It’s the little details that I like, post-race. What actually happened to Levi? Well he was back too far and on the edge, trying to take his opportunities to move forward. Now if you pick your moment this can be fine – but get it wrong and you pay.
If you are a TdF newbie or have simply never ridden in a large peleton then it’s possibly not clear how difficult all of this can be. Deep inside the peleton is warmer, faster and easier – it sucks you along. But it’s nervous spot, too. You can’t move left or right and there’s always someone in front and behind. Getting out of the middle to do anything, be it attack, counter or take ‘a natural’ involves a lot of work. And if one guy falls, you all go down. So you want teammates around you or ‘safe hands’ at least and you want to be up the front so you can avoid dramas. Now whilst you may want to be up the front all of the time so does everyone else, and a pecking order develops with special skills employed to enable you to out-compete the others. Sometimes you simply follow a known front-runner and hang on grimly. Other times your team mates take you forward. Or you just give in and make the best of it.
If you are a known rider it may be easier, or harder, depending upon who you need to pass. Risks are taken, and riding on the edge may be the only way to get ahead. And if you are making your way forward just when the peleton gets squeezed by a narrowing road then you have few choices. You ride the grass, accelerate into a gap or drop back – if you can. And if you simply get caught out then you cross your fingers and hope for the best. It may mean a bunny-hop over a gutter or some cross-country work, or a fall. Levi took the fall this time.
Leipheimer Loses Time In Crash | Cyclingnews.com
“You just try to shoot through some gaps and one time, it closed up on me, and I was pinned against the guardrail. I kind of surfed the guardrail for 20 metres. Thankfully that slowed me down.
“Eventually the guardrail ended, and then I fell onto the ground. It didn’t do anything. I scraped my elbow a little bit. Compared to yesterday’s crashes, that’s nothing.”
Filed under Leipheimer, TdF by Rob.
It’s something about the company he keeps, I guess. I used to like Leipheimer’s style and I guess I still do… a bit. But to my mind Cunego should have taken it. Just one of those feelings I guess.
Leipheimer snatches Tour de Suisse victory from Cunego : Cycling Central on SBS
Levi Leipheimer stole overall victory on the final day of the Tour de Suisse with a strong performance in the ninth stage, a 32.1km time trial won by Fabian Cancellara.
Filed under Cunego, Leipheimer by Rob.
Well there are plenty of good riders up for grabs, and they may be prepared to bargain… but why would Predictor-Lotto suddenly have the wherewithal to grab a rider of Levi’s quality? Is it for real? If so, it makes some sense, in that old 1-2 fashion. Can they afford 3 stars? Will they let someone go? Hmmm.
From CN: Belgium-based squad Predictor-Lotto is interested in having the signature of American Levi Leipheimer, third in the recent edition of the Tour de France. The 33 year-old is looking for a new team after it was announced that current team Discovery Channel will be folding its operations at the end of 2007.
Well there are plenty of good riders up for grabs, and they may be prepared to bargain… but why would Predictor-Lotto suddenly have the wherewithal to grab a rider of Levi’s quality? Is it for real? If so, it makes some sense, in that old 1-2 fashion. Can they afford 3 stars? Will they let someone go? Hmmm.
From CN: Belgium-based squad Predictor-Lotto is interested in having the signature of American Levi Leipheimer, third in the recent edition of the Tour de France. The 33 year-old is looking for a new team after it was announced that current team Discovery Channel will be folding its operations at the end of 2007.
Daniele Bennati took his 2nd Tour win just days after his first, and in the best place, too: Paris. Lampre deserved the win today after attacking and chasing so hard for Ballan, so it was somehow fitting that Quickstep, having done little to motivate the stage should accidentally lead Bennati out to the win. Boonen didn’t seem to have the legs today, or was playing safe with the green jersey, just doing enough to keep it on his shoulders. Either way he didn’t get to grips with his lead-out man and slipped away to 5th. Unless of course it was a cunning plan to allow Bennati the win, robbing his closer rivals of the opportunity to take maximum points…
Overall no-one threatened Contador for the win, and he took that an the best young rider. Cadel Evans took 2nd, as expected, and Leipheimer was content to stand on the podium in 3rd. It could all have been so very different had there not been several key casualties, both via accident and doping scandal. Still, this is a long race at high speed in difficult circumstances, and it wouldn’t be special if winning it was straightforward, would it?
