Tour de Romandie

Colnagov said:

Interesting result this morning at the Tour de Romandie. I always thought that Santiago Botero can win the TDF and his past few year results were somewhat disappointing. Cunego is good in the hill, but he will need to brush up his TT skill. Botero is a great Time trialist. I really hope that the 2005 TDF will be as good as the 2003...

Botero prooved to unstable to win any GT, atleast the tdf IMHO. This from his Kelme time when he actually was a good rider. What happend to him? Had some great years at Kleme then not a single result during his two years at T-mobile? Well, kinda liked the fella before... From top in kelme to bottom in t-mobile and now back up there again... hmm

I have a few comments on Romandie in a thread under Road Cycling. I'm new to Cycling Forums and don't know yet what goes there and what goes here in the Grand Tours section.

Later!

J

Should have said the thread is "Beloki"

JRMDC said:

I have a few comments on Romandie in a thread under Road Cycling. I'm new to Cycling Forums and don't know yet what goes there and what goes here in the Grand Tours section.

Later!

J

Bjørn P.Dal said:

Botero prooved to unstable to win any GT, atleast the tdf IMHO. This from his Kelme time when he actually was a good rider. What happend to him? Had some great years at Kleme then not a single result during his two years at T-mobile? Well, kinda liked the fella before... From top in kelme to bottom in t-mobile and now back up there again... hmm

T-mobile was like the Real Madrid or New York Rangers, too many leaders for one team...
I think with Phonak, with the fact that Tyler is out, he will be the clear leader for this team and that will help him to get good result.

This only proves that T-mobile only dope German riders 😎

but on a more serious note, I think Julich, Botero and Evans have all shown that it's not a good idea to go to T-mobile and expect to have equal priority with the home riders.

Colnagov said:

T-mobile was like the Real Madrid or New York Rangers, too many leaders for one team...
I think with Phonak, with the fact that Tyler is out, he will be the clear leader for this team and that will help him to get good result.

Im pretty sure Floyed Landis will have something to say about that.

What is disturbing about the Tour de Romandie is how poorly Salvodelli has been climbing, even though we have always known that he is not an elite climber. True, he hasn't had the benefit of a lot of descents to show his ability to catch up on descents, as he has tended to do, and, yes, there historically has been a reason he always needed to go fast on descents to catch up to people who have done better on the climbing portion of a stage, but Salvodelli is not climbing well enough to win GC at the Giro.

Roadrash Dunc said:

Im pretty sure Floyed Landis will have something to say about that.

I agree Landis will get at least co-leadership with Perreiro (sic) and Botero of the TdF Phonak team. But Botero is at least as good an ITT as Landis, and is stronger than Landis in the mountains.

Cyclingnews reports on the Tour de Romanie:

"While Botero admitted the Tour de France is 'the' big objective for his Phonak team, 'Santi' didn't get into specifics as to who would lead the Swiss squad at the world's biggest bike race. Rather, he told Cyclingnews that this is one of the team's advantages, in that "there are no big stars, nobody bigger than all the rest, but everyone on roughly the same level" - a strong reference to his previous situation at T-Mobile the last two years. "This is what I like about this team. Phonak did not put pressure on me; they let me train my own way, and they trusted me. In the Tour, we will have Floyd [Landis], we have Oscar Pereiro, Alexandre Moos and myself... I think we have a very good team," he said with quiet confidence."

musette said:

What is disturbing about the Tour de Romandie is how poorly Salvodelli has been climbing, even though we have always known that he is not an elite climber. True, he hasn't had the benefit of a lot of descents to show his ability to catch up on descents, as he has tended to do, and, yes, there historically has been a reason he always needed to go fast on descents to catch up to people who have done better on the climbing portion of a stage, but Salvodelli is not climbing well enough to win GC at the Giro.

