Damn that was a fine stage

On Sat, 28 May 2005 21:03:29 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert
wrote:

I'm just a sore loser as a Simoni fan (or, me likey Simoni better than
Savoldelli).
Aw... I'm a simoni fan too. I was really rooting for him.

I guess rujano is the first venezuelan to win a giro stage? He's a
shrimp- I think he's smaller than Simoni!

"Bob Schwartz" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
| trg wrote:
| I don't see it that way. I just rewatched the last bit of today's stage.
| Ardila was riding for Van Huffel, helping him to jump up a few places on
the
| GC. Savoldelli did benefit from it. Just as Ardila (and Lotto)
benifitted
| from Savoldelli chasing the Simoni by following his line on the descent
and
| picking up 30+ seconds bridging up to his teammate Van Huffel.
|
| Van Huffel moved up from 15th to 11th on GC. No one will remember this
| day in terms of his advance on GC. Everyone with any remote association
| with the race was aware of the battle for pink. So it just seems unlikely
| to me that Lotto would put out what they did for an insignificant GC
| advance when surely there was more to be gained in an agreement with
| Discovery.

I would think the aim, which nearly succeeded, was to get Van Huffel into
the top 10 (he picked up 4 places, not insignificant), which is something
that riders and teams do try for. I'm sure that Lotto would have rather been
fighting for a podium spot rather than to crack the top 10, but the fact
that spectators pay more attention to the fight for the pink jersey than
Lotto's efforts, in no way influences their own race objectives. And it
wasn't "all that effort". It was Ardila pulling at the top of Finestre and
then following Savoldelli down the other side. If Lotto's objective somehow
really was to help Savoldelli, than once the group got together, Van Huffel
would have spent more time at the front, instead of letting Ardila bury
himself. As it was, Van Huffel finished with Savoldelli and Ardila burned
himself out and finished after the Maglia Rosa group.

"Ewoud Dronkert" a écrit dans le message de
news: ...
| I'm just a sore loser as a Simoni fan (or, me likey Simoni better than
| Savoldelli).
|
|
| --
| Firefox Web Browser - Rediscover the web - http://getffox.com/
| Thunderbird E-mail and Newsgroups - http://gettbird.com/

I've never cared for Simoni. He trash talks and doesn't have the goods to
back it up ("Armstong has never met a climber like me") He attacked his own
teammate in last year's Giro. And now, he's blaming Cunego for losing this
year's Giro-

"I lost my Giro maybe because Cunego wasn't there. I thought he could help
me a lot. So I had to ride differently [than I would have otherwise]."

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=3199

http://img13.imagevenue.com/img.php?...usGallant2.jpg

Ewoud Dronkert wrote:

Besides, Savoldelli still should get a
10 s penalty like Di Luca got, for being pushed on the climb.


now that you mention it, i've always wondered how they are supposed to
stop someone from pushing them?? they're already riding all out on those
climbs, even telling someone to quit it could be difficult (or maybe i'm
just projecting- rode up a half mile hill today with a 10% average
grade, and i was happy to see that i was doing 5mph instead of the usual
4

heather

trg wrote:
And it
wasn't "all that effort". It was Ardila pulling at the top of Finestre and
then following Savoldelli down the other side. If Lotto's objective somehow
really was to help Savoldelli, than once the group got together, Van Huffel
would have spent more time at the front, instead of letting Ardila bury
himself. As it was, Van Huffel finished with Savoldelli and Ardila burned
himself out and finished after the Maglia Rosa group.

From cyclingnews' live report:
-------------------------------------------
16:58 CEST 184km/6km to go
Savoldelli is out of the saddle, obviously hurting a lot. Ardila leads
and the gap is 1'24. Ardila is having a good ride today.

17:00 CEST 185km/5km to go
Ardila continues to drive the pace in Savoldelli's group. He has Van
Huffel there, who is 26 today.

17:06 CEST
Simoni fights and fights, as does Savoldelli, who looks a little
stressed. Van Huffel is following him, now does a turn. Savoldelli is
lucky he has riders with him.

17:06 CEST
Ardila has dropped off Savoldelli's group. No surprise there.

17:09 CEST
Savoldelli still has a bit of work to do, but it looks like he'll keep
the pink. He would have struggled without the Lotto boys, but that's
racing.

