TdF stage 15

[europa]

Vino was in a ripe old mood today. Man, what a ride. Most aggressive rider for the stage?

Contador did his best to break Rasmussen - maybe showed some inexperience (it is his FIRST TdF afterall). A champion in the making.

Phil was saying that Rasmussen had a bad day. I'm not sure I agree with that - he did just what he needed to. Bogardt will be getting a pat on the back tonight for his pacing efforts.

Cadel, Cadel, where on earth were you Cadel? Oh okay, he sat in the yellow jersey peleton, but made no attempt to attack and couldn't follow when Contador made his dash. He's going to have to make the most of the rest day tomorrow.

Interesting and fun stage as it turned out.

Richard

[sogood]

Loved Contador's repeated attacks in the last section of the climb. Five repeats wasn't it? Rasmussen was riding like a track rider watching Contador.

I wonder how much time can Evans pull back on the flat land? At this rate, he'll be 5-6mins behind Ramussen/Contador when they finish the Pyranees stages.

[europa]

One feels tempted to suspect that Cadel will need a power monitor in the coming stages, a power monitor the provides power, not measures it

Richard

[Hotdog]

Vino showed a huge amount of heart today, in several senses of the word. Interesting to see him appear on the podium afterwards without his bandages, he's going to have an decent bunch of scars when he's finally all healed up.

[sogood]

Vino showed a huge amount of heart today, in several senses of the word. Interesting to see him appear on the podium afterwards without his bandages, he's going to have an decent bunch of scars when he's finally all healed up.

Just shows how long this TdF is. Long enough for wounds to heal and sutures to come out and there's still more race days to follow.

[MichaelB]

What was up with Vino ? Haven't fully watched the stage yet, but how can he blitz the ITT, lose 26 minutes on the next stage, and then blitz them again the following day with even more climbs ?

Is it a really wierd strategy or is there something else going on ?

[europa]

He broke away early and because he was so far behind, the peleton let him go. A large group slowly formed around him which allowed him to keep a really big lead over the yellow. Once they got to the hills, he was able to ride as his own tempo rather than one dictated by rivals and this helped him conserve his energy. It was only on the last climb that he started doing anything silly and up until near the end, he had help.

So yes, it was a remarkable ride and unexpected, but quite understandable.

Richard

[sogood]

What was up with Vino ? Haven't fully watched the stage yet, but how can he blitz the ITT, lose 26 minutes on the next stage, and then blitz them again the following day with even more climbs ?

Is it a really wierd strategy or is there something else going on ?

He has to be careful and not have too great a differential b/n his day to day performances, or some will start a rumour on him.

[MichaelB]

What was up with Vino ? Haven't fully watched the stage yet, but how can he blitz the ITT, lose 26 minutes on the next stage, and then blitz them again the following day with even more climbs ?

Is it a really wierd strategy or is there something else going on ?

He has to be careful and not have too great a differential b/n his day to day performances, or some will start a rumour on him.

Seems like ol' Vino has been to the cannery ....

[europa]

Now that he's been pinged for the TT, it'll be interesting to see what his tests for this stage show. I'm assuming they'll look at all of them. I don't know much about the practices of blood doping, but I'm guessing it's not a one off.

Richard