Posted on 07/02/2010 11:30:15 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
No spring points today, obviously. Paris will decide the Green jersey:
1. PETACCHI Alessandro 208 LAMPRE - FARNESE 213 pts
2. HUSHOVD Thor 95 CERVELO TEST TEAM 203 pts
3. CAVENDISH Mark 111 TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA 197 pts
4. ROJAS Jose Joaquin 169 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 167 pts
5. MC EWEN Robbie 75 KATUSHA TEAM 162 pts
Well, if RINO Petacchi wins (& doesn't get his win taken away by the doping investigation underway back in Italy) Thor gets an asterisk for the day he was forced to refrain from competing, IMO.
Oops that was meant for you.
Contador needed to win the time trial by more than 40 seconds, to prove that he didn’t need his unsportsmanlike conduct to beat Andy. Alberto didn’t do that. If he hadn’t taken off when he saw Andy’s chain come off, and everything else had stayed the same, he would have lost.
Of course, you’d have to think that if he needed another 10 seconds to win the race, he might have been able to get it.
Of course, he would have had the disadvantage of riding before Andy. That was the key advantage Contador got by taking advantage of Andy’s chain slip.
So what happened to Sanchez? Really bad trialer, or did his crash of 2 days ago finally catch up to him? Or is Denis just that much better of a TT man?
Congrats to Menchov, the battle for 3rd was as good as the AS/AC battle.
Bienvenidos a "Puerto Asterisco", Alberto. That's where you'll be living for the next year til the next TdF,lol.
Excellent point.
Seems I remember them saying Menchov was much better at the TT. But the wreck couldn’t have helped. When it happened he had adrenaline on his side. Not so much today.
Entiendo lo que estás diciendo. Por supuesto!
Thanks, Mr. Blonde. So they had a ‘yeah, but one of them can’t trial’ thing going on like AS/AC?
Sanchez needed quite a bit more time on Menchov going into the TT, I didn’t realize that.
D'accord, mon ami, PP.
Thank you so much R4R. Outstanding thread direction this year. Superbe!
Yep. Asterisk by this one for me. Contador is a classless and selfish rider. He “won” this year by taking advantage of a mishap. Hr didn’t win it straight up. Hopefully he grows up and understands about sportsmanship and teamwork but so far he shows no signs of doing that. Not sure why anyone would want to be on his team and support him.
” Thank you so much R4R. Outstanding thread direction this year. Superbe! “
Magnifique R4R
Thanks for sharing that photo. Heard about it , but didn’t see it.
The tale of the tape:
11. MENCHOV Denis 191 RABOBANK 1h 04’ 47” + 03’ 51”
40. SANCHEZ Samuel 181 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 1h 06’ 47” + 05’ 51”
But to put it in another perspective, Sanchez was all of 8” behind Contador.
35. CONTADOR Alberto 1 ASTANA 1h 06’ 39” + 05’ 43”
I guess the concern for me now is was AC off this year or was he just very on last year? I hope what we have seen this year is what we see next year because I think AS still has a better performance ahead of him. AC maybe not.
Interestingly Sanchez and Menchov finished in the same time in the prologue. Maybe in the longer one Menchov was just much better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.