I must have missed something along the lines here, but I keep seeing people refer to Vino and the Champs Elysees and Levi saying he’s not gonna pull a Vino on Cadel tomorrow. What happened? What did I miss?
2-3 years ago Vino toke some bonus secounds on the final stage by winning the stage and climbed above Levi on GC.
Pulling a “Vino” is ALMOST as bad as pulling a “Boogart” - almost.
It was even more convoluted than that though. It was raining when they started their laps on the Champs. The directors of the tour said the official standings would be made final after the end of the first lap. The rain cleared up and so did the roads. Vino went off the front for the final loop and took the stage win. Despite the fact the standings were “finalized” earlier, Vino got the time bonus and jumped Levi for 5th place. Hard to know for sure, but I would imagine Gerolsteiner would have marked Vino had the standings not already been “finalized”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF9SPsRbDfI/
It was impressive as hell for Vino to pull off the victory in Paris, time bonus or not.
Levi promising not to win a bunch sprint on the Champs-Elysees is like me promising Normann Stadler that I won’t make the bike ride too hard in Hawaii this year.
Previous to getting to Paris, I think he had picked up some time bonuses along the way, while fighting off some of Levi’s guys too.