Danielson to Italy

Fred Marx wrote:


A lieutenant to Basso is the only way I see this. Someone to look
after him after Cipo


Basso is talking to CSC....TH rumours to be true? we'll soon know....


Read that on CN and it slipped my mind. Maybe FB will make Danielson
their new shining hope for GC and trAitor Gonzales can abandon him, too,
in his hour of need, just before that two year contract expires and he
goes to Bianchi (to pull the same stunt on Jan in 2005.)

Tom Schulenburg wrote:


My thought was that Fasso Bortolo has so much talent, that TD would have a
hard time making the squad for big races. He'd end up ridding second tier
races against the same (or lower) competition that he raced against in the
US. I would have thought that there'd be a squad that would be willing to
sign him and let him ride some of the bigger races as a second "protected"
rider, or set him up for a stage win in a grand tour. I don't see that
happening with FB. If Basso and Pozzato stick around, it would seem that
there would be too much "young" talent there for TD to develop his
potential. I'm not saying he shouldn't pay his dues, I'm just not sure he'll
get the opportunity to do that with FB.

But if he shines on those 2nd tier races...
Cadel Evans was picked up by an "overlaoded with talent" Mapei and did
2nd tier races, like Tour of Austria (which he won). TD should be
wrapped to be picked by a great team, it would be a dream come true for
any beginning Pro.

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 23:44:55 GMT, Bob wrote:
well said! Dumb people always think they should satart out at the top!

"Kyle Legate" wrote:
[...]

How zen.

--
A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Richard Adams wrote:
David N. Welton wrote:

Richard Adams writes:


I didn't feel I berated anyone, I simply further poked fun at them.
The sad part for an all-arounder of Basso's calibre is that he's
apparently on the wrong team and only had two comrades left at the
end of the race. Probably why he's in advanced talks with CSC, the
better to be on a team which contests more than the last 500m of a
stage, considering where his capacities lie.



You apparently don't follow European professional racing if you think
that of Fassa Bortolo and Giancarlo Ferretti, although admittedly they
haven't had a stellar year.


On the contrary, Petacchi has had a watershed year, and we should see
him go for as many stages as he feels like in Spain. What's a team to
do when a stellar sprinter suddenly emerges from within their ranks?
Support him, of course, but what is left to languish? Remember the 2001
TdF tug-o-war within Telekom? Who do you support, your sprinter or your
GC contender? With a limited number of riders to support two goals,
it's nice to have a deep enough team (which FB does) to support them,
but how much do they throw behind AP which detracts from supporting
Aitor? Worst to come of it would be failure on both accounts, which
happens.


Again, I will point to the "great hope" of Fassa B, one Aitor Gonzales
who has been invisible this season. Why would they not support AP when
AG delivered nothing. Notice how FDJ was able to support McGee while he
wore yellow then switch gears to support thier sprinter (yes I blanked
on his name, stupid huh?). I see FB with Pozzato ridng for placement,
TD for mountains and AP for sprints, looks good on my limited paper.

"jean-yves hervé" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Nick Burns" wrote:

"jean-yves hervé" wrote in message


Some riders are known as super special before they even turn pro
(Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault in the past, Ullrich more recently).
Others
take years to mature while serving as domestiques (Indurain is the
most
obvious example of this kind).

You are SO WRONG. Indurain was picked (based on lab tests) to be a
future
Tour winner from 1985-1986. He needed to drop weight without losing
power
and Conconi laid out a 5 year plan to make him a Tour winner. Padilla
did
the detail planning and it turned out exactly as expected. Maybe you are
speaking from a fan perspective.

I know reading skills are quite poor in this newsgroup so I will try to
repeat this slowly. I wrote

You gave Indurain as an example of an athlete that was not immediately known
to be "super special" "before they turn pro". That is what I took issue
with. He was known as "super special before he turned pro".

Richard Adams writes:

I thought FB had a real shot at becoming the super team Mapei-QS
was, but between the egos and apparent departure of some real
talent, they look like they're losing serious GT punch. Fine if
they want to focus on classics.

Mmmmm maybe my memory is bad, but hasn't Ferretti always had more
classics-oriented teams? I associate him mentally with racers like
Michele Bartoli.

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Great Brad McGee article in Sept. Cycle Sport on FDJ's changing tactics
and how well they pulled it off.

yep nice journalism there, yaeh Cooke, Baden Cooke that's the guuy (god
I can be an airhead some times..)


Petacchi's early departure certainly
breathed life into the McEwen-Cooke battle, which I felt was the real
excitement of the tour.

Definatly agree with that thought.
Also noticed in the same issue that Petacchi regards his withdrawl as a
mistake and how he apologized to the TDF organisers the day after....
wonder how much credance to give that. Also how much of that withdrawl
was psychological, knowing that he was loseing all of his support at
that point.

Fred Marx wrote:


Great Brad McGee article in Sept. Cycle Sport on FDJ's changing
tactics and how well they pulled it off.


yep nice journalism there, yaeh Cooke, Baden Cooke that's the guuy (god
I can be an airhead some times..)


Petacchi's early departure certainly breathed life into the
McEwen-Cooke battle, which I felt was the real excitement of the tour.


Definatly agree with that thought.
Also noticed in the same issue that Petacchi regards his withdrawl as a
mistake and how he apologized to the TDF organisers the day after....
wonder how much credance to give that. Also how much of that withdrawl
was psychological, knowing that he was loseing all of his support at
that point.


From what I saw on the coverage, a smiling Alessandro Petacchi bidding
the stage adieu, he's not much for acting. After two stages I read or
heard translations of his interviews, he wasn't feeling well, but gosh
the team worked so hard for him he thought he should at least get up
front and give it his best effort, etc. I really wondered what the heck
was up with the guy. Has Robbie, Baden or Erik ben present I think
they'd want to pitch in words, like "I wish I felt so lousy!"

It certainly wouldn't have cost him anything, other than some suffering,
to slog through the first mountain stage to see if he had a chance to
hold the maillot vert all the way to Paris. Only they know for sure.
Wins are wins, but that's kinda maddening from a fans perspective.