…so my cable goes down the day before the tour, and I’m all like, “this is so bogus”. Cant someone do something or what!
Maybe you kids can help me out a bit. After watching the Giro I figured Petacchi would make some waves in the Tour but he seam to be out of it. Any comment from those of you who have been watching?
He is a marked man. To some extent, sprinting is a crapshoot. All these guys are studs and the difference is minimal. The TdF is the World Championships of sprinting and all the top guys are there with their teams. He’ll have a tougher go of it this year than last cause the Fassa train is being marked much more closely. Last year, perhaps he got away with more, cause many may have regarded his Giro success as bit of a default victory given the lack of top sprinters and Cipo crashing out early. Perhaps he also Peaked for the Giro this year ? The longer stages early in the TdF have also taken the top end off all of the sprinters, especially with the higher closing speed on the two breakaways to date.
Regardless, he should pull a few out, but I am hoping that Cipo gets a few and hangs in until Paris.
To be honest, the first two sprints have not been straight line sprints that favor the blue train and Petacchi. It seems like they are crowding him and making sure his guys fail to set up in the closing kilometers. Hopefully, the end of the week he will be able to turn it around.
Is the team getting beat at the front or does it look like they are not going at it like they were in the Giro?
Are they putting evryone up there or does it look like they are reserving a few riders for a possible overall placing?
Even with tricky final K’s chippos teams of the past have been able to sort out a good leadout. FB has showed a little weakness in the past letting other teams in the mix for the last 3-5 K’s.
So is it the team or Petacchi? Is he getting a look at the line and getting beat or has he been in poor position?
First off, the stage finishes have not really been these wide-open, huge run-in pure sprinting stages. There have been cobbles, narrow run-ins through small streets and genrally less than optimal conditions for Petacchi. I also heard one of the commentators mentions that Petacchi did not favor the cool, damp Belgian weather.
I think he may hit his stride. It is interesting to watch a more “durable” sprinter, such as Jan Kirsipu, have such a good stage.
I’ll take a different opinion. Petacchi is off form…
Take a look at the aerial video of the Stage 1 finish. After the last turn when everyone was in full sprint, McEwen came from behind and beside Petacchi, caught him, passed him, and then crossed over him. Essentially little man Robbie ran Petacchi over like he was in the way. Robbie was going so much faster than Petacchi in the last 100 yards is wasn’t even funny. Seriously, Robbie mowed the man down, like Petacchi was a Cat. 4 thrown into TDF by mistake. It was not pretty. Nothing like that was remotely possible in the Giro this year.
Definitely off form. IMHO.
He is definitely not getting beat from the front. It ends up like this, things are going well. When he gets to like 4th, that is when the problems start. I know the last 2 days some Confidis rider has been inter-mixed in the lead out train. As they approach the line, AG2R(I think) have rushed on the outside and it is like Petacchi gets pinched. It is like they pinch the team to one side and he has no where to go. The front riders have no where to drop to. Yesterdays winner swung out today and hit wheels with a CSC guy. FS is not getting the super pull/powerful performance we have seen in the past. Does anyone know if they changed lead out order/men since the Giro?
I think both Petacchi and Mario are waiting for the more favorable straight line/wide street sprints that come after the TTT day (look at the stage profiles!)
They are riding in Belgium. Narrow roads, massive crosswinds, bad pavement, 75 degree turns a few 100 meters from the finish - these are all things that favor quick finesse sprinters, not high speed straight line sprinters. Just like the prologue - good course for Armstrong, not for Ullrich. Doesn’t really say much about their form…
Everyone rides like they are on crack for the first week of the tour. You will not see people crashing the leadout train as much at the end of the week when the pecking order is established. Everyone who rode a decent prologue is sprinting for bonus seconds to try and take yellow - when that gets out of reach, they will settle down, and let the real sprinters/leadout guys do their job (this is exacerbated by the Belgian conditions…)
Robbie M is positively freakin’ flyin’ right now. He was the fastest guy yesterday as well, but he mis-timed his jump. He is also the perfect sprinter for this type of course: amazing bike handler, likes the rain, doesn’t get dropped on highway overpasses, quick as well as fast, and a totally reckless s**t head, who will ride anybody into the gutter to win.