Friday, June 13, 2008

Let Levi Ride.... Backwards


So reading these quotes from Velonews, really makes me think Leiphemer deserves the scorn he gets for being a wheelsucker and boring racer.
Exhibit One:
VeloNews.com: How did things go for you up the Joux-Plane, it looked like you were OK before Valverde attacked and almost got back on?
Levi Leipheimer: I’m recovered now. I just had a bad moment.

Obviously you are recovered now, the stage is over and you are doing an interview. The question was why did you crack on the Joux-Plane. A good answer would have been you were imitating Armstrong's meltdown on this climb. If only Andrew Hood had asked him a follow up, along the lines of "No what happened, did you want to puke or did you just give up?"

Exhibit Two(which might be borrowed from the Quotable Hincapie)VN: Evans said he attacked when he saw you suffering a little bit, how was it up the final part of the climb?
LL: I don’t understand what Cadel was doing. People who win the Tour de France don’t race like that. He was just doing Alejandro’s job for him. Now he has second instead of third. You have to race to win and he wasn’t obviously doing that

Where to start? He attacked because you were in pain and he was behind you in GC. So yes now he is second and you are third. How exactly do you "race to win" by not attacking? To win you have to be faster than everyone so you either A.wait for everyone else to crack or B.Attack. You were both in the most elite and final selection of the day and most likely the race. That isn't the time to wait, it is the time to make it or break it. Evans tried. You didn't. End of story.
As far as "people who win the TDF...", don't I vaguely remember Contador(a person who has won the TDF) relentlessly attacking Rasumussen in the mountains last year? And isn't Levi a little unqualified to speak about "people who win the TDF"-he should stick to people who win the "Tour of Missouri" or "people who win the Dauphine"

Exhibit Three:
LL:It looks like Evans is just racing for second. He figures he can’t beat him.

And you know this because what? Because it was your strategy? If he has another "bad moment" he better hope that Gesnik, Trofimov, or Dessel don't start to "race for third" or he will be off the podium.
There is nothing worse than an athlete refusing to show respect for a rival's strength or simply acknowledging their own poor performance without throwing out the excuse net or trying to talk "tactics". Chris Horner doesn't win a lot or races, but he understands racing and when he talks it makes sense. Levi not so much.
At this rate the new campaign had better be "Let Levi Whine"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

mr. cardboard personality could never answer questions in an interview and now he can't win bike races without the juju juice. how so many people have supported this guy is beyond me- is it because he's branded by VS as the 'top AMERICAN racer'? his strategy has ALWAYS been to fight for second/third and hope the guy in front falls off his bike. he's always had the personality of a roofing shingle. let levi ride, in his garage.