Re: Donald Trump and Kloden

cmonie

If I am the manager of T-Mobile, I gotta say to Kloden, "You're Fired!"

Today's finish was the worst effort that I have ever seen. Kloden sprints out, has about 20 yards on the pack and then proceeds to cruise before realizing too late that he should not have shut it down, only to be caught by Lance at the line. You can't get any stupider, he could have picked up 20 to 30 secs on Basso, with the bonus. I can only imagine that Ulrich and the team would like to kick his ass up and down for that BS.

I gotta say that the European riders have disappointed me to no end this year. If they didn't have the coolest threads, they'd be nowhere. I can see an all-American podium next year and then some with LA, Levi, Floyd, Hamilton, etc.

It's either our life long competitive nature or our polluted drinking water that results in bigger 'nads that gives us an edge on the Euros that simply ride for the love of the sport of cycling.

limerickman

Agreed.

Kloden deserves to be shot with a ball of his own shite !

What was that yesterday ?
When I was in a bunch gallop, the rule was hands on the drops and pedal like
****.
Yesterday, Herr Kloden gets away, is by himself.
As he approached the last 100m, he starts looking around !!!!!!!!!!!
No one - not even the most inexperienced cyclist would do this.

Why did he look around ?
Why did he start to soft pedal ?
He had an earpiece surely his manager was telling him to sprint ?
I reckon LA took a chance yesterday and Herr Kloden obliged by being
unprofessional.

We have a saying over this side of the world - in horse racing - "he sat up".
In the 2004 Milan-San Remo, Erik Zabel instead of sprinting to the line
decided on doing some premature ejaculating - sorry celebrating - and lost the race to Oscar Freire in the final metre.
You would think that Old Man Goodefrot would have instilled this harsh lesson in to all his riders.
But no, the merry men of Mobile continue to shoot themselves and their fans
in the foot.

If I was really cynical - I would say Herr Kloden gifted it to LA.
But would a man who's contract is up this year act this way - surely not ?

Powerful Pete

Hhhmmm. That is an interesting take on things. But wouldn't you think that Kloden has a very good chance of getting a nice new contract, given that he 'risks' making the podium, ahead of the Kaiser?

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limerickman

I was being cynical about Kloden.
In reality, I think it was plain incompetence on his part that he did not take the stage.
I'm not taking anything from LA - but Kloden should have won it.

steve

I agree it was a bad bit of riding on kloden's part, the finish was a real disappointment!

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gntlmn

Look carefully at the replay on this one. They were 1 km out from the finish line when Kloden attacked. Ullrich had effectively blocked Armstrong by sitting on his front wheel while a battle weary Landis was unaware of his positioning on the other side and ahead of Armstrong. There was nowhere for Armstrong to break free. Kloden attacked because he had the opportunity. He wouldn't have had it further up the road. Such settings do not remain in place very long.

So Kloden attacked too early. I suspect he knew this to be the case, but he didn't have much choice. Either he was going for it with a 50/50 chance of success, or he was going to sit there and wait for Armstrong to finally launch himself off Landis' wheel to victory in the end.

Personally, I have to hand it to Kloden for trying. The fact that he might have looked over his shoulder near the end was because he had attacked too early and was fading just as Armstrong was gathering full steam. If the opportunity had presented itself a little later, say at the 500 m mark instead of the 1 km mark, Kloden would have held to the end. I don't fault Kloden for attacking. A 50/50 is better than a guaranteed fail.

limerickman

Cardinal sin - looking over your shoulder.
No one least of all a professional looks over the shoulder.
Do you Cippo, Petacchi do it ?
No, they assume that someone is breathing down their neck (as is the case,
usually) and just go for the line.
Sean Kelly nearly had an apoplexy attack in the commentary box when he saw Kloden looking over his shoulder.

it wa sloppy and unprofessional - especially having made the break and blowing a chance of winning the stage.

cmonie

I looked at the replay and it was not even close to 1KM. They were all in hot pursuit and it was closer to 100 to 125 meters, when Kloden attacked You err in thinking that LA and Ulrich were simply standing still, without responding to the attack. Slow motion makes you think that it was further than it was. They soon followed and with 50 to go he starts letting up and looking over his shoulder, cruising thinking he had it. Then lo' behold, here come Ulrich and Armstrong. This was not some mad sprint where he petered out like some long distance runner hitting the wall. This was more like a distance runner that runs away from everyone and starts shutting it down too early and realizes that at the tape he has been beaten because he acted like an idiot.

