Postal vs other teams

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to

The GOAL, the TOP TROPHY of any G.T. is the overall win after 3 weeks.
All the other things -- Green, Polka, White as merely sideshows for
sponsors.
Of curse they are cool sideshows but only hardcore geek fans
like us pay any real attention to them.

Your point is valid and I too would like to see one or two Postie going
for something at least every other day but so far nada except for a short
5K escape by Hincapie two days ago early on.

That's what the other teams are there for anyway.
I have a defree of affinity for every single team contesting this
Tour -- some I ranke 85 to 100 and many more I rank 50 to 80.

It's all good.

Quoted message said:

have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,
for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

-Ken

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote ..

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to
have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,

The GOAL, the TOP TROPHY of any G.T. is the overall win after 3 weeks.
All the other things -- Green, Polka, White are merely sideshows for
sponsors. Of course they are cool sideshows but only hardcore geek fans
like us pay any real attention to them.

Your point is valid and I too would like to see one or two Postie going
for something at least every other day but so far nada except for a short
5K escape by Hincapie two days ago, early on in the stage.

That's what the other teams are there for anyway - to animate
things and go for stage wins on fairly inconsequential flat terrain..
I have a degree of affinity for every single team contesting this
Tour -- some I rank 85 to 100 (e.g., Postal, Rabo, Phonak, T-Mobile, CSC)
and many more I rank 50 to 80 (e.g., uncompetitive French teams).

It's all good.

Quoted message said:

for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Perhaps this has something to do with why Armstrong's won the past 5 tours
while contenders riding with other teams have not? Not to take anything away
from Lance, but there's no way he could win the tour without such a great
team dedicated to helping him achieve this goal. If they had contenders for
the green or polka dot jersey then this might take away from his chances. I
think you're right that there's a bit of an either/or situation here (i.e.
either go for the overall or for multiple goals).

--
Kovie
[email hidden]

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to
have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,
for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

max taylor said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader.
With all the other races within the race, most of the other teams
seem to have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and
stage wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been
behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan
in the standings so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I
guess they aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for
Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a
team that works every day only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Phonak also fit's your description.

Unless all you care about is Lance, it would be a lot less interesting if
only GC focused teams were in the Tdf.

"trg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

max taylor said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader.
With all the other races within the race, most of the other teams
seem to have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and
stage wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been
behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan
in the standings so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I
guess they aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for
Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a
team that works every day only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Phonak also fit's your description.

Unless all you care about is Lance, it would be a lot less interesting if
only GC focused teams were in the Tdf.

I think you are right about that. Still, Phonak might have a backup plan in
case Tyler gets buried on GC but they still assembled a team purely on
optimal GC results and will continue to race that way if they continue to
have a potential payoff. I admire them for doing that with an unproven
leader (only in the sense that he has never been on the Tour podium, I would
have done the same thing as them).

OTOH, I admire T-Mobile for the guts it takes to include one of the top
cyclists in the world. Postal would either leave him at home (and not even
renew his contract once he became a rider that would never make the Tour
team) or they include him for his ability to protect and assist Ullrich.
They essentially would treat him the way they treat Hincapie. Then again,
USPS never had a racer of the caliber of Zabel and therefore I am only
guessing. Maybe T-Mobile is aproaching it this way because they have a very
unique opportunity to take pressure off of Ullrich and vertually guarantee
results at the Tour without seriously harming Ullrich's chances. After all,
we can only assume that it harms him somehow and it can't be quantified.
Since there are also benefits (reduced pressure) then who are we to second
guess them?

Enjoy the race and save the analysis for worthy topics. This one is just too
obvious.

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to
have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,
for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Well, you know the cause - the Posties have a 70% chance of winning the GC
and so they dedicate themselves totally to that win. T-Mobile has only a
small chance of winning and so they must go for stage wins and green jerseys
as well as sink a lot of effort into Jan.

Other teams have even smaller chances. So you can see that the reason that
the Posties seem to be the only team totally focused on the GC is for a good
reason.

Tom Kunich said:

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader.
With all the other races within the race, most of the other teams
seem to have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and
stage wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal
guys going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings have
been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead
of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is going for sprints for
example. I guess they aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as
Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy
Lance for having a team that works every day only to protect him and
help win the Tour.

Well, you know the cause - the Posties have a 70% chance of winning
the GC and so they dedicate themselves totally to that win. T-Mobile
has only a small chance of winning and so they must go for stage wins
and green jerseys as well as sink a lot of effort into Jan.

Other teams have even smaller chances. So you can see that the reason
that the Posties seem to be the only team totally focused on the GC
is for a good reason.

Either that, or the fact that Zabel and Ullrich have already won both the
green and yellow jerseys in the same Tour de France gives them confidence
that the two goals may not be mutually exclusive.

max taylor <m@t> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to
have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,
for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Well I would characterize T-Mobile as being a more well balanced team.

in article [email hidden], Charles Hizark
at [email hidden] wrote on 7/11/04 2:14 PM:

Quoted message said:

max taylor <m@t> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the only team
whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win for their leader. With
all the other races within the race, most of the other teams seem to
have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,
for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going for
anything but working for Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance
so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works every day
only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Well I would characterize T-Mobile as being a more well balanced team.

Balanced how?