2009 TDF stage 17 - Bourg-Saint-Maurice Le Grand-Bornand 169.5 km

[limerickman]

I re-watched this stage again this morning.

What a stage!
Having looked at it again, I thought that Kloden did a great stage.
He was on his hands and knees coming over the line but he gave Contador huge support on the last two climbs of the stage.

I was also very impressed with Christian Van DeVelde.
He rode well in support for Bradley Wiggins – who in turn rode a phenomenal stage.

Just looking at the Contador breakaway, i think he seriously miscalculated about the Schlecks form during the stage.
His plan to breakaway failed to break both of the Schlecks.
Just looking at the interview afterward, Riis could have been a bit more articulate given his riders superb display yesterday.
Maybe his praise got lost in its Nordic delivery.

 

[nonns]

Total agreement on the Contador Schleck thing. I think Conti has a few years of growing up wrt tactics and strategy. He seems to be a bit of a hot head. That can lead to miscalculation especially when you have the strongest type of alliance which transcends teams like the Schlecks have. I wonder what its worth from a psychological perspective for the Shreks. How many extra seconds of effort can it help generate when you're trying to help your bro'

Ref the Nordic delivery thang. I'm not so sure. I think Riis has always been kind of surly and taciturn. He's never been all that big on boasting - its always fairly understated and matter of fact. He might also be trying not to appear to be too **** a hoop when he's got a major time trial coming up which might chnage things. Fially he's also got a badly broken rider. It might seen to be unseemly to be too vociferous in his praise.

Its all interesting days.

 

[limerickman]

Ref : Riis. You might well be right with two of his riders out through injury (Arvesen and Voigt), he probably didn’t want to display too much happiness given their injuries.
I didn’t think of that.
Or as you say he could just be a surly bugger!

 

[jhuskey]

According to my source Kloden said he didn't eat enough on this stage and ran out of gas.

 

[limerickman]

According to my source Kloden said he didn't eat enough on this stage and ran out of gas.

Yeah, Kloden looked like he ran out of gas almost instantly which would appear to hint at hungerbonk.
Why was the team car up beside him giving him food beforehand?

 

[Eldrack]

By the time the hunger knock hits you and you realise your mistake it's about an hour too late to have started eating. He'd probably remembered that he should have been eaten, taken on a whole load and chowed down but by then he was already on his way to getting toasted. Probably saved himself some time and will help with today but wasn't early enough to stop him flying backwards yesterday.

 

[jhuskey]

Yeah, Kloden looked like he ran out of gas almost instantly which would appear to hint at hungerbonk.
Why was the team car up beside him giving him food beforehand?

Knowing this it makes more sense that Contador kept looking back not understanding why he didn't accelerate as he would normally.

 

[limerickman]

By the time the hunger knock hits you and you realise your mistake it's about an hour too late to have started eating. He'd probably remembered that he should have been eaten, taken on a whole load and chowed down but by then he was already on his way to getting toasted. Probably saved himself some time and will help with today but wasn't early enough to stop him flying backwards yesterday.

I'm aware of what the hungerknock is - and even a water carrier like me knows that you have to eat regularly, and often, to ensure that you don't get the bonk.

I'm surprised at a professional like Kloden getting the hungerknock.

Then again, this was the man who three years ago, decided to make a mess of a sprint finish and managed to gift a stage to Armstrong.
i like Kloden.........but sometime I get the distinct feeling that the brain does not engage at times.

 

[jhuskey]

I got the information from his old team mate who talked to him yesterday.

 

[limerickman]

I got the information from his old team mate who talked to him yesterday.

Impeccable source.

Remind him to remind him to tell him to eat, will ya!