Van Huffel leads that group now. The Belgian is strong. There aren't
many climbs like this in Gavere!
------------------------------------

Lotto was driving the pace at a time when Savoldelli could have
lost it all. And Van Huffel did spend some time at the front. If
all they got out of that was a couple of GC placings I think they
should fire whoever was in the following car.

Bob Schwartz


And I am betting they got more out of it than a few GC placings.

wrote:

On Sat, 28 May 2005 21:03:29 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert
wrote:


I'm just a sore loser as a Simoni fan (or, me likey Simoni better than
Savoldelli).

Aw... I'm a simoni fan too. I was really rooting for him.

I guess rujano is the first venezuelan to win a giro stage? He's a
shrimp- I think he's smaller than Simoni!

they said on oln that another venezuelan won a stage in 1990, so i went
and looked it up for you-
http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/
(1990)
Giro d'Italia (Ita - G.T)
1. Gianni BUGNO (Ita) 3450 km en 91h51'08"
2. Charly MOTTET (Fra) à 6'33"
3. Marco GIOVANNETTI (Ita) à 9'01"

Etapes :
1 Bari, 13 km ITT - Gianni BUGNO (Ita)
2 Bari-Sala Consilina, 239 km - Giovanni FIDANZA (Ita)
3 Sala Consalina-Vesuvio, 190 km - Eduardo CHOZAS (Esp)
4a Ercolano-Cis Nola, 31 km - Stefano ALLOCHIO (Ita)
4b Cis Nola-Sora, 164 km - Phil ANDERSON (Aus)
5 Sora-Terano, 233 km - Fabrizio CONVALLE (Ita)
6 Teramo-Fabriano, 200 km - Luca GELFI (Ita)
7 Fabriano-Vallombrosa, 197 km - Gianni BUGNO (Ita)
8 Regello-Marina di Pietrasanta, 188 km - Stefano ALLOCHIO (Ita)
9 La Spezia-Langhirano, 176 km - Vladimir POULNIKOV (Urs)
10 Castello Grinzane Cavour-Cuneo, 68 km ITT - Luca GELFI (Ita)
11 Cuneo-Lodi, 241 km - Adriano BAFFI (Ita)
12 Brescia-Baselga di Pine, 193 km - Eric BOYER (Fra)
13 Baselga di Pine-Udine, 224 km - Mario CIPOLLINI (Ita)
14 Klagenfurt, 164 km - Alan PEIPER (Aus)
15 Velden-Dobbiaco, 226 km - Eric BOYER (Fra)
16 Dobbiaco-Passo Pordoi, 171 km - Charly MOTTET (Fra)

17 Moena-Aprica, 223 km - Leonardo SIERRA (Ven)

18 Aprica-Gallarate, 180 km - Adriano BAFFI (Ita)
19 Gallarate-Varese Sacro Monte, 39 km - Gianni BUGNO (Ita)
20 Milano, 90 km - Mario CIPOLLINI (Ita)

Rujano drives you nuts because he looks like a kid that drinks too much
coffee?

On 05/28/2005 07:32 PM, in article , "Bob
Schwartz" wrote:

trg wrote:
I don't see it that way. I just rewatched the last bit of today's stage.
Ardila was riding for Van Huffel, helping him to jump up a few places on the
GC. Savoldelli did benefit from it. Just as Ardila (and Lotto) benifitted
from Savoldelli chasing the Simoni by following his line on the descent and
picking up 30+ seconds bridging up to his teammate Van Huffel.

Van Huffel moved up from 15th to 11th on GC. No one will remember this
day in terms of his advance on GC. Everyone with any remote association
with the race was aware of the battle for pink. So it just seems unlikely
to me that Lotto would put out what they did for an insignificant GC
advance when surely there was more to be gained in an agreement with
Discovery.



Prize money as motivation? 11th pays higher than 15th, and a top-10 (had it
worked) is always a good thing ...



Bob Schwartz


I should mention that I don't have cable so all I'm going by is the
cyclinenews live report. I won't see it until someone uploads the Cyclasm
broadcast or something.

--
Steven L. Sheffield
stevens at veloworks dot com
bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est
ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea eye tee why you ti ay aitch
aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you
double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [foreword] slash

Bob Schwartz wrote:
Robert Chung wrote:

Savoldelli owes Lotto.


Discovery owes Lotto. When the going gets tough,
the tough go shopping.

Now then, what are Lotto's hopes for the TdF GC?
Not. Much.
What are their hopes for stage wins?
Quite. High.

QPQ
QED