Could his 36 inner, 12-21 combo on L'Alpe TT have blown his 2nd place GC finish? Maybe a 39, 12-25 would have been better? Or maybe just a 12-23 cassette ... I mean its the Alpes MAN, don't run a freaking 21 tooth large cog as your biggest gear!
http://velonews.com/...articles/6667.0.html
Basso said his low point was the mountain time trial to L'Alpe d'Huez in the Alps, when he could only manage an eighth-place finish, 2:23 behind Armstrong.
"L'Alpe d'Huez time trial was the most difficult moment of the whole Tour for me," he said. "I'm not a good time trialist but we'd worked hard to improve my technique - unfortunately we made a mistake when choosing my gears.
"In training, a front chain ring of 36 combined with a 21-tooth cog behind seemed idea, but on the day after almost two weeks of hard racing it was too big a gear and I struggled to turn the pedals in my usual cadence."
http://velonews.com/...articles/6667.0.html
Basso said his low point was the mountain time trial to L'Alpe d'Huez in the Alps, when he could only manage an eighth-place finish, 2:23 behind Armstrong.
"L'Alpe d'Huez time trial was the most difficult moment of the whole Tour for me," he said. "I'm not a good time trialist but we'd worked hard to improve my technique - unfortunately we made a mistake when choosing my gears.
"In training, a front chain ring of 36 combined with a 21-tooth cog behind seemed idea, but on the day after almost two weeks of hard racing it was too big a gear and I struggled to turn the pedals in my usual cadence."