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?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Ken Papai
"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.
...

-Ken

Well I wouldn't really say that the other tropies are mere sideshows for the hardcore fans.... well at least in Belgium they receive a little more attention ;-)

Don't know about any other countries

Niek