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#11
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
On Jul 29, 7:24 am, RonSonic wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:39:40 -0700, wrote: These guys sacrifice their health to win taking drugs and doing anything else to cheat so why do they respect the custom of not competing on final stage? Lets say you are in second by a few seconds and know you can win the final stage. Do you really give up even the stage win? I just dont get it. They do not respect a custom or tradition, they respect the other riders and their teams. You can attack but all it will do is **** everyone off after they chase you down. If the wind and terrain make a break possible, someone will take it, but usually that doesn't happen. Ron I guess I dont really understand the sport. If it was a game of tennis where it was all about skill I could understand that if someone beat you for the past 19 games there would be little point to try to win on the 20th try, but this is more an endurance sport. The lead guy could be totally drained by the last stage so you should at least test him. |
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#12
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
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#13
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
On Jul 28, 10:39 pm, wrote:
These guys sacrifice their health to win taking drugs and doing anything else to cheat so why do they respect the custom of not competing on final stage? Lets say you are in second by a few seconds and know you can win the final stage. Do you really give up even the stage win? I just dont get it. Dear Newbie - Please go away. thanks, K. Gringioni. |
#14
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
wrote in message oups.com... These guys sacrifice their health to win taking drugs and doing anything else to cheat so why do they respect the custom of not competing on final stage? Lets say you are in second by a few seconds and know you can win the final stage. Do you really give up even the stage win? I just dont get it. If you are a good enough sprinter then you will. However none of the top three can match it with the sprinters. Evans only chance would have been a serious crash that prevented Contador from finishing. He could never have gotten a break on the field. Its not only tradition that limits attacks on the final day. Its the practicality that an attack has virtually no chance of success. |
#15
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
On Jul 30, 4:12 am, Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
On Jul 28, 10:39 pm, wrote: These guys sacrifice their health to win taking drugs and doing anything else to cheat so why do they respect the custom of not competing on final stage? Lets say you are in second by a few seconds and know you can win the final stage. Do you really give up even the stage win? I just dont get it. Dear Newbie - Please go away. thanks, K. Gringioni. I thought it a very reasonable question which sparked some debate and some solid answers. I imagine you just had a bad day and wanted to restore a battered ego by making such a "butch" remark. |
#16
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
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#17
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
On Jul 30, 5:42 am, RonSonic wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 01:05:21 -0700, wrote: On Jul 29, 7:24 am, RonSonic wrote: On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:39:40 -0700, wrote: These guys sacrifice their health to win taking drugs and doing anything else to cheat so why do they respect the custom of not competing on final stage? Lets say you are in second by a few seconds and know you can win the final stage. Do you really give up even the stage win? I just dont get it. They do not respect a custom or tradition, they respect the other riders and their teams. You can attack but all it will do is **** everyone off after they chase you down. If the wind and terrain make a break possible, someone will take it, but usually that doesn't happen. Ron I guess I dont really understand the sport. If it was a game of tennis where it was all about skill I could understand that if someone beat you for the past 19 games there would be little point to try to win on the 20th try, but this is more an endurance sport. The lead guy could be totally drained by the last stage so you should at least test him. The single most important fact of bike racing is aerodynamic drag. The man in second place has the advantage and at the least can ride in the slipstream of the rider in front. What this means tactically is that on a relatively flat stage without a strong sidewind you cannot ride away from your opponent unless you are vastly stronger than he and his team or he let's you go. With a jersey at stake nobody will let you ride away. And nobody, or more importantly, no team is so much stronger than another that anyone can just ride the competition off his wheel on the flat. The last stage in particular no rider even if he's three hours down on GC will get away without the sprinter's teams running him down and if the guy's a GC threat then the leader's team will bring him back. And if you think you are so much stronger than the other 150 guys that you can stomp on them like that, they will make a particular point of proving otherwise. But, like I said sometimes the terrain or conditions make it possible to make a selection. By design, this rarely occurs on the final stage, the promoter wants the big screaming gang to all blast into Paris together. Ron- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Cool. Thanks for the education. |
#18
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:42:29 -0400, RonSonic
wrote: The last stage in particular no rider even if he's three hours down on GC will get away without the sprinter's teams running him down and if the guy's a GC threat then the leader's team will bring him back. Everything you say is true about the difficulty of an escape on the last stage, but it has been done in the last decade or two. Jeff Pierce won the stage from a break, as did (I think) Eddy Seigneur (sp). The last time a GC contendor got a little gap was last year or the year before by Vinokourov, but really that was a long sprint. The last read "break" that I can think of by a GC rider was 20-25 years ago by Hinault and Zootemelk, though that did not change GC since they were in first and second anyway. -- JT **************************** Remove "remove" to reply Visit http://www.jt10000.com **************************** |
#19
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Why dont they compete in the final stage??
In article ,
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote: On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:42:29 -0400, RonSonic wrote: The last stage in particular no rider even if he's three hours down on GC will get away without the sprinter's teams running him down and if the guy's a GC threat then the leader's team will bring him back. Everything you say is true about the difficulty of an escape on the last stage, but it has been done in the last decade or two. Jeff Pierce won the stage from a break, as did (I think) Eddy Seigneur (sp). The last time a GC contendor got a little gap was last year or the year before by Vinokourov, but really that was a long sprint. The last read "break" that I can think of by a GC rider was 20-25 years ago by Hinault and Zootemelk, though that did not change GC since they were in first and second anyway. It should be said that I have always understood the tradition as "it's a parade until the Champs Elysee." They do, what, 8 laps of that, making up the last 22 km or so of an already short stage (130 k this year). I think the best formulation was someone who, answering the question of what would happen to a rider who tried a breakaway before then, said the entire peloton would chase down the offender, and then they'd pelt him with their water bottles. Again, I have no doubt that the bets would be off on a day when there was something that could be meaningfully contested. The "truce" is really more about the idea that GC no-hopers aren't going to be allowed to go and do their usual 10-minutes ahead thing. The reason seems to be a combination of letting the peloton relax and have an easy and celebratory ride in, and it probably makes for a better spectacle to have the whole pack ride onto the Champs at once, and let 'er rip for the last 20 km. -- Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/ "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos |
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