I am not the only one that believes this. Many others on this board and others are making the claim that it was unjustifiable for someone at his professional level to perform so poorly.

While, I admire LA's greatness, I know how to keep it in perspective. And this was less LA's effort, as it was Kloden's foolishness.

gntlmn

I have to admit, it wasn't exactly the visual replay that I was relying on, but also the commentary and the time from the break to the finish line. It had to be about 1 km because they were going about 60 kpm at the point of Kloden's breakaway. It took about a minute from there to the finish.

As for visuals, it really was hard to tell what was going on. I would have liked to have seen an overhead on this one. That would have been ever more illuminating as to what was really happening. As it was displayed, it was hard to tell how it was playing out even as we watched it. The view from the front really didn't give a very good perspective.

What was clear was when Kloden attacked. You may have missed that part, but it was back quite a bit from when they really zeroed in on the last 100 meters or so. He had already made his move after Jan cleverly blocked Armstrong, pinning him in.

It was kind of funny because I suspect that the commentator didn't have any better angle than we did. Remember that he said Kloden had won the stage, and the others would be fighting for 2nd? Well, it didn't turn out that way. I think it may have been easier for him to call from overhead.

All in all, the Tour coverage has been very impressive. We've been treated to a lot of overhead shots from the helicopter. It's too bad they didn't have one for this ending, though, because we wouldn't be arguing the ending quite so much here. It's hard to tell how it really played out.

flintman

Cardinal sin? LA has "looked" over his shoulder often in the past few stages. He didn't with Kloden, but he was sweeping up off his wheel, no need to look over the shoulder then. I don't know if Cippo or Petacchi frequently look over their shoulder or not? Then again--what are their standings in the TDF compared to Kloden anyway?

limerickman

This is getting lost in translation here.
Cardinal Sin - KLODEN LOOKING OVER HIS SHOULDER.

Kloden instead of looking over his shoulder and soft taping - should have been
cycling/sprinting through the finish line.
No cyclist - no professional sits up the way Kloden did.
It is absolutely and toally unprofessional.

Armstrong in fairness tried his luck and Kloden duly obliged him.

gntlmn

But when you break at 1 km mark, you aren't really doing a sprint in the end. You're just trying to hold on. Lance was sprinting in the end because he was just breaking away from the group before the line. Kloden had already used his reserves.

You're right. Kloden shouldn't have looked. But he would have lost anyway.

cmonie

I know that it is over and I have to wait a year to player hate, but I was kind of surprised by LA's interview yesterday, where he pretty much called out Virenque and the French's love with their own doping hero. It was prety strong and forthright. He sure didn't make any French friends that day.

Lastly, I have thought about Kloden sprint three days ago and was wondering if you noticed how long it took Basso and LA to finish yesterday's TT after crossing the 1KM mark. It took a good 40-45 secs. So, I got say that the Kloden break was definitely within 1K as that whole move took less than 20 secs.

I guess we would get a better perspective from another sportscasts besides OLN. I was watching an OLN broadcast the other day, and the OLN reporter basically said lucky for us that Jens and CSC helped Team Postal with the Ulrich break. I was like "US", since when was OLN part of USP.

With that said, I regret not having access to the foreign papers that I have heard have been rather forthright if not critical of LA, Ulrich, Kloden, Voigt (for his assistence to USP), and the TDF itself.

Lastly, I say Ulrich wins Olympics if he enters.


Peace

lumpy

I just saw "The Lance Chronicles" and I got the impression that Lance wasn't going to let Kloden have it after all the spitting the German fans had done to him on Alp Huez. He was still pissed about getting big loogies in his face from german fans- which I'd sure be - and he hunted down Kloden since he's German.

Now correct me if I