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[nochain]

GrumpyOldGuy, on 28 July 2011 - 08:22 , said:

Yeah, this part I always agreed with.

Andy could have done a minimum to help Contador and encouraged him to really push on. He had five minutes to play with over the Spaniard, so even if he lost time to him on the Alpe d'Huez, it wouldn't have been dramatic.

Andy played a silly game by not helping 'Berto enough, maybe it was inexperience or maybe he was just bull headed, but at the time I thought if he worked with 'berto to get more time he would have had sealed the tour win. By pretty much sitting on (he only did 17% of the work)he was not able to stay away from a determined Evans.

I actually think Andy lost the tour by going with Berto at all.
Let me put it this way, the best thing that happened to Cadel was he's mechanical, he was forced to go back to the bunch and let he's team mates do all the work. And once they hit Alp de heuz he just sat Andy's wheel because he really did not have to worry about Berto.
So he only had one very hard effort(final climb on thursday) in the 2 day's leading up to the TT.
He also was much more mature in the way he did not try and chase the break on he's own...alla Voeckler.
With Voeckler , Evans and Basso back in the chase...Berto's move was never going to work no matter how much work Andy did or was capable of doing after the previous day's effort.

The problem they had was that in the valley they had no team mates to help up front, very much different from Andy's break where he had a team mate that could help open up the gap.

If Andy chose to stay with the bunch or at the very least went back after Cadel's mechanical and Voeckler dropped off he's team would have easily closed Conto down before the Final climb...instead he had to sit in front and help Conto and was involved in he's second long range attack in 2 days. And had 2 do almost all the work on Alp de heuz....that nearly killed him.

So no matter what we say about he's TT skills after those 2 efforts he was now by a long way the most tired off all the GC riders.
Big Big mistake in my books!!
What I am most disappointed in is the way in which they wanted to keep on trying to get Frank on the podium...If Andy wants to win they need to sort this out now,2 brothers on the podium won't work!!!
This is the second time Andy did not have the support of he's brother because they wanted him to podium. The previous time he just got beat by Armstrong but Andy effectively raced the whole 3rd week of the tour for he's brother that year.
He needs to work completely for Andy in the mountains then drop off and go and sit in the autobus so he can do it all again the next day!!

I am happy for Cadel that he got the win because he was the rider that did everything right and was the strongest over all the disciplines...I always knew he was going to be very hard to beat but Andy needs to start doing the right things.

I will however support him no matter what...even if he ends up getting 10 second places!!

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Possible, but I think he was also worried that if 'berto took four or five minutes back on the break, he MAY not have even be on the podium,'Berto would take at least a minute on the TT maybe more, same as Cadel really, so yeah, he could have chanced them catching 'berto on the valley, but thats hindsight now, at the time it would have been a big risk, so I think he had to go with, no choice really.

Cadel likewise, he had to go with and he did, the mechanical incident, again in hindsight, was a blessing, but they were working in real time there no hindsight at the time, letting 'Berto go run on his own could have cost both of them their podiums, no way they would have chanced that.