Cycling + Baseball: Similarity #1
nothing important April 29th, 2008Second Guessing the Manager.
Why didn’t Trent Lowe follow Sivtsov on Brasstown, was it tactics from the team car? Why did Rebellin and
Schleck’s managers have them play out the finale of Liege the way they did knowing the chances are pretty high Valverde would dust the duo in the sprint? Why did Lefevere have Bortolami and Tafi wait for Museeuw in the 1996 Roubaix, only to force those two to sit up for Johan in the finale? What was Tadej Valjavec’s DS thinking when we had him ride they way he did for Salvodelli on Stage 19 of the 2005 Giro finishing in Sestriere? And why did Bob Boone do the double switch in the 8th inning to put in a right handed batter that bats .156 against a left handed sinker ball pitcher with 2 runners in scoring position in the eastern time zone when the batter played two night games in a row and this is a day game? Of course that’s not going to work!
The two sports share the subtlety that once a move is made, it cannot be remedied. Runs are scored and matches are burnt. The tooth paste does not go back into the tube very easily… and fans get to talk to other fans about it for years to come.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Similarity #2: Goose Gossage inspired facial hair.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:03 am
I don’t get. When Lowe passed Leipheimer a few meters before the finish line, it got me thinking. He might have had the legs to follow Sivtsov, but didn’t because whoever was running the showing for Slipstream failed to notice that Sivtsov was only 6 seconds behind Lowe in the GC. How could they have failed to notice that? Didn’t they have a look at the GC standings before the stage started? Totally unacceptable, yet unlike baseball, no one seems to give a shit obviously.
April 30th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Yes, it certainly seemed that Lowe had the horses to keep Sivtsov in check, but was fixed/fixated to Levi’s back wheel. Your question is right on. Why didn’t he go with Sivtsov’s acceleration? The explanation that he didn’t know the GC time gap does not hold water. All teams are given printed results and GC standings each evening and morning. It listed Sivtsov at 6″ down on the GC. The group with Lowe, Levi, Siutsov, Seville, et al formed at the bottom of Brasstown 20 minutes before Sivtov’s acceleration at about 400 meters to go. The Slipstream car had radio contact with Lowe and radio contact with the “radio tour” which explains to the team cars where everyone is on the road. I was at the finish line so I do not know if the Slipstream car was permitted in the gap behind the front group containing Lowe. In any event, there was adequate time to study the GC times and relay the information to Lowe that not only was Levi a danger man, but also to not let Sivtsov get more that 6″. Was Lowe not told? Was he told and forgot? Did he think that Sivtsov couldn’t get more that 6″ in final few hundred meters? Was he gassed and couldn’t respond? Was the GC misread in the car? I have not seen Lowe’s explanation of what happened. The certain thing is that the race was won (and lost) in that final few hundred meters on Brasstown.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Maybe it was fear? If he is close to his physicsl limit, tries to go with Sivtsov he risks blowing up & being countered by Levi and losing more time- or maybe he was expecting Levi would not let the race go up the road?
JK in NC
May 4th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Has there been a definitive answer or explanation from either Astana or Slipstream as to what happened? I haven’t seen anything on this and would have expected a journalist from one of the publications to have asked about this.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Look at the videos section on VeloNews.com. Neal Rogers talks to Trent Lowe, Levi, and Bob Stapleton. He asks the questions, but I don’t know if the answers are very helpful.
Justin
May 4th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I’ll check those out. I did read the post race interview with Trent and there he indicated he was at the limit. Have to see how he went around Levi to know for sure. From the time differences it appears he could have gone earlier and possibly kept up with Sivtsov. The race should be on Versus (no help for me). What are your thoughts on a week long race having a team time trial? I know the format looked interesting but didn’t it effectively take all riders from non pro tour teams out of contention for the overall? 40 seconds is a lot to give up.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:08 am
It will be interesting to hear what you guys have to say about the possibility of Astana in the Tour of Italy. If Leipheimer, Kloden, and Contador are going this may be The Tour this year. It will be difficult since they won’t be able to tailor their training but at the very least they’ll make the race interesting. Who wants to watch Cadel Evans ride around France for 3 weeks followed by his coronation? (now that I’ve said it the poor guy will be put in difficult on first climb) At least this once the Tour of France may become “The Tour de Who Cares.”
May 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
“The Tour de Who Cares” only applies to THIS year? And only if a bunch of ex-Disco, ex-Telekom, ex-Lib Seg riders and their former Manolo Saiz-raised helmsman (all scooped fittingly into a barrel labelled ‘Astana’) aren’t invited? Come on! Besides, hasn’t that been the race’s name for a decade? And if they were there we are certain one of them will win? Or if they are not there that the race will be boring BECAUSE they are not there? I suppose Monsieur Kent picked Periero in ‘06 (I guess techincally we’re still waiting for yet another confirmation of that… How thrilling! Speaking of which, WHO CARES? Wait, that would make a great name for a bike race), Riis in ‘96, Indurain in ‘91, Lemond in ‘89, Fignon (Sacre Bleu!) in ‘83, and Zootemelk in ‘80. As well, I’m sure he saw guys like Ullrich in ‘96, Ugromov in ‘94, Jaskula in ‘93, Leblanc in ‘91 (Encore avec le Sacre Bleu!), Chiapucci in ‘90, Rooks in ‘88, and Zimmermann in ‘86 as real contenders long before many of the rest of us even knew their names. As Stephen Roche said after winning the 1987 Tour de France, in response to an ignorant American footballer asking him about ‘unfinished business’ since Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault were not there, “The race, its the riders who make the race… With ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ we can do a lot of things…There were 207 competitors and I won, so thats all you’ve gotta look at.” (It was, by the way, one of the two most exciting Tours de France i’ve ever watched, and i’ve seen a few in between drinks). Whether or not Le Tour will be interesting has nothing to do with the riders that aren’t there.