Daniele Bennati took his 2nd Tour win just days after his first, and in the best place, too: Paris. Lampre deserved the win today after attacking and chasing so hard for Ballan, so it was somehow fitting that Quickstep, having done little to motivate the stage should accidentally lead Bennati out to the win. Boonen didn’t seem to have the legs today, or was playing safe with the green jersey, just doing enough to keep it on his shoulders. Either way he didn’t get to grips with his lead-out man and slipped away to 5th. Unless of course it was a cunning plan to allow Bennati the win, robbing his closer rivals of the opportunity to take maximum points…
Overall no-one threatened Contador for the win, and he took that an the best young rider. Cadel Evans took 2nd, as expected, and Leipheimer was content to stand on the podium in 3rd. It could all have been so very different had there not been several key casualties, both via accident and doping scandal. Still, this is a long race at high speed in difficult circumstances, and it wouldn’t be special if winning it was straightforward, would it?
It went pretty much as we all expected, although Levi got closer to Cadel than was comfy, and Alberto held on slightly better than expected – oh for those extra seconds! Still, after surviving a tour like this one it’s fitting thatthe top 3 are so close, and that they have such a margin on Sastre in 4th.
Traditionally we just see a parade followed by an all-out sprint in the last stage, but we also recall Vinokourov’s non-sprinter’s move in 2005… so will Evans be tempted to go for a flyer? It looks like Levi has called a truce and accepted 3rd, so maybe not. If Discovery do move for a 1-2 finish then all bets are off, but surely they’ll be happy with 1st and 3rd on GC? I guess that slight element of doubt will plague us all for another day…
It went pretty much as we all expected, although Levi got closer to Cadel than was comfy, and Alberto held on slightly better than expected – oh for those extra seconds! Still, after surviving a tour like this one it’s fitting thatthe top 3 are so close, and that they have such a margin on Sastre in 4th.
Traditionally we just see a parade followed by an all-out sprint in the last stage, but we also recall Vinokourov’s non-sprinter’s move in 2005… so will Evans be tempted to go for a flyer? It looks like Levi has called a truce and accepted 3rd, so maybe not. If Discovery do move for a 1-2 finish then all bets are off, but surely they’ll be happy with 1st and 3rd on GC? I guess that slight element of doubt will plague us all for another day…
Dramatic, exciting, close and maybe even a touch dangerous…. what more could you want? The Dauphine Libere pulled some surprises this year. Moreau on Ventoux. Haussler’s sprint. Astana’s broad strength. And not only did Moreau get the GC, we had a dramatic final stage where Leipheimer got away, only to crash, leaving Vino alone to win the stage. And overall it was Cadel Evans just 14 secs back from the winner.
Meanwhile in Switzerland Zabel is flying! Another stage win, with a Cat 3 col taking the sting out of McEwen’s legs. Bring on Le Tour!
And Ben Day won Beauce on GC in what was an impressive defensive action by the Navigators squad.
Dramatic, exciting, close and maybe even a touch dangerous…. what more could you want? The Dauphine Libere pulled some surprises this year. Moreau on Ventoux. Haussler’s sprint. Astana’s broad strength. And not only did Moreau get the GC, we had a dramatic final stage where Leipheimer got away, only to crash, leaving Vino alone to win the stage. And overall it was Cadel Evans just 14 secs back from the winner.
Meanwhile in Switzerland Zabel is flying! Another stage win, with a Cat 3 col taking the sting out of McEwen’s legs. Bring on Le Tour!
And Ben Day won Beauce on GC in what was an impressive defensive action by the Navigators squad.
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