In light of the “Lance crashes out” thread it could e ironic that it is Iban mayo who actually suffers - the crash was actually just before the stretch of Pave but it looks as if he is the most senior of the contenders to be caught up in the crash - still one section to go but the LA, JU and Tyler (i think) are in the top group.
Just hope that this is not too significant in the grand scheme of things
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…
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?
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…
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?! 
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 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.
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.
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!