I’ve never raced the Tour. But, I’ve race a ton of long stage races. I’m not sure if the riders are cognoscente of the live media coverage or what. But, explain what was going on today? I mean between Schleck and Contador?
All these people are raving about these “psychological battles”, “mind games” and the mental pressure of the stage. Stupidity. That is the only thing I can come up with here. Obviously, Andy Schleck wanted to ride behind Contador on all the climbs. Especially the final climb. He was worried that if he got ahead of Contador, Contador would jump him and he wouldn’t be able to match the acceleration and loose more time. So when Contador decides to call him on it, they both coast off the back of the “field”. I understand it up to that point.
What I don’t understand is why they never finished it. They never jumped. If you take someone off the back in bike racing, or get taken off the back, and except that is what is happening, then you recognize that you’ve been challenged or are challenging the rider you are with. In that case, it is settled by one rider trying to bridge back up the the group without the other. One of them needed to jump. But, no. We don’t get to see what should of happened. By should, I mean, that both riders knew what was up here.
I guess Andy Schleck blinked and told Alberto that he would pull back up. What was that? They just gave 3rd and 4th on CG time and didn’t do anything but ride stupidly. The time was kind of meaningless. Some call it a truce. If it is a truce, then they should of called the truce before they were 20 seconds behind and just ridden to the finish with Menchov and Sanchez. I don’t get it. It must be something for TV. Schleck needs time. If he wasn’t planning on getting any today then he should of stayed with the lead group and kept his guard up for an attack by Contador. Their posturing didn’t do anything for me. To me it was like watching a okay movie that had an abrupt finish that pronounces a sequel. Maybe I missed something.
Here it is a few hours after I posted this and saw this quote from Bjarne Riis (Team director Saxo Bank) – “I think it was stupid for both (to stop attacking). I don’t support those actions. When they are in the middle of it, I don’t interfere (with tactics),” Riis said. I was surprised to see he used the same adjective (stupid) as me. (And, when they are in the middle of it, I don’t interfere with tactics either.)
Andy Schleck pulling Alberto Contador back to the lead group after they played their reverse tactic card.
Specialized probably orchestrated it. They wanted more camera time of the two Specialized bikes without the clutter of the assorted Giant bikes in the same shot. Makes for some great promotional videos and advertising campaigns for the 2011 lineup.
It was like a bad world cup match, a flury of attacks resulting in no score. I’m certain that Hinault would have called them both stupid (or worse) for such “defensive” racing.
Chicken is exactly right. I’ve never seen a solid yellow jersey contender (Schleck) ride so scared.
Maybe the whole thing is brokered out in advance and played according to script, like pro wrestling… That would explain some of the inexplicable and anti-intuitive things that have been happening.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on their Tourmalet duel. I thought they should have set the GC aside and “fought to the death,” i.e., attacked till one or the other cracked. As a viewer, it felt like they were being too careful. At least, Contador was. Schleck says he was attacking the whole time. I didn’t see it. It was nice to see them kiss and make up after Chaingate, but it was boring.