Thursday, August 23, 2007

Tour of Ireland- Game Over??

In a one week stage race winning margins are usually small and often can be determined by time bonuses. So how does a break get 13 minutes on the first day of racing and effectively end the race for anyone not in the break? CSC,T-Mobile,Slipsream,LPR, and Navigators all had men in the break and they are arguably the strongest teams in the race. Everyone else will be hunting for stages.
Will the Schelck brothers be grabbing bottles for Marcus Ljungqvist? I guess there will still be a battle for stage wins and some shuffling among the 10 from the break, but this does not make for an exciting race
People must have been asleep at the wheel to let that go. There were 8 other teams including Rabo continental(with Sven Nys as a ringer) that could have at least tried to pull it back. Ouch

It is rad to see Unibet always going full out when they get a race start. It is fucking ridiculous how bad the governing bodies fucked these riders with there bullshit politics.


Leiphemer transfer rumours incude Lotto(why?) and T-Mobile(makes more sense except for the T-Mobile transfer curse). On paper it seems like any of the French pro-tour teams should jump at him. Same thing for Slipstream or Saunier Duval. There aren't that many other Pro-Tour teams built around a GC guy. Moving to Quickstep almost guarantees, he would be one his own maybe hunting for stages or a polka dot jersey.

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