How hard will Lance ride the TT stage at Tour of Cali

Triathlon Forum
1

It seems very evident that Lance has every intention of making sure that Levi wins the TOC. Clearly they have an agreement that Lance will work for Levi now so Levi will work for him in France. What also seems evident to me at least is that Lance has at least as good form as anyone else in the peleton right now and could potentially win this race if he wanted. So the question then becomes how hard he goes at the TT stage. If he goes really hard and ends up with a time better than Levi’s that would obviously change the dynamics of the race for Astana. The team might want Levi to win this race but they obviously have to have a back up plan in case the unexpected happens. Astana probably wants to win the race even if that means Lance gets the yellow jersey over Levi. So the question becomes does Lance ride the TT stage his hardest and let the chips fall where they may? Or does he pull up a bit in the end and prevent any potential future conflict with the team members?

2

It seems very evident that Lance has every intention of making sure that Levi wins the TOC. Clearly they have an agreement that Lance will work for Levi now so Levi will work for him in France. What also seems evident to me at least is that Lance has at least as good form as anyone else in the peleton right now and could potentially win this race if he wanted. So the question then becomes how hard he goes at the TT stage. If he goes really hard and ends up with a time better than Levi’s that would obviously change the dynamics of the race for Astana. The team might want Levi to win this race but they obviously have to have a back up plan in case the unexpected happens. Astana probably wants to win the race even if that means Lance gets the yellow jersey over Levi. So the question becomes does Lance ride the TT stage his hardest and let the chips fall where they may? Or does he pull up a bit in the end and prevent any potential future conflict with the team members?

LOL, this is being discussed in the TT thread.

I’ll say this, either Lance should ride hard or he shouldnt. But to have Lance go all out to get his best time and then “pulling up at the end” seems to be a BS and more of a disgrace to cycling. Kinda a chicken shit move to me, because you dont want to declare a winner that way, atleast thats how I feel about it. Also due to the order of the TT, I dont think this can happen, because even though Lance is near the very end, the time splits are still going to be too close to call in between Lance and Levi, who I think is riding 4-6 mins behind Lance.

I still think Lance can go all out and still not be in yellow, in fact I dont even think he makes top 3 today, but I do think top 5.

And lets not forget, the winner of this TT is not going to automatically win the bike race. It is going to come down to sunday’s hard stage. Although it doesnt have a uphill finish, it has enough climbs that could really cause someone to go on a break.

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Being discussed here…

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2214043;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;

4

Ahhhh… I hate when that happens. Sorry about that.

5

Ahhhh… I hate when that happens. Sorry about that.

:wink:

We should just keep posting on this one to observe the reactions.