirteenth, that’s just ego – Farrar isn’t even close in the Green jersey points, so the only motivation is belief in all the hype lately about him beating the Manxman. Foolish, they had nothing to gain in the big picture and they gave Highroad and George a big bone to pick to boot. Now the Twitterverse chimes in, with
Johan and others calling BS on Garmin’s tactics – weird.
And why did the other teams even allow the opportunity for Astana to control the race? Why weren’t
ANY of the other GC teams chasing? Not Liquigas, not Silence, Saxo, none of ‘em. Are they scared? Aren’t there at least four teams in GC contention who didn’t have a man in the break? So Astana goes forward and drives hard, the peleton sez
hey, the patron’s are pushing, AG2R seems to wake to the notion that Nocentini is about to loose his fleece and
bang the gig is up. Wouldn’t it have been Highroad’s responsibility to set tempo at the front, not Astana? (given that the GC contenders were contentedly wheeling along). Clearly Highroad didn’t have
control of the peloton behind George or THEY would have gone forward and disrupted the line, rode tempo and controlled the group to make sure the gap stayed and they’d still have gotten a Green Jersey sprint for 13th. Ultimately, it’s George’s own team that should have figured out how to get two wins out of the day instead of double goose eggs.
After everyone pretty much f’d it up for George including Highroad they then did a wonky blocking leadout for Cav that backfired because it was so crassly blatant. If you want the best almost-insider scoop on the sprints, look no further than the Twitter feed of
Robbie McRocket, sidelined, but armchair quarterbacking every dash to the line with his thumbs. Robbie sez the commissars regulated Mark because of how he kept looking back at Hushvold and it was the barriers that were placed too narrowly, not Cav’s line shifting. Either way, it was a double FUBAR move on Highroad’s part, blowing it for two of their stars. Calling out Vaughters in the
press is petty and
pure grist for the media mill and only adds a third strike in our book.
Zabriskie, love him and his cryptic clarity –
we’re pawns in someone else’s game. Pure insight, pure genius.
Where's
Johnny Green to
sort it all out?
Trumping all the inter-team dramatics, respect to the dead and injured and also to the moto-driver who must be shattered after such
an accident.
Onward.
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