Who was saying having a good TTT team won't matter? Inability to bring mayo back up to the group pretty much killed him. Add another 2:30 in the TTT puts him close to 7 minutes behind already, devastating.

yeah, it appears that mayo is done for this year. what i couldn't quite figure out is whether it was simply poor timing of the crash--i.e. were t-mob, phonak, usps just beginning to lift when he went down or did they attack after hearing of his troubles? i thought there was an unspoken rule about not attacking when the guy goes down...

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f/k/a mclamb6

I think if Mayo had crashed they wouldn't have pushed it, but if you're sitting in the back and get gapped you're fair game.

"i thought there was an unspoken rule about not attacking when the guy goes down... "

I think it just goes to show who the classy riders are/aren't.

according to cyclingnews, it was phonak and t-mob that were pushing the pace the most. was ullrich taking a little revenge for zubeldia and mayo attempting to outsprint him for 2nd/3rd on the stage that armstrong won last year?

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f/k/a mclamb6

USPS as well.

From cyclingnews:

The Mayo group are coming back towards the leading bunch, but only slowly - it doesn't look as though they're going to get back before the second section of pave. T-Mobile, US Postal and Phonak are all working hard on the front (whatever happened to not attacking favourites who crash, I hear you ask - and have no answer).

a bit later, cyclingnews referenced that it was t-mob, phonak, and "to a lesser extent" usps riding tempo. on velonews, it sounded as if usps started pushing hard just before mayo hit the ground. if that's the case, i don't think it was wrong of usps, phonak, and t-mob to continue riding hard. if they attacked after he went down, well, that would be another story...

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f/k/a mclamb6

Actually tomorrow's time gaps are on a sliding scale which means his team would have to be dead last to get the 3 minute max gap.

The second place team can only lose 20 seconds, the third 40, the fourth 50, and so on...

www.procycling.com has more info on it.

Jaylew,



Don't you get it? USPS are supposed to be the good guys, how could they be working at the front?! ;-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

The way Mayo's team looked in the chase, I don't rate their chances of finishing anywhere near the top of the TTT.

After reading the live report on Letour.com (much faster and better than cyclingnews), it seemd that USPS and TM were all pusing the pace before the first section of cobbles. Mayo went down just before the entrance. Some people who were caught behind the crash (like Roberto Heras, who went down) actually caught back to the Armstrong/Ullrich/Hamilton group. The cobbles are what really split the peloton. The group didn't accelerate, they just kept a harsh tempo even before the crash.

Rusty

Cm'on, USPS would never ever do something like this. The germans and swiss teams, those are the cold-blooded bad guys.

If you haven't seen the race yet, be sure to catch the coverage later today. No question the pace was going up as the peloton hit the cobbles, it's what happened after the first section of pave that has me wondering what the sportsman-like thing to do was. Watch the race.

ken

Yes, the Passage du Gois never happened.

If the reports are true that a USPS rider caused the crash, and that USPS pushed the tempo afterwards, it makes the team look very bad. I wonder if there is any chance of a Euskaltel rider taking out a USPS rider later on - kind of like pitchers trading hit batters in the majors.

I believe that only applies to the yellow jersey. at times you will see the peloton slow and wait while the leader takes a leak.

You'll get lynched for that in this forum!

"I believe that only applies to the yellow jersey. at times you will see the peloton slow and wait while the leader takes a leak. "

Ahh, but the yellow jersey WAS behind the crash (Hushovd).

And even then it's just if a contender is wearing it. The pace picked up before Mayo went down. There was no acceleration afterwards - the pace was kept high just as everyone had expected/predicted. The responsibility was his and his team's to get back on, and they didn't have the horses to do it. That's racing. Watch the coverage, EE was slow to respond and get their riders back to their leader - not as if it would've mattered.

LA predicted this yesterday, and even said it might be he who would be on the losing end. Someone was going to lose time today on those narrow cobbles. I doubt you'll hear a lot of whining. T-Mobile, Phonak, Fassa, and Lotto all pushed the pace. It's not as if they saw Mayo go down and then attacked.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

That's right, everybody pushed but not USPS.

I don't think it was unfair what they did, maybe not exactly gentlemen like but not unfair. Mayo isn't exactly known as a gentleman either. But what gets me is that in this forum, some people always try to defend USPS even if they didn't do anything different from the other teams. USPS and LA are sooooo clean, fair and true to the sport, com'on, wake up!

I am really dissapointed with USPS, T-Mobile, and Phonak. I am big fan of all their team leaders, but in particular Hamilton, but I have to say I am dissapointed that the tempo was not slowed to allow the Eusketal-Euskadi team leader to catch up. I watched live and it certainly looked like everyone was picking up the pace to get a good place going into first cobble section, but it really appears Mayo and his team were taken advantage of. All the team's know how dangerous Mayo and Zubeldia for that matter are for the overall and in the mountains, I can't believe that they took advantage of a crash to distance themselves from the Euskatel leaders/team. IMHO when a big GC contender goes down in a crash you don't take advantage of a contender. Remember Lance said this himself, he doesn't look to good now does he. Same goes for Tyler and Jan. I am pretty dissapointed in what happened to Euskatel-Euskadi. I will say that there may be more than meets the eye, but it certainly looks as if the big 3 contender and their teams took advantage of one of the most dangerous other contenders.

So true. In this forum, USPS and LA are always above what every other team does in cycling. they can do no wrong. The rest of the cycling world dopes and uses EPO, but never LA or the USPS team.

Agree 100%. I want Ullrich to win but what he and T-mobile did today was not good, in my opinion. And the same holds for USPS, Phonak and the others. Big disapointment!

I tend to agree but that's maybe a little too far what you just did. Remember, if someone has a very strong opinion about something, you can't convince him by picturing the worst possible scenario. Try to make a small point and then take a bigger step. Now, with the doping issue you lost all hope to get some of the super pro LA people in here on your side.

If you want a good example of this, just read one of the political treads in this forum. Lots of talking, lots of yelling but I've yet to see someone that is actually listening and changing his opinion. That's how war begins in the first place....ouch yet another flame has been lid.

For crepe's sake, this isn't a Care-Bear picnic. It was no secret that the two sections of cobbles could wreak havoc with the GC. It's about your position going into the mess. I haven't ever seen Petacchi or (the grand champion)Cipollini slow down at the end of a stage because a contender isn't in the 'right' place to make it a man to man sprint. They do that crap in a velodrome.