I haven't had much confidence in Savoldelli as a leader in the Giro for Discovery. Even on his podium appearances, he turned in good but never great rides. And he doesn't seem to be sufficiently consistent. I won't argue with past results, but I don't personally see Savoldelli being a major factor in this year's Giro. Not with the kind of talent that will be on display.

What I noticed in Romandie: Beloki coming in 2nd to last in the TT. Thomas Dekker coming in 6th in the TT. Cunego riding an excellent TT. Poor voeckler absolutely melting down (though his TT wasn't bad).

I haven't seen too much, but from what I have seen, Dekker looks just great in a TT. Awesome position, very strong, very fast. And with oh so many, many years to improve.

I thought Botero could challenge at a TdF, i also lost a lot of money backing him in 2002. Hopefully he can gain a bit of consistency over the three weeks of a tour, but i doubt it, he will always have his bad days in the mountains, but he is certainly a top TTist.

T Dekker -- Are you kidding? He will be lucky to finish in the top 1/2 of the toughest TdF mountain stages, and will probably in the grupetto! 😄

Botero is quite dangerous -- he's got a good team for the TTT, is one of the few riders in the peloton who has beaten LA at a TdF ITT/Prologue (the others being JU; D Miller -- not currently in the peloton), and has good climbing skills when he is on form. In my mind, Botero is more dangerous than Basso, although less dangerous than JU.

musette said:

T Dekker -- Are you kidding? He will be lucky to finish in the top 1/2 of the toughest TdF mountain stages, and will probably in the grupetto! 😄

I didn't say this year. And since he's just 20, I think it might be a bit presumptuous to think that he destined for the groupetto in all future TdFs.

tcklyde said:

I didn't say this year. And since he's just 20, I think it might be a bit presumptuous to think that he destined for the groupetto in all future TdFs.

a good ride by Contador too - 22 years old, recovering from a life threatening embolism and brain surgery, just started training again after the Basque Tour (where he beat Julich to win the TT) in the last week and gets his 5th win of the season and a top 5 finish. He is on Liberty's TdF team - though he may not get the chance to shine himself this year, what a lieutenant for Heras...

micron said:

a good ride by Contador too - 22 years old, recovering from a life threatening embolism and brain surgery, just started training again after the Basque Tour (where he beat Julich to win the TT) in the last week and gets his 5th win of the season and a top 5 finish. He is on Liberty's TdF team - though he may not get the chance to shine himself this year, what a lieutenant for Heras...

Agreed. Contador is having a true breakthrough year. Give him a couple more healthy years to develop and he's a top-10 TDF or Giro contender.

musette said:

Salvodelli is not climbing well enough to win GC at the Giro.

Even DC's top PR guy has a report, quoting assistant DC DS, scaling down expectations with respect to Salvodelli. This is on LA's own website:

""Paolo is just about ready for the Giro," Lapage said of the 2002 champion and 1999 runner up in his home country's national tour. "He had a really good time trial yesterday and I think he's ready. He thinks and believes a top five finish is possible.""

micron said:

a good ride by Contador too - 22 years old, recovering from a life threatening embolism and brain surgery, just started training again after the Basque Tour (where he beat Julich to win the TT) in the last week and gets his 5th win of the season and a top 5 finish. He is on Liberty's TdF team - though he may not get the chance to shine himself this year, what a lieutenant for Heras...

Another second to this thought. Truly a great story, as well.

I really wish we could get a read on Heras' form. Ditto Mayo, Ulle, Sastre. Ahh well, I guess it will keep it interesting. But I wonder most about Heras. He was just so strong in 2002 -- strong enough probably to have taken LA on one stage and potentially on another. Will we see that form again?

As for Botero, I'm very optomistic. Is he peaking too soon?

But what I'm most excited to see is how Cunego rates against Basso in the tough Giro stages. Cunego has shown he can top the field at the Giro. Now, how will he compete against one of the top climbers at the Tour?

Didn't Sastre have some sort of injury, from which he is recovering?