Has anyone besides Savoldelli ever won a Grand Tour

because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

The penultimate stage saw Savoldelli get dropped for 2:30 on the
penultimate climb by Simoni/DiLuca/Rujano, but Savoldelli's descending
skills brought together the remnants of the early break and the final,
shallow climb saw the larger group bring back all but 1 minute of that
gap to preserve Savoldelli's lead.

Can anyone recall someone winning a GT like this because of descending
skills? The only other race where I can recall descending skills being
a decisive factor was the 1991 Milan-San Remo when Kelly caught
Argentin on the descent of the Poggio.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

"Kurgan Gringioni" wrote in message
ups.com...
because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

The penultimate stage saw Savoldelli get dropped for 2:30 on the
penultimate climb by Simoni/DiLuca/Rujano, but Savoldelli's descending
skills brought together the remnants of the early break and the final,
shallow climb saw the larger group bring back all but 1 minute of that
gap to preserve Savoldelli's lead.

Can anyone recall someone winning a GT like this because of descending
skills? The only other race where I can recall descending skills being
a decisive factor was the 1991 Milan-San Remo when Kelly caught
Argentin on the descent of the Poggio.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

Arguably, Eddy Merckx in 1972.

Kurgan Gringioni wrote:

K. Gringioni.

I'm sure I read about at least one or two other TdF winners that used
their descent skills to win. Wasn't it Aimar or Pingeon that minimized
the time loss in descents?

I'm sure someone can correct me

"Kurgan Gringioni" wrote in message
ups.com...
because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

The penultimate stage saw Savoldelli get dropped for 2:30 on the
penultimate climb by Simoni/DiLuca/Rujano, but Savoldelli's descending
skills brought together the remnants of the early break and the final,
shallow climb saw the larger group bring back all but 1 minute of that
gap to preserve Savoldelli's lead.

Can anyone recall someone winning a GT like this because of descending
skills? The only other race where I can recall descending skills being
a decisive factor was the 1991 Milan-San Remo when Kelly caught
Argentin on the descent of the Poggio.


There are several examples. For instance, Fiorenzo Magni, of of the best
descenders ever ("When I'm pinning the race number I forget I am mortal"),
in the stage to Bolzano in the Giro of 1951 (beating Van Steenbergen not in
the climb, but in the descent). One of the most sensational is the Tour 1964
when in the stage Andorra-Toulouse Anquetil lost 4 minutes to Poulidor in
the climb of the Envilira. There was a thick fog and everybody was
descending very cautiously, except Anquetil, who was descending which such a
speed than nobody even dared to take his wheel. In the valley he had already
overtaken Poulidor (who because of bad-luck even lost almost tthree minutes
in the last kilometers). On the other hand, in spite of his descending
skills Anquetil in the descent of the Gavia (not yet paved) he almost lost
the Giro 1960 to Gastone Nencini ("For Gastone the descent was what the
violin was for Paganini"), losing in one of the most impressive descents
ever no less that 3'34" to the Italian. Unfortunately for Nencini, in the
last few miles on the flat, Anquetil suddenly got help from some other
Italians (Lires? French francs? Swiss francs? Dollars? Who knows?) and at
the finish Nencini's lead was reduced to 2'30", which was not enough - he
needed 28 seconds more.

Benjo

"Kurgan Gringioni" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

The penultimate stage saw Savoldelli get dropped for 2:30 on the
penultimate climb by Simoni/DiLuca/Rujano, but Savoldelli's descending
skills brought together the remnants of the early break and the final,
shallow climb saw the larger group bring back all but 1 minute of that
gap to preserve Savoldelli's lead.

Can anyone recall someone winning a GT like this because of descending
skills? The only other race where I can recall descending skills being
a decisive factor was the 1991 Milan-San Remo when Kelly caught
Argentin on the descent of the Poggio.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.


Roberto Heras*, 2005 Vuelta, Stage 15, La Colladiella

Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
because of descending skills?

Heras last year in the Vuelta, although he then lost it and there were other
skills involved.

In 1987, Roche took 21 seconds on the yellow jersey Delgado down the Joux-Plane,
thanks to his teammate Schepers deliberately letting a gap open and obstructing
the chase. Eventually those seconds were not as decisive, as the Irish easilly
beat Delgado in the final TT to take the victory by a margin of 40".

Jenko

trg wrote:

Roberto Heras*, 2005 Vuelta, Stage 15, La Colladiella

Talking about rainy descents in Asturias, there's the stage towards the
Alto del Naranco where Rominger seized the 1993 Vuelta, based not so
much on his descending skills but on his main rival lack of them. Zülle
lost 44" that day and ended the race at only 29".

Jenko

Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

In the 2002 Giro, on stage 6 to Varazze where Jens Heppner
was in the break and took the pink jersey, there was a wet
descent to the finish. The favorites in the main bunch took
it a little easy, but Savoldelli slipped off the front, and nobody
appeared to regard him as a threat. He finished well back
of the break but got 44 seconds on the main bunch.
His winning margin over Tyler Hamilton was 1:41, so
that descent wasn't the decider, but a significant chunk
of the time gap. He also put a few seconds on the other
contenders and got a 2nd place time bonus on stage 16
to Corvara in Badia with a descent that was amazing to watch.

Let's not forget Savoldelli is no mean climber either, on a good day...
didn't he take a mountain top finish as well, pipping Basso to the line in
the last Giro?

I'd love to see a descending shootout between Savoldelli and Samuel Sanchez
sometime.

Alexander
"Kurgan Gringioni" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ups.com...
because of descending skills?

One can make a very convincing argument that if Savoldelli did not
possess his awesome descending skills, he would not have won last
year's Giro. In the stage to Zoldo Alto, he dropped the other three
major contenders on the final descent and Basso went ballistic on the
subsequent final climb to bridge the gap. Simoni blew, it was worth 21
seconds there and one minute one second to DiLuca.

The penultimate stage saw Savoldelli get dropped for 2:30 on the
penultimate climb by Simoni/DiLuca/Rujano, but Savoldelli's descending
skills brought together the remnants of the early break and the final,
shallow climb saw the larger group bring back all but 1 minute of that
gap to preserve Savoldelli's lead.

Can anyone recall someone winning a GT like this because of descending
skills? The only other race where I can recall descending skills being
a decisive factor was the 1991 Milan-San Remo when Kelly caught
Argentin on the descent of the Poggio.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

Alexander Lackner wrote:
Let's not forget Savoldelli is no mean climber either, on a good day...
didn't he take a mountain top finish as well, pipping Basso to the line in
the last Giro?



Dumbass -


That was the stage to Zoldo Alto. He dropped Simoni, DiLuca and Basso
on the descent. Basso went into the red to get up to Savoldelli,
dropping Simoni and DiLuca in the process. Advantage: Salvodelli,
because he was able to ride within himself. Then he drafted Basso the
rest of the way up and took him at the line.

Basso had incentive to ride that way because he was in pink at the
time. Obviously Savoldelli is a good climber, but I doubt that he would
have been able to win that stage if he didn't have the head start into
the climb.

I like his style because he's makes full use of all his talents and the
dropping everyone on the descent tactic is something that hardly anyone
can do. Plus he always sprays the podium girls with champagne.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.