"No confidence" vote at Silence Lotto?

In article ,
Scott wrote:

How often have we read that the World Championship isn't important
anymore because the major GT contenders don't ride it, but then a guy
who's as close to a GT contender as anyone who's never actually won a
GT goes and wins it.

But, pre-race, how could you possibly fault the Aussie team for not
wanting to ride in support of a guy who's shown incredible consistency
at almost winning (he's won the ProTour, for example) but who hasn't
won a single day event of any significance since switching from
mountain biking to road racing?

With his track record at one day events and the very high probability
that he would not agree to truly ride in support of anyone else, you
almost have to wonder why he was even on the team.

I think the second part of that is probably the more important one, Scott. He
really hasn't shown much willingness that I can recall to ride for anyone else, ever.
Maybe someone else can cite an example of it, I just can't think of one right now.

--
tanx,
Howard

Caught playing safe
It's a bored game

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

In article ,
Susan Walker wrote:

Susan Walker wrote:
to good not be true.

to good not to be true.

I think the common newsroom formulation is "too good to check!" As in
fact-check.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

Howard Kveck wrote:
I think the second part of that is probably the more important one,
Scott. He really hasn't shown much willingness that I can recall to ride for anyone
else, ever. Maybe someone else can cite an example of it, I just can't
think of one right now.

I seem to recall him saying he wanted to ride in support for Popovich for
some early season races back when popo was at Lotto. Dunno if he meant it
though.

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
I think the common newsroom formulation is "too good to check!" As in
fact-check.

Ah yes, nice.

On Oct 2, 5:41*am, "Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/step...as-isolated-in...

Not sure how you can see this any other way. As DS Stephens pointed out,
there were a bunch of different scenarios that could play out, so there
wasn't a need to create a single protected rider. And yet the team
apparently took a vote to support one, which to me reads more as a vote
of no-confidence in Evans.

Like most here, I'm no fan of Cadel's style of racing, although I'll
truthfully admit that if he had a different, less-whiny-sounding voice,
I'd have cut him a lot more slack. And I'll also admit that, after
watching the World's finale, I'm going to cut him a lot more slack in
the future. But that's typical RBR back-seat driving. It's just plain
wrong for a rider of Evan's caliber to have to beconcerned about a team
that doesn't support him. If Stephens knew that vote was coming down and
didn't stop it, shame on him.

Having read through the various comments in this thread I am still
left with the urge to ask "so what?"

So what?

UD

On Oct 2, 8:11*am, Susan Walker wrote:
Nobody wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:54:30 +0200, Susan Walker wrote:
to good not to be true.

_too_ good not to be true.

...as long as we're editing. (",)

Jesus ****ing christ.
Thanks.



Dumbass -

Are you hung over?

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.

On Oct 2, 12:19*pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article ,
*"Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:





http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/step...as-isolated-in...

Not sure how you can see this any other way. As DS Stephens pointed out,
there were a bunch of different scenarios that could play out, so there
wasn't a need to create a single protected rider. And yet the team
apparently took a vote to support one, which to me reads more as a vote
of no-confidence in Evans.

Like most here, I'm no fan of Cadel's style of racing, although I'll
truthfully admit that if he had a different, less-whiny-sounding voice,
I'd have cut him a lot more slack. And I'll also admit that, after
watching the World's finale, I'm going to cut him a lot more slack in
the future. But that's typical RBR back-seat driving. It's just plain
wrong for a rider of Evan's caliber to have to beconcerned about a team
that doesn't support him. If Stephens knew that vote was coming down and
didn't stop it, shame on him.

It is a funny old world. That vote of no confidence
could have put the fire in Evans that took him to victory.



Dumbass -

He got very lucky.

Cancellara and Valverde allowed that gap to open up, daring each other
to go chase it. The other guys just watched them.

By luck, I mean that Evans just happened to be in the lead three at
that point and that the other two guys just happened to be guys that
couldn't keep up with him on the climb.

Evans won the WC without having to attack. The knock on him is that
he's not a rider that'll take a chance. Granted, he did win the WC,
but the basis for the general criticism of him is unchanged. He's
still not a rider that knows how to chose his moment. The WC fell into
his lap.

Good for him, but I wouldn't start with the "lit a fire under him"
talk or "he's a changed rider" talk. He's still the same rider.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.

On 3 Oct, 05:34, Scott wrote:
How often have we read that the World Championship isn't important
anymore because the major GT contenders don't ride it, but then a guy
who's as close to a GT contender as anyone who's never actually won a
GT goes and wins it.

The WC may not be the greatest race in existence, but the GT riders
are not the sport. The last big GT rider to win Paris-Roubaix was Sean
Kelly; and that was over 20 years ago. No-one argues that race doesn't
matter; or L-B-L, or most of the other classics. More to the point,
Evans is a cyclist with serious physical talent, but no mentality. He
either follows wheels, or he goes at his pace. He just happened to be
lucky enough (and fit enough) in the WC to find himself in a leading
group with two other people who could not follow his pace, and with
the group behind playing I-don't-want-to-chase.

Basically, Evans is a rider who will win if he is allowed to get any
lead in the last few kilometres of a hard race - because he is too
strong for anyone to think they can pull him back alone - but will
never win if he is made to race the top guys all the way. He can't
sprint well enough from a small group (like, say, Valverde), and he
doesn't have the sort of arrogance (like most of the top guys) that it
takes to drop the hammer five kilometres out, assuming that no-one
will be able to follow. Against the second-class riders, he will
always win; against the first-class riders (which he has the
physiology to be one of) he will never win unless someone makes the
race for him and he isn't marked.

The only reason you would ever consider de-selecting Evans for a team,
if he wanted to race, is that you didn't care about anything but
winning. Even then, it would have to be a flat race where you needed
to pull a sprinter to the line before you'd de-select him; in a hard
race, he'll likely be in the right place at the right time, and you
can either gamble on him getting lucky with other people's tactics, or
he'll be in a small lead group (probably being pulled by some other
favourites) ahead of the rest of your riders, and you can leave it to
other teams to pull the group back.

Pete

On Oct 3, 4:14*pm, Pete wrote:
On 3 Oct, 05:34, Scott wrote:

How often have we read that the World Championship isn't important
anymore because the major GT contenders don't ride it, but then a guy
who's as close to a GT contender as anyone who's never actually won a
GT goes and wins it.

The WC may not be the greatest race in existence, but the GT riders
are not the sport. The last big GT rider to win Paris-Roubaix was Sean
Kelly; and that was over 20 years ago. No-one argues that race doesn't
matter; or L-B-L, or most of the other classics.

Pete

Pete,

Gotta agree, the presence or lack thereof of the GT riders doesn't
make or break the WC. The GT guys almost never win it, at least not
since Lemond. BTW, Kelly was not a GT contender. Ever. (that was
not meant as a slam against Kelly. He's one of my favorite riders of
all time. Him and Tchmil.)

On Oct 3, 3:14*pm, Pete wrote:
On 3 Oct, 05:34, Scott wrote:

How often have we read that the World Championship isn't important
anymore because the major GT contenders don't ride it, but then a guy
who's as close to a GT contender as anyone who's never actually won a
GT goes and wins it.

The WC may not be the greatest race in existence, but the GT riders
are not the sport. The last big GT rider to win Paris-Roubaix was Sean
Kelly; and that was over 20 years ago.

snip


Dumbass -

The only GT which Sean Kelly won was the Vuelta.

Like Kelly, Laurent Jalabert won the Vuelta and he also won Milan-San
Remo and the Giro di Lombardia, all of those wins post-dating Kelly.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.