Vino Loses More than 5:18 Today

My guess is that Vino lost a lot more than 5:18 in the stage today.

With all of talk of him leaving T-Mobile after the season, and that
Discovery was eager to pick him up as the stand-in grand tour GC rider until
Popo is ready to take over, I imagine that when he went off the back of the
pack today that he lost a lot of leverage with Discovery and that relations
are already in rough shape with TMO. He is on record saying that he viewed
himself as the leader of T-Mobile and that he hoped that his friendship with
Jan was strong enough to get through the change in roles. Then everything
turned upside down.

Discovery already has Savoldelli, who has won the Giro twice, and Vino's
best result in a stage race was his win at Paris-Nice in 2003. If I
remember correctly, when Bobby Julich left Telecom he said that Vino could
be a much more consistent rider, and possibly one of the best, if he ever
touched his bike during the off season or between races.

Maybe I am missing something and that Discovery values his skills in stage
races and the role that he could play in some of the spring races but I
don't see a position that would warrant the money that I think that he is
looking for.

Frank Drackman wrote:
Maybe I am missing something and that Discovery values his skills in stage
races and the role that he could play in some of the spring races but I
don't see a position that would warrant the money that I think that he is
looking for.

If Vino were to prepare exclusively for the TdF, his results might be
different (better).

--
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Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall

Conservative dictionary:
Judicial Activist: n. A judge who tends to rule against your wishes.

Now that he's had his regularly-scheduled bad day and likely blown his
chance to unseat Lance, it was pretty predictable that he'd suddenly
feel great today and win. Botero has the same "bad day syndrome", not
surprising to see him right there with Vino.

I wish I were as smart and as accurate as you.