tuckandgo wrote:
I wasn't buying Philippa Yorke's post at all.
And I have just found it that it is really Robert Miller. (As in I didn't know who she was so had to google).
I used to like his blogs about racing but some of his recent stuff (mainly posted under 'Philippa York') seems very uninformed as to the nuances of modern day sports science and how to approach big races, particularly long multi day races. Which isn't unexpected given how long ago he was properly active in the sport.
Yeah, its like Bjorn Borg providing expert commentary on Roger Federer....the game has changed since wooden tennis rackets too. The old guys/women could temper what they say on what is possible or not in today's pro sport when they just pull their own experienced based opinion out of the air and apply it like it is universal truth. Robert Millar in his day had several near wins at the Vuelta and one near win at the Giro. Sure, he/she has credibiliity from that angle, but also the same writer can be viewed as havinig a non winner's bias ("if I could not win this way, no one can" etc). When there is a critical analysis (or a flat out throwing of anyone under the bus, I am going to look at the writer's personal biases on the story aside from what they objectively say or not.
Froome may just be on the same crap that Dumoulin, Pinot, Carapez and Lopez are/were on that day. Doping aside his execution on the last 80K was superior. All the tactics in terms of gear selection, style of riding, risk taking, pacing and fueling he did better than the other guys. It was completely well organized. He was on the offensive everyone was reacting, but they were not just reacting to one small attack....they were reacting to this long drawn out campaign that Sky had planned out. If there were blood bags involved, then the other chasers were on blood bags too, or they would have been off the back like Yates, Woods and many other strongmen.
The mistake that the other team may have made was never nailing the Sky coffin shut in the first half of the Giro when he was banged up. They left Froome dangling close enough to have hope starting weeks 3 on Zoncolan.