Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and Alessandro Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo.
This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three.
Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be doing this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways.
He doesn't even comes close to Tyler when it comes to getting bashed all to hell. Yes this year he had some bad crashes but the previous years... If you would make a list with the crashes of Tyler and then compare with Pettachis crashes, I think there will be big differences.
"Sonarrat" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:[email hidden]...
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Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and Alessandro Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo.
This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three.
Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be doing this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways.
He doesn't even comes close to Tyler when it comes to getting bashed all to hell. Yes this year he had some bad crashes but the previous years... If you would make a list with the crashes of Tyler and then compare with Pettachis crashes, I think there will be big differences.
Or better yet ....... keep the rubber side down and FINISH races ..........
Sonarrat <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and Alessandro Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo.
This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three.
Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be doing this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways.
-Sonarrat.
Gonzalez was an interesting case. He didn't originally have all three on his program, but they sent him to each GT in sucession looking for a good result, after fighting with Aqua & Sapone/Domina for his contract. I think he originally 'only' had a Giro-Veulta program.
[email hidden] (brian roth) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Sonarrat <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and Alessandro Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo.
This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three.
Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be doing this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways.
-Sonarrat.
Gonzalez was an interesting case. He didn't originally have all three on his program, but they sent him to each GT in sucession looking for a good result, after fighting with Aqua & Sapone/Domina for his contract. I think he originally 'only' had a Giro-Veulta program.
Isn't the situation a bit different for sprinters vs. GC contenders. To me it seems that the sustained effort to place high in GC is much more intense than for the sprinters that just need to survive the climbs.
I'm not knocking sprinters but thye are in a "different" race than the GC folks. Seriously contending the GC at all 3 is almost miraculous.
in article [email hidden], gds at [email hidden] wrote on 9/3/04 4:55 PM:
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[email hidden] (brian roth) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Sonarrat <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:
Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and Alessandro Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo.
This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three.
Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be doing this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways.
-Sonarrat.
Gonzalez was an interesting case. He didn't originally have all three on his program, but they sent him to each GT in sucession looking for a good result, after fighting with Aqua & Sapone/Domina for his contract. I think he originally 'only' had a Giro-Veulta program.
Isn't the situation a bit different for sprinters vs. GC contenders. To me it seems that the sustained effort to place high in GC is much more intense than for the sprinters that just need to survive the climbs.
I'm not knocking sprinters but thye are in a "different" race than the GC folks. Seriously contending the GC at all 3 is almost miraculous.
Contending in all three in ANY form is really just stupid to the nth degree, and to start all three as a GC contender is even dumber.
"Sonarrat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
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in article [email hidden], gds at [email hidden] wrote on 9/3/04 4:55 PM:
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[email hidden] (brian roth) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Sonarrat <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > Last year, there were two men who each competed in the Giro d'Italia,
Tour
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> de France, and Vuelta a España. They were Aitor Gonzalez and
Alessandro
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> Petacchi, both riding, as they do now, for Fassa Bortolo. > > This year, Petacchi is alone - he's the only man to start all three. > > Like him or not, that takes serious, serious grits. For him to be
doing
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> this despite having crashed a week ago.. the man is as good as Tyler > Hamilton, if not better, when it comes to getting bashed all to hell, > feeling like @#^* and then going out and winning anyways. > > -Sonarrat.
Gonzalez was an interesting case. He didn't originally have all three on his program, but they sent him to each GT in sucession looking for a good result, after fighting with Aqua & Sapone/Domina for his contract. I think he originally 'only' had a Giro-Veulta program.
Isn't the situation a bit different for sprinters vs. GC contenders. To me it seems that the sustained effort to place high in GC is much more intense than for the sprinters that just need to survive the climbs.
I'm not knocking sprinters but thye are in a "different" race than the GC folks. Seriously contending the GC at all 3 is almost miraculous.
Contending in all three in ANY form is really just stupid to the nth
degree,
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and to start all three as a GC contender is even dumber.
in article [email hidden], Brenton James at [email hidden] wrote on 9/4/04 11:26 AM:
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Stupid like how Petacchi did it last year?
It was suicidal gamble... and what he got out of it was simply impossible. And he made it look so easy, which underlines further just how good he is...
in article [email hidden], Brenton James at [email hidden] wrote on 9/4/04 2:51 PM:
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In comparison to GC riding... sitting in the pack and just trying to make the time cut through a grand tour is much easier.
You mean you honestly think it's easier to struggle to do what you haven't trained for and don't specialize in? Have you ever ridden in a large group before?
