What was Lance playing at???

Cycling expert

I was wondering what you guys thought about the Stage 3 fiasco, but more importantly, Lance Armstrong's decision not to wait for Iban Mayo.
I was quite disgusted, because Mayo and others waited for Lance on the way to Luz Ardiden last year. Also Lance had previously waited for Jan Ullrich a few years back when he took a tumble descending the Tormulet (i think)
How did Lance see this episode differently to those two, I would have thought all three were the same, GC riders taking falls, peloton waits, no?

Could it have something to do with Lance being afraid of Mayo? because when he waited for Jan he already had the tour sewn up?
Did he not know that Mayo had fallen?
Or did he not think about it?

To me, its a really strange episode in the tour so far.

birdman23

There are a lot of other threads discussing this. Lance was not the only one who didn't wait. Phonak and T-Mobile were at the front pushing right along with Postal. The peloton had already been split into several different groups before Mayo crashed. Mayo said in an interview that he would have done the same thing if Lance, jan, or Tyler went down behind him on that stage.

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birdman23

From Mayo's own mouth. Interview for ProCycling.com

http://www.procycling.com/news_archive.aspx?ID=191


Asked if he was surprised when his yellow jersey rivals took advantage of his fall rather than waiting for him, Mayo said: “That was the normal thing to do. I would have done the same thing in the place of Armstrong and co.”

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ed073

Mayo's crash was a racing incident, if it had been reversed, E-E would have put the hammer down.
Armstrong's fall last year had nothing to do with the race, it was a spectator. Etiquette and pride meant the others couldn't profit.

Cam the Ram

I think Mayo needs a better team, before he thinks of winning the Tour. He is a great rider, but how can he have any shot with such a horrible team?

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Lisbon

Everyone has been saying that Armstrong should have waited but, how about the other 180 people in that group? They were all going 40 mph there is no way to stop a group that big and wait it was just racing, the guy crashed and lost time.

ed073

Greg Lemond won in 1989 with basically Johan Lammerts and Museeuw.

MGSuarez

Armstrong did the right thing. I dont know why he waited for Ullrich either when he crashed. Ullrich was the one pushing the pace on the downhill. If you push the limit and screw up thats not your opponents fault. Armstrong was in the yellow when they waited. Also like someone else stated earlier spectator involvment caused Armstrongs crash. In respect for a true leaders jersey they waited. Besides what were they going to do situp in the middle of the cobbles and make it more dangerous. Take it easy on the the Lance bashing.

ed073

yay!

tcklyde

Personally, I think they should have waited. Postal, Phonak and T-Mobile all could have reigned the peloton in. But they picked up the pace after the cobbles and finished Mayo off. Mayo was a contender and I would have loved to see and equitable battle in the mountains.

I don't fault anyone in particular. Mayo crashed in a really bad spot. But the GC contenders and their teams definitely took advantage.

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Beastt

There seems to be a lot lost on the concept of waiting in the Tour de France. If the leader falls, (while leading) on a key stage, then the pack waits. If anyone falls on a flat stage, especially during the initial stages of the Tour, you don't wait. It would be chaos if the whole peloton tried to stop everytime any rider fell. Especially this year with all the falls and crashes.

I can't imagine the pack coming to a halt on a flat stage if Armstrong were to fall. In fact, Armstrong has gone down at least once so far and I haven't seen anyone getting upset because the entire membership of the peloton didn't come to a screeching halt to allow him to get back up, dust himself off, check out his bike and get back into a rhythm. There are simply key times when you wait and the rest of the time when you don't. It's hard to put into black and white but it's fairly easy to understand once you start to feel the race tactics.

gntlmn

Don't worry. You'll see Mayo going ballistic in the mountains. That I'm sure of. And the others will follow.

It's a long way to Paris.

Ky Wildcat

You don't wait going 30-35 mph on cobblestones, way too dangerous. His team should be able to go back and help him return to the peloton but his team is weak, so they coudn't.

meehs

Bob Roll commented on this yesterday on OLN. He said that when you have the entire peleton charging that hard and one of the GC contenders crashes, you don't wait. He said that in that situation, it's up to the rider that crashed and his teammates to get back to the peleton.