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Armstrong's contract
From ProCycling news:
"Armstrong admitted that according to the terms of his contract with his new employers he will be riding the Tour at least one more time, but he maintained his prior position of not allowing himself to be drawn on whether that one time will be 2005 or 2006. Once again, Armstrong stated that he would ride a number of the spring Classics before deciding whether to try for a seventh consecutive Tour win." http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx Old news, as of yesterday...but I think the first time he mentions this term of the contract. He'll be riding in the '05 Tour, imo. To rest for a year, even if he did Flanders, may not help his conditioning and his determination - that sharp edge is so fragile. If he only makes the podium, then he'd come back with a vengeance next year. He wants to go out in grand style, as a winner - smart - and not just fade away. Why he's being cagey, except to take the pressure off, and/or to disorient his rivals (who?)...is a matter for speculation. I don't see the few that could challenge him as having a team that can support this. IOW, there are strong teams without a stellar rider and stellar riders (Kloden, Basso) with less strong teams, istm. If we put the strongest team behind Basso, it might be doable, but again, Basso is not so good in the ITT yet. jj |
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Jet wrote: From ProCycling news: "Armstrong admitted that according to the terms of his contract with his new employers he will be riding the Tour at least one more time, but he maintained his prior position of not allowing himself to be drawn on whether that one time will be 2005 or 2006. Once again, Armstrong stated that he would ride a number of the spring Classics before deciding whether to try for a seventh consecutive Tour win." snip Why he's being cagey, except to take the pressure off, and/or to disorient his rivals (who?)...is a matter for speculation. I don't see the few that Maybe he just wants to focus on some of the classics before deciding whether to ride the Tour? That would allow him to put a legitimate effort into spring races then afterwards see whether the program resulted in good enough form to contest the Tour. Seems to me like it's not necessarily cagey. Janek |
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If he only makes the podium, then he'd come back with a vengeance next
year. He wants to go out in grand style, as a winner - smart - and not just fade away. IMHO, I think that's true but with basically a little different twist on it: It seems that there might be a little bit of something in the back of his head that makes him want to silence the folks that say he's a great TDF rider but that's all. He seems to be giving strong consideration to proving them wrong. My guess is that his program right now is geared towards the classics but that he and Carmichael, et al will look at how that progresses and if the physiological indicators say he's not going to do it well, he'll turn towards the Tour again. Just my prognostication... Wes |
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He's not riding Georgia this year, he's already said that. He'll be
in Europe riding Spring classics at that time of the year. He's not going to build a velodrome just to attempt the hour record, that would be incredibly stupid when there are already fast tracks out there. The so-called "new" team is not that much different from the old team, so I'm not sure what you're talking about saying if they show their ability. For most of the team, their abilities on the bike have already been seen in the past whether they were riding for what was Postal, or other teams in Division I. It's not like they went out and got a bunch of guys who had never raced before, or were neo pros. I'd say the depth on Discovery this year is incredible. Lots of guys who have good results with lots of experience. Tom |
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On 12 Jan 2005 09:36:31 -0800, "Tom" wrote:
He's not riding Georgia this year, he's already said that. He'll be in Europe riding Spring classics at that time of the year. Oh, right, I read he's not doing Georgia. Then one-day races in Europe? He's not going to build a velodrome just to attempt the hour record, that would be incredibly stupid when there are already fast tracks out there. He has already talked about that. He want somewhere at altitude and says there's no tracks where he's looked and doesn't want to be outside and at the mercy of the wind and weather. He's specifically said he might build the Velodrome and then take it down when he's done. Cycling news maybe? Ah, yes. "I think the trick with the Hour Record is where you do it. Obviously we can do it in Manchester where it's been done several times. Ideally we would look for a high-altitude location and as we all know, there are not that many covered velodromes at altitude, so then you're at the mercy of the winds and the elements outside, or the temperature if it's not exactly in the summertime. We want to do it at altitude and it's just a question of where we go, what we find and if we build a velodrome to do it, and then take the velodrome down. And I think that's probably the most likely scenario as of today: Do we want to cover Colorado Springs and resurface it, or do go to Salt Lake City or somewhere like that and build a new velodrome?" The so-called "new" team is not that much different from the old team, so I'm not sure what you're talking about saying if they show their ability. For most of the team, their abilities on the bike have already been seen in the past whether they were riding for what was Postal, or other teams in Division I. It's not like they went out and got a bunch of guys who had never raced before, or were neo pros. I'd say the depth on Discovery this year is incredible. Lots of guys who have good results with lots of experience. I agree, but we're talking working together, getting the new guys on board, and replacing Floyd's role. But yes, deep abilities. Tom jj |
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