Basso's sportsmanship

Watch out, this is the calm b4 the storm! The pro-Lance crowd will give u trouble! 😄

FORZA BASSO!

Truly a magnanimous person.

mitosis said:

Wasn't it great to see Basso allow Armstrong the stage win yesterday.

I also thought it was a nice gift :o

mitosis said:

Wasn't it great to see Basso allow Armstrong the stage win yesterday.

That's a good one 😎 .
Lance didn't let Basso win the day before as he was pushing for time and was spent.
Yesterday you could just look at Basso and Armstrong's face and see who was fresher.
I don't think Basso would give up a stage win and a time bonuses for sportsmanship.

mitosis said:

Wasn't it great to see Basso allow Armstrong the stage win yesterday.

That's a good one. Hah hah hah 😄

mitosis said:

Wasn't it great to see Basso allow Armstrong the stage win yesterday.

Yep... it was nice to see that kind of comradery between the two riders. It was also nice of Ullrich to let each of them have an uncontested win.

WINGNUTT said:

Yep... it was nice to see that kind of comradery between the two riders. It was also nice of Ullrich to let each of them have an uncontested win.

What's 7 minutes behind leadership position with a huge motor like Ullrich's, eh? That's nothing on the flats in a TT. 😄 😉

gntlmn said:

What's 7 minutes behind leadership position with a huge motor like Ullrich's, eh? That's nothing on the flats in a TT. 😄 😉

Basso's face yesterday looked remarkedly like LA's from the day before. This could be a good battle.

Fixey said:

Basso's face yesterday looked remarkedly like LA's from the day before. This could be a good battle.

Could be if Basso can hold it together. Think of it this way - Basso is 1'39" down on Lance, but 50 of those seconds were lost in the TTT. I doubt Basso will be able to make any time on Lance in any stage, but he has certainly proven himself a worthy adversary.

Fixey said:

Basso's face yesterday looked remarkedly like LA's from the day before. This could be a good battle.

General classification after stage 14

1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 62.33.11
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor 0.22
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 1.39

The time trial up Alpe d'Huez is going to be good to watch, I doubt Basso will pull back a minute, but he might get close!

steve said:

General classification after stage 14

1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 62.33.11
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor 0.22
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 1.39

The time trial up Alpe d'Huez is going to be good to watch, I doubt Basso will pull back a minute, but he might get close!

But then he would need more like 3 minutes or so, assuming he does not TT as well as Lance on the last TT and assuming they stay about the same in the other stages. Even that is not unthinkable given Basso's strength in the mountains. I just don't think it that likely.

gntlmn said:

But then he would need more like 3 minutes or so, assuming he does not TT as well as Lance on the last TT and assuming they stay about the same in the other stages. Even that is not unthinkable given Basso's strength in the mountains. I just don't think it that likely.

That is true 🙂

donhix1 said:

That's a good one 😎 .
Lance didn't let Basso win the day before as he was pushing for time and was spent.
Yesterday you could just look at Basso and Armstrong's face and see who was fresher.
I don't think Basso would give up a stage win and a time bonuses for sportsmanship.

I agree. I was surprised that Basso rode up to the line in front of Armstrong at La Mongie, but I was not surprised that Lance sprinted past him at Plateau de Beille. I am not sure, but I do not think Basso has that kind of explosive acceleration. So I still do not think Ivan gave him the stage; the look on his face showed that he was winding it up to try to keep Armstrong from going around him, but I do not think he had much left, and Armstrong probably wanted to send a message to those who said he gave away the previous stage.

WINGNUTT said:

Could be if Basso can hold it together. Think of it this way - Basso is 1'39" down on Lance, but 50 of those seconds were lost in the TTT. I doubt Basso will be able to make any time on Lance in any stage, but he has certainly proven himself a worthy adversary.

I have the same doubt, but I hope he does make some time up somewhere, because I have pulled for Basso for the past couple of seasons, and because it would be good to see a close race.

gntlmn said:

But then he would need more like 3 minutes or so, assuming he does not TT as well as Lance on the last TT and assuming they stay about the same in the other stages. Even that is not unthinkable given Basso's strength in the mountains. I just don't think it that likely.

Basso lost 27 seconds to Armstrong in the prologue. At that rate he would lose about 4 minutes in the final time trial of 55k. But he probably would not lose the same 4.5 seconds per kilometer over the longer distance. It seems the two of them can ride at the same pace when they are together on a mountain; the test will be to see who can hold the higher pace when they are alone. Normally I would say Armstrong, but his performance on Ventoux in the Dauphine has me doubting. It will definitely be interesting.

Powerful Pete said:

Watch out, this is the calm b4 the storm! The pro-Lance crowd will give u trouble! 😄

FORZA BASSO!

Thanks PP, I did it for that reason. The loudest ones were the same ones who tried to tell us that Lance gave a stage to Basso.

I thought I'd get blasted more for taking so long to post it. (I've been away from civilisation cycling for two days).

LA did gift the stage to Basso. LA is an expert strategist and could have gotten the stage win, had he wanted it. He's also a better very-short-distance "sprint" rider than Basso.

LA probably thought Basso's career would benefit significantly, whereas the difference between the 1st and 2nd place time bonus is 8" (not the full 20" bonus for first).

donhix1 said:

That's a good one 😎 .
Lance didn't let Basso win the day before as he was pushing for time and was spent.
Yesterday you could just look at Basso and Armstrong's face and see who was fresher.
I don't think Basso would give up a stage win and a time bonuses for sportsmanship.

Look up the word sarcasm in the dictionary. Then find out from an Aussie mate what "taking the [censored] means" because its just happened to you.

drebro said:

I agree. I was surprised that Basso rode up to the line in front of Armstrong at La Mongie, but I was not surprised that Lance sprinted past him at Plateau de Beille. I am not sure, but I do not think Basso has that kind of explosive acceleration. So I still do not think Ivan gave him the stage; the look on his face showed that he was winding it up to try to keep Armstrong from going around him, but I do not think he had much left, and Armstrong probably wanted to send a message to those who said he gave away the previous stage.

Good points.
The twenty seconds was probably a big incentive for Armstrong too.