Waitaminute...

Sonarrat said:

What the heck do those sprinters think they're doing

Like Bart said, points race.

Quoted message said:

O'Grady is GOOD...

Freire not bad either, watch out for those two in Verona.

Sonarrat said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/vuelta04/?id=results/vuelta0410

What the heck do those sprinters think they're doing on a stage like
this??? Did somebody forget to tell them there were five categorized
climbs and an uphill finish?

O'Grady is GOOD...

-Sonarrat.

O'Grady commented a couple years so back that he realized he wasn't
going to win points on sprints alone, so he's been working at being a
better all around rider. Same seems to be happening to Zabel.

On 13 Sep 2004 15:30:02 EDT, Richard Adams <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Sonarrat said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/vuelta04/?id=results/vuelta0410

What the heck do those sprinters think they're doing on a stage like
this??? Did somebody forget to tell them there were five categorized
climbs and an uphill finish?

O'Grady is GOOD...

-Sonarrat.

O'Grady commented a couple years so back that he realized he wasn't
going to win points on sprints alone, so he's been working at being a
better all around rider. Same seems to be happening to Zabel.

That doesn't make what happened today any more normal. Yes, there
were rumblings when Stuey took that mountain stage of the Dauphine,
and something like this could have been anticipated by someone in the
know. But for Freire and Zabel both to follow him all the way to the
bitter end is absolutely extraordinary, just beyond belief..

-Sonarrat.

Sonarrat said:

But for Freire and Zabel both to follow him all the way to the
bitter end is absolutely extraordinary, just beyond belief..

It was *almost* a power climb. Sprinters can do power climbs.

Sonarrat said:

On 13 Sep 2004 15:30:02 EDT, Richard Adams <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Sonarrat said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/vuelta04/?id=results/vuelta0410

What the heck do those sprinters think they're doing on a stage like
this??? Did somebody forget to tell them there were five categorized
climbs and an uphill finish?

O'Grady is GOOD...

-Sonarrat.

O'Grady commented a couple years so back that he realized he wasn't
going to win points on sprints alone, so he's been working at being a
better all around rider. Same seems to be happening to Zabel.

That doesn't make what happened today any more normal. Yes, there
were rumblings when Stuey took that mountain stage of the Dauphine,
and something like this could have been anticipated by someone in the
know. But for Freire and Zabel both to follow him all the way to the
bitter end is absolutely extraordinary, just beyond belief..

We sometimes forget just how good and how tough these guys are. We forget that
at that level even the most specialized of specialists are able to beat us
normal people in every aspect of cycling and are only marginally worse at the
other specialties than _those_ specialists.

Ron

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

Quoted message said:

We sometimes forget just how good and how tough these guys are. We forget

that

Quoted message said:

at that level even the most specialized of specialists are able to beat us
normal people in every aspect of cycling and are only marginally worse at

the

Quoted message said:

other specialties than _those_ specialists.

e.g. Jorge Ferrio was 6th in the bunch sprint today (stage 11).

Jeff

RonSonic said:

We sometimes forget just how good and how tough these guys are. We forget that
at that level even the most specialized of specialists are able to beat us
normal people in every aspect of cycling and are only marginally worse at the
other specialties than _those_ specialists.

Ron

This year, Robbie McEwen's time up Alpe du Huez was a full 20 minutes
faster than my guesstimated best, and within spitting distance of any
top local hill climber's ride. (Based on comparisons between the
Snowbird Hill Climb and the Alpe, virtually identical in distance and
slope if not elevation.) Then he did a wheelie across the line.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"We should not march into Baghdad. ... Assigning young soldiers to
a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it
could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater
instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed"