Postal vs other teams

Max Taylor

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour win
for their leader. With all the other races within the race,
most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
Sprinters going for their points and stage wins, for
example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys going
for anything but working for Lance. Their standings have
been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys
ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is going for
sprints for example. I guess they aren't as focussed on
getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak
and Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works
every day only to protect him and help win the Tour.

Ken Papai

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote ...
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to

The GOAL, the TOP TROPHY of any G.T. is the overall win
after 3 weeks. All the other things -- Green, Polka, White
as merely sideshows for sponsors. Of curse they are cool
sideshows but only hardcore geek fans like us pay any real
attention to them.

Your point is valid and I too would like to see one or two
Postie going for something at least every other day but so
far nada except for a short 5K escape by Hincapie two days
ago early on.

That's what the other teams are there for anyway. I
have a defree of affinity for every single team
contesting this Tour -- some I ranke 85 to 100 and many
more I rank 50 to 80.

It's all good.

> have split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and
> stage wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the
> Postal guys going for anything but working for Lance.
> Their standings have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-
> Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so
> far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess they
> aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for
> Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance
> for having a team that works every day only to protect him
> and help win the Tour.

-Ken

Ken Papai

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote ..
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
> Sprinters going for their points and stage wins,

The GOAL, the TOP TROPHY of any G.T. is the overall win
after 3 weeks. All the other things -- Green, Polka, White
are merely sideshows for sponsors. Of course they are cool
sideshows but only hardcore geek fans like us pay any real
attention to them.

Your point is valid and I too would like to see one or two
Postie going for something at least every other day but so
far nada except for a short 5K escape by Hincapie two days
ago, early on in the stage.

That's what the other teams are there for anyway - to
animate things and go for stage wins on fairly
inconsequential flat terrain.. I have a degree of affinity
for every single team contesting this Tour -- some I rank 85
to 100 (e.g., Postal, Rabo, Phonak, T-Mobile, CSC) and many
more I rank 50 to 80 (e.g., uncompetitive French teams).

It's all good.

> for example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
> going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings
> have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have
> had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is
> going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
> focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance?
> Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for
> having a team that works every day only to protect him and
> help win the Tour.

Kovie

Perhaps this has something to do with why Armstrong's won
the past 5 tours while contenders riding with other teams
have not? Not to take anything away from Lance, but there's
no way he could win the tour without such a great team
dedicated to helping him achieve this goal. If they had
contenders for the green or polka dot jersey then this might
take away from his chances. I think you're right that
there's a bit of an either/or situation here (i.e. either go
for the overall or for multiple goals).

--
Kovie kovie@earthlink.netizen

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message
news:ccqei90lsn@enews4.newsguy.com...
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
> Sprinters going for their points and stage wins, for
> example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
> going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings
> have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have
> had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is
> going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
> focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance?
> Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for
> having a team that works every day only to protect him and
> help win the Tour.

Trg

max taylor wrote:
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
> Sprinters going for their points and stage wins, for
> example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
> going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings
> have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have
> had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is
> going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
> focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance?
> Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for
> having a team that works every day only to protect him and
> help win the Tour.

Phonak also fit's your description.

Unless all you care about is Lance, it would be a lot less
interesting if only GC focused teams were in the Tdf.

Chris

"trg" <trg@world.REMOVETHIS.std.com> wrote in message
news:40f0f615$0$20342$626a14ce@news.free.fr...
> max taylor wrote:
> > Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is
> > the only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a
> > Tour win for their leader. With all the other races
> > within the race, most of the other teams seem to have
> > split purposes. Sprinters going for their points and
> > stage wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of
> > the Postal guys going for anything but working for
> > Lance. Their standings have been behind Lance so far.
> > Unlike T-Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the
> > standings so far. Zabel is going for sprints for
> > example. I guess they aren't as focussed on getting Jan
> > a win as Postals are for Lance? Same with Phonak and
> > Tyler. They must envy Lance for having a team that works
> > every day only to protect him and help win the Tour.
>
> Phonak also fit's your description.
>
> Unless all you care about is Lance, it would be a lot less
> interesting if only GC focused teams were in the Tdf.

I think you are right about that. Still, Phonak might have a
backup plan in case Tyler gets buried on GC but they still
assembled a team purely on optimal GC results and will
continue to race that way if they continue to have a
potential payoff. I admire them for doing that with an
unproven leader (only in the sense that he has never been on
the Tour podium, I would have done the same thing as them).

OTOH, I admire T-Mobile for the guts it takes to include one
of the top cyclists in the world. Postal would either leave
him at home (and not even renew his contract once he became
a rider that would never make the Tour team) or they include
him for his ability to protect and assist Ullrich. They
essentially would treat him the way they treat Hincapie.
Then again, USPS never had a racer of the caliber of Zabel
and therefore I am only guessing. Maybe T-Mobile is
aproaching it this way because they have a very unique
opportunity to take pressure off of Ullrich and vertually
guarantee results at the Tour without seriously harming
Ullrich's chances. After all, we can only assume that it
harms him somehow and it can't be quantified. Since there
are also benefits (reduced pressure) then who are we to
second guess them?

Enjoy the race and save the analysis for worthy topics. This
one is just too obvious.

Tom Kunich

"max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message news:ccqei90lsn@enews4.newsguy.com...
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
> Sprinters going for their points and stage wins, for
> example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
> going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings
> have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have
> had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is
> going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
> focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance?
> Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for
> having a team that works every day only to protect him and
> help win the Tour.

Well, you know the cause - the Posties have a 70% chance of
winning the GC and so they dedicate themselves totally to
that win. T-Mobile has only a small chance of winning and so
they must go for stage wins and green jerseys as well as
sink a lot of effort into Jan.

Other teams have even smaller chances. So you can see that
the reason that the Posties seem to be the only team totally
focused on the GC is for a good reason.

Trg

Tom Kunich wrote:
> "max taylor" <m@t> wrote in message
> news:ccqei90lsn@enews4.newsguy.com...
>> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
>> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
>> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
>> race, most of the other teams seem to have split
>> purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage
>> wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the
>> Postal guys going for anything but working for Lance.
>> Their standings have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-
>> Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
>> so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess
>> they aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals
>> are for Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy
>> Lance for having a team that works every day only to
>> protect him and help win the Tour.
>
> Well, you know the cause - the Posties have a 70% chance
> of winning the GC and so they dedicate themselves totally
> to that win. T-Mobile has only a small chance of winning
> and so they must go for stage wins and green jerseys as
> well as sink a lot of effort into Jan.
>
> Other teams have even smaller chances. So you can see that
> the reason that the Posties seem to be the only team
> totally focused on the GC is for a good reason.

Either that, or the fact that Zabel and Ullrich have already
won both the green and yellow jerseys in the same Tour de
France gives them confidence that the two goals may not be
mutually exclusive.

Charles Hizark

max taylor <m@t> wrote in message news:<ccqei90lsn@enews4.newsguy.com>...
> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
> race, most of the other teams seem to have split purposes.
> Sprinters going for their points and stage wins, for
> example. So far I haven't seen any of the Postal guys
> going for anything but working for Lance. Their standings
> have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-Mobile, who have
> had guys ahead of Jan in the standings so far. Zabel is
> going for sprints for example. I guess they aren't as
> focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals are for Lance?
> Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy Lance for
> having a team that works every day only to protect him and
> help win the Tour.

Well I would characterize T-Mobile as being a more well
balanced team.

Sonarrat

in article 86c248b3.0407111314.2fb8790f@posting.google.com, Charles Hizark
at hizark21@yahoo.com wrote on 7/11/04 2:14 PM:

> max taylor <m@t> wrote in message
> news:<ccqei90lsn@enews4.newsguy.com>...
>> Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Postal is the
>> only team whose sole purpose seems to be getting a Tour
>> win for their leader. With all the other races within the
>> race, most of the other teams seem to have split
>> purposes. Sprinters going for their points and stage
>> wins, for example. So far I haven't seen any of the
>> Postal guys going for anything but working for Lance.
>> Their standings have been behind Lance so far. Unlike T-
>> Mobile, who have had guys ahead of Jan in the standings
>> so far. Zabel is going for sprints for example. I guess
>> they aren't as focussed on getting Jan a win as Postals
>> are for Lance? Same with Phonak and Tyler. They must envy
>> Lance for having a team that works every day only to
>> protect him and help win the Tour.
>
> Well I would characterize T-Mobile as being a more well
> balanced team.

Balanced how?