No so wild idea

trg said:

Could USPS intentionally try for 2nd place in the TTT? If
CSC has the best time in the TTT, would the boys in blue
let up a bit (assuming they could take 1st at full out) to
let Voigt put on the yellow jersey, and have CSC defend it
until the Pyrenees? (Assuming no change in current team
rankings)

Because of the rules this year, the amount of time
Armstrong could take out of his rivals in the TTT would
only be at most 10 seconds more between coming in 1st or
2nd, no matter how much ahead of the second place team
they arrive.

So for example instead of adding say 20, 30, 2'30 on his
lead over Hamilton, Ullrich, Mayo, he'll only add 10, 20,
2'20. Might well be worth it to be able to take it easy
until the Mountains!

Ridiculous. They would never voluntarily give up time. Even
if Lance only puts 10 seconds into his rivals it's still 10
seconds. Add that to the 15 his got on Jan and it's 25
seconds. Ideally, ride like they did in '03 and hope other
teams fill in the gaps between Postal and rivals. You never
know, C/A may pull another rabbit out of a hat.

Richard Adams said:

trg said:

Could USPS intentionally try for 2nd place in the TTT? If
CSC has the best time in the TTT, would the boys in blue
let up a bit (assuming they could take 1st at full out)
to let Voigt put on the yellow jersey, and have CSC
defend it until the Pyrenees? (Assuming no change in
current team rankings)

Because of the rules this year, the amount of time
Armstrong could take out of his rivals in the TTT would
only be at most 10 seconds more between coming in 1st or
2nd, no matter how much ahead of the second place team
they arrive.

So for example instead of adding say 20, 30, 2'30 on his
lead over Hamilton, Ullrich, Mayo, he'll only add 10, 20,
2'20. Might well be worth it to be able to take it easy
until the Mountains!

Ridiculous. They would never voluntarily give up time.
Even if Lance only puts 10 seconds into his rivals it's
still 10 seconds. Add that to the 15 his got on Jan and
it's 25 seconds. Ideally, ride like they did in '03 and
hope other teams fill in the gaps between Postal and
rivals. You never know, C/A may pull another rabbit out
of a hat.

Postal is going last. They'll know whether C/A pulls a
rabbit out of it's hat. (Which wouldn't be a bad thing, let
Hushovd keep the yellow and C/A fight to keep it all the way
to La Mongie.) They'll know the finishing order and times
for ALL the other teams before they cross the line. It's
worth a maximum 10 seconds to let another team spend the
energy riding at the head of the peloton reeling in /
discouraging breaks for the next 7 stages.

trg said:

Postal is going last.

insert "probably". Assuming that there aren't any awkward
splits tomorrow with USP's third rider the wrong side of
them - admittedly unlikely, but I would imagine that sending
riders back to help Armstrong in the event of a late
puncture or whatever would be more important than protecting
the lead in the team classification.

Roger

Roger Hughes said:

trg said:

Postal is going last.

insert "probably". Assuming that there aren't any awkward
splits tomorrow with USP's third rider the wrong side of
them - admittedly unlikely, but I would imagine that
sending riders back to help Armstrong in the event of a
late puncture or whatever would be more important than
protecting the lead in the team classification.

Roger

If you read my original post you'll see I wrote-

(Assuming no change in current team rankings)

trg said:

Richard Adams said:

trg said:

Could USPS intentionally try for 2nd place in the TTT? If
CSC has the best time in the TTT, would the boys in blue
let up a bit (assuming they could take 1st at full out)
to let Voigt put on the yellow jersey, and have CSC
defend it until the Pyrenees? (Assuming no change in
current team rankings)

Because of the rules this year, the amount of time
Armstrong could take out of his rivals in the TTT would
only be at most 10 seconds more between coming in 1st or
2nd, no matter how much ahead of the second place team
they arrive.

So for example instead of adding say 20, 30, 2'30 on his
lead over Hamilton, Ullrich, Mayo, he'll only add 10, 20,
2'20. Might well be worth it to be able to take it easy
until the Mountains!

Ridiculous. They would never voluntarily give up time.
Even if Lance only puts 10 seconds into his rivals it's
still 10 seconds. Add that to the 15 his got on Jan and
it's 25 seconds. Ideally, ride like they did in '03 and
hope other teams fill in the gaps between Postal and
rivals. You never know, C/A may pull another rabbit out
of a hat.

Postal is going last. They'll know whether C/A pulls a
rabbit out of it's hat. (Which wouldn't be a bad thing,
let Hushovd keep the yellow and C/A fight to keep it all
the way to La Mongie.) They'll know the finishing order
and times for ALL the other teams before they cross the
line. It's worth a maximum 10 seconds to let another team
spend the energy riding at the head of the peloton reeling
in / discouraging breaks for the next 7 stages.

This really would become a tactical affair if the stage to
La Mongie immediately followed it.