All of sudden near the end of the race, Astana goes nuts and Levi is 3rd around one of the final corners, basically riding in the leadout train of the other teams. Levi mentioned they thought they may have caught a contender out of the group. Who was the contender he was referring to and what happened to them? Anyone catch the details?
In looking through the results (http://www.velonews.com/results/88228) they may have been talking about Bauke Mollema of Team Rabobank. There was a lot of talk about his race for Points Leader early on and how he was dangerous to the GCs. Not sure who else they’d be talking about.
None of the other potential GC contenders in the race (Landis, Vandevelde, Hincapie, Basso) have been anywhere near the Astana-dominated front. Today’s Time Trial should prove interesting, though, and may shake up the field. Then, the last two stages have two huge climbs that will sort out the field a bit more. This race is far from over (although, I think Astana will remain the team to beat).
Cheers.
I didn’t explain it very well. I think Levi was indicating that Astana thought a contender may have slipped off the BACK of the lead group and they quickly moved to the front in an effort to try and prevent that rider from catching back on, giving Levi a small time gap. It had to be someone like Rogers, Zabriskie, Lovkist, or Basso I would guess.
Phil and Paul reported that Basso had to ride pretty hard at the end to get the same time as the rest of the guys. I would assume Astana heard he got gapped and punched it.
I didn’t explain it very well. I think Levi was indicating that Astana thought a contender may have slipped off the BACK of the lead group and they quickly moved to the front in an effort to try and prevent that rider from catching back on, giving Levi a small time gap. It had to be someone like Rogers, Zabriskie, Lovkist, or Basso I would guess.
In all honesty, I doubt it was any of the big GC guys, and more or less unless there is some huge gap in riders, they all get the same time at the finish. I’d say Levi was more or less trying to stay out of trouble. Did he specifially say who he was trying to drop, because more times than not, its almost impossible to be able to do something like that in the final km’s.
He didn’t say who, he just said “contender”, but indicated that yes he did punch it near the end in hopes of being on the positive side of a gap in the field that formed.
He didn’t say who, he just said “contender”, but indicated that yes he did punch it near the end in hopes of being on the positive side of a gap in the field that formed.
other poster suggests that it was Basso. Didnt really work, the big GC guys all had same time, no GC loses.
Basso did fall off the back and recover it so it’s probably him they’re talking about. I’m not so sure that he deserves to be called a contender at this race yet although he’s not that far back.