Stage 12
Key Stage
July 18 Pau - La Mongie 158 km
Tactically, that had to be one of the worst races I have ever seen.
The stage seemed to start fine with plenty of attacking and tactical
moves except that something was missing. ONCE!!! They forgot to come
to the bike race!!! Hey, guys, there's a bike race over here!
They weren't involved in the attacking to gain an offensive control.
The one team that had a strong ability to develop an offensive
assault and provide other teams with an ability to join the
offensive just sat there, cowering, waiting for USPS to beat them
up. And guess what, they did! Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! If you
let some one beat you up, they will beat you up. Duh!!!
I was amazed, absolutely amazed!!! I expected to at least see a
fight. I was completely disappointed because I expected to see a
bike race but all I saw was the Lance Armstrong Parade. ONCE didn't
even try to work on Armstrong's team much less his legs. It was some
of the most pitiful coaching I have seen in my life. Maybe tomorrow
we will get lucky. Maybe ONCE will bring their coach to the race.
For the fun of it, last night I went surfing some cycling message
boards to see what people were saying. I saw amateurs who knew
enough about cycling to know it was a given that Azeveda had to go
up the road to put pressure on Armstrong. That was a no brainer.
Which probably explains the condition of the ONCE coach. Somebody
needs to pull the plug on the guy. We know he's brain dead because,
today at the race, we didn't see any signs of intelligent life. What
was the guy thinking? Or was he?
They wasted the tactical opportunity and now it is gone. Azeveda is
too far down on time to put pressure on Armstrong tomorrow. The only
two riders close enough to put pressure on Armstrong are Beloki and
Galdeano. If they don't do something smart tomorrow, we are in for a
very boring stage race because the race will be over.
You must strike when an opportunity is present. If you wait, it
disappears.
At least CSC tried to develop an offensive move. It was a stupid
move but it was still a move and that made it a better move than
what ONCE did. CSC sent Jalabert up the road as the rabbit to get
USPS to chase. There was one little problem. Jalabert was so far
down on GC that USPS didn't really have to chase. They just went for
a bike ride and kept Jalabert from taking the lead.
You have to understand that when you send a rabbit up the road,
he/she must put the other teams in danger of losing the lead with in
a maximum of one to two minutes. If your rabbit is more than 3
minutes down, who has to chase them? They can let your rabbit ride
away all day long without having to chase. The CSC rabbit was so far
down on GC he was riding yesterday's stage. Who is going to chase
him? CSC had to send either Peron or Hamilton up the road as the
rabbit. They blew it and now don't have an opportunity. No one on
CSC is close enough to threaten Armstrong.
The thing that is really scary here is that today was only the
fourth most significant mountain stage. What is USPS going to do in
the first, second, and third most significant mountain stages? I
sure am glad we have the battles for the subtitles and stage wins
because those will be the only interesting races for the next 1.5
weeks. That was the one redeeming factor of today's stage, the
really good team battles for KOM and Points titles. The GC race
SUCKED BIG TIME!!!! No battle, no fight, just the Armstrong Bike
Parade. If ONCE doesn't do something intelligent tomorrow, Armstrong
will be racing against the pace car.
Well, we did see CSC, Euskatel, AG2R, and BJR doing some good riding
for KOM (that is now all CSC has to ride for.) Following the second
climb, the announcer couldn't figure out why Telekom was helping
USPS chase Jalabert. At first, it smelled like a deal had been made
but then we found out that both Zabel and McEwen were still in the
pack and the last road sprint was coming up. Telekom was trying to
bring Jalabert in so Zabel could get 6 points for the Points Title
instead of just 4 points. They failed but the Telekom and Lotto team
action for the last road sprint gave us a break from the stupidity
of the GC race. With the team effort from Telekom, Zabel managed to
regain the lead for the Points Title.
Today's stage shook most things up at least a little. It looks like
the top five might be pretty set except that Galdeano finished 11th
and Botero finished 20th for today's stage. If they keep finishing
that low, they will drop from the top five. Although, I would expect
them to return to the top five or very close to it with the next
time trial.
The promise of the Hamilton/Leipheimer threat to Armstrong has
become an old wive's tale. Hamilton finished 28th at 3 minutes down
and Leipheimer was almost that far down. Oh yeah, I had heard a
rumor somewhere that Julich was hired by Telekom for GC. He finished
6'46" down today. I don't think he was hired for GC. He is riding as
a domestique for Zabel like I told you.
The one bright light for GC that came out of today's stage was
Rumsas of Lampre who seems to have come from no where. Does this guy
have potential? He finished fifth on the stage, is fourth on GC, and
could move as high as third on GC. Is he a potential threat to
Armstrong in the future? This could be interesting. He time trials
well and climbs well. All he needs is the right team and the right
coach. Hey, we might have a good race next year.
Only Halgand and Mengin remain in the top five for KOM with
Armstrong sitting in third only 13 points out of first with five
mountain stages left to go. Lance is looking like he could easily
take KOM with the Yellow Jersey this year.
Jalabert's effort gave him second for both the KOM and Combativity
titles. Hamilton is so far down on GC that he will likely spend the
rest of the Tour riding in support of Jalabert. At least that is
what his coach should do.
Basso has taken a sizable lead for the White Jersey. There usually
isn't too much competition in that jersey when the race hits the
mountains.
I have to state that, except for ONCE, the stage did start out with
promise. They raced at about 28 to 29 mph for the first few hours
while climbing. That is no small fete and there were plenty of
attacks with riders trying to get off for a subtitle. You could see
the different teams trying, except for ONCE. USPS, CSC, FAS, and
Kelme all tried to get riders in breaks for an offensive move for
the Yellow Jersey. I saw at least Cofidis try to get riders off to
protect the White Jersey. Euskatel, AG2R, and BJR all tried
repeatedly to get riders off for the KOM race. Then there were a
number or teams which tried to get riders off for a stage win. There
was a good fight really mixing it up and riders were trying hard to
get up the road.
I have considered the possibility that ONCE and CSC made a deal to
send Jalabert up the road to force USPS to chase today and that ONCE
will send some one up the road tomorrow with the two teams working
to wear Armstrong down. If that is the case, is was a really dumb
idea and didn't work because Jalabert was so far down on GC that
USPS didn't have to chase hard enough to wear anyone down. Now,
unless ONCE planned to send Galdeano up the road tomorrow, neither
team has a good rabbit to send. How are they going to wear the
Posties down to get at Armstrong? I sure hope they have something in
mind I just can't think of or this is going in the record books as
the most boring Tour in history.
One last thing is that four more riders quit today. Teams are
getting weaker. Two significant loses were riders from the GC teams
of Kelme and CSC. Hmmm, maybe if we fire half the USPS team, the GC
race will get interesting. :-) Just a thought.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the second most significant mountain stage in the Tour
this year. Maybe the ONCE team will find their coach and bring him.
If not and your only race of interest is the GC race, bring a good
book to read.
I think the real fun will be the team battles for the subtitles.
Watch the race for KOM, even though Armstrong might end up getting
this too. At least the race for second in this title should be fun.
Then there will be the Combativity and Points titles. They should be
fun. Then, of course, there is always the stage win.....if Armstrong
doesn't get that again, also.
The climbers will make their way towards the top for the next seven
days. Then they will be pushed back down on the next time trial.
