Tuesday nights training ride: Only nine of us showed up at the Chevron, maybe the mid-90 degree weather had somthing to do with that? Once we hit 441, we took off and averaged 25mph for the next 6 or so miles, dropping a couple of guys (sorry Doug). We calmed down to a more managable speed throughout the middle of the 40 mile ride. I took a long pull followed by an even longer pull by Lil Joe Brew who has just returned from a trip to Colorado. No serious attack happened at Chestnut Hill, but a steady pace set by the "Moose" led to a break in the "field" and Moose, Mike, Scott and myself were the only ones left. (**In his defense, Joe Brew dropped back to ride with his dad and didn't attempt to follow the break**)
Mike dropped off at the bottom of Millhopper Rd. and left the three of us to ride out the remainder. I was pretty empty by the time we crested the I-75 overpass and it seemed that Moose was always able to pull at about 2mph faster than Scott or I. We took our turns coming up to the sprint line and Moose jumped leaving Scott about 250m out; it took almost all that I had to hold Moose's wheel, but I did and used it as my lead out. I crossed the line first, but Moose was the strongest rider of the day!
• As for the tour...
Another flat fast stage in the Tour de France. An eventual 4-man break was off the front for a good portion of the day only to come back to the charging group with 10k to go. After a few tight corners down the home stretch, Robbie McEwan out-gutted Tom Boonen in the sprint. McEwan was exhuberant at the line to say the least. Being a bit upset at the decision to relagate him to the back of the field in stage 3, McEwan felt as if he had something to prove. With the green jersey just about out of reach for the Aussie sprinter, he's even more focused on the individual stage wins at this point.
I read this morning that McEwan was asked if he thought that maybe Tom Boonen was just riding too strong in this tour and he was pretty adamant that he was NOT unbeatable and that he was going to prove it to us...I guess he backed that bold statement up, didn't he?
Another interesting thing that happened at the start of today's stage was the whole "wearing of the yellow jersy issue." Lance decided to not wear the yellow jersey as a result earning it due to Zabrikie's crash yesterday. Lance said that if he was leading after today's stage then he would don the jersey tomorrow. However, the race officials stopped the entire peloton following the neutral start and threatened to disqulify Lance from the race if he didn't wear the jersey. I don't know about you, but I'm glad that he put the mellow johnny on.
I also read that Chris Brewer, who works with Team Discovery Channel, reported that it WAS the intention of the team to let George Hincapie try to get in a break and take the jersey. Obviously it's not that easy, but there's always tomorrow!
•Here's a Question...
- Tomorrow's stage isn't full of climbs, but it isn't flat either. Four cat 4 climbs could see a long break stick. What do you think the chances of Hincapie trying to get 56 seconds on the field are?
- And let's hypotheticlly say that Hincapie does get into a break that makes all the way to the line. And let's say that the break is 4-5 minutes ahead of the yellow jersey, would George soft pedal so that he could just barely take the jersey, or would he make Lance work a little harder for it???
1 comment:
lots of work and no victory, sounds like poor strategy down the stretch.
anyway, at least it was good training.
wonder where the big guns have been: naked ed, danny m (i won't even try to spell his last name), susana (sp?) m, and huan.
would love to see george pull on the yellow, but i'd be surprised if some of the other teams let him go. whether he takes pulls in a break would be dictated by race situation. if his break was without a doubt clear of the field i think he might save a bit for the sprint.
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