Did Alberto Contador cause the spilt?

July

One rider places the blame for the split yesterday on the rider who was most effected, Alberto Contador. Here’s what I found on VeloNews.com by Christophe Le Mevel of the Francaise des Jeux team.

After the stage Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel claimed it was Contador’s failure to stick to the wheel in front of him, which caused the split with around 30km to go. “When the split happened I was right on (behind) Contador’s wheel,” said the Francaise des Jeux rider. “If it’s true there were 29 guys in front he must have been 30th and I was 31st. It was him who caused the split.” With the peloton reaching speeds in excess of 60km/h on the Tour, adverse wind conditions make sticking on wheels vital – and a task that no serious contender can miss.

Once a gap opens up, it is almost impossible to close – as Columbia showed on Monday when they quickly distance a peloton of around 150 riders. “I saw the gap opening up just in front of us and we just couldn’t close it,” added Le Mevel, who came over the line with the main bunch at 41secs in arrears. “With a lot of leaders stuck, it was complete panic.”

Some inside team tactics could have come into play here and add to the intrigue. Often in windy conditions like this a rider for a team with other team members up the road will cause a split on purpose, to allow the gap to open and his teammates to escape. It also causes the other teams left in the main peloton to have to chase. Could this have been a plan from master lactation Johan Bruyneel? Or maybe it was that Contador had a weak moment and couldn’t hold the wheel in the wind, it’s good to know it can happen to the best in the world.
The effects of yesterday could be that Astana gained and placed Lance in a postilion to gain the yellow jersey, a media coop. They also didn’t expend much effort on this. Popo and Zebelia, neither have GC expectations. But two of their bigger opponents, Team Columbia-HTC and Silence-Lotto did work hard, one to explode the race and the other was the only team that chased and tried to close the gap. Both lost a little for today while Astana has their team rested, as does Saxo Bank.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 8:15 AM by Randall Wolf. Print This Post | Email This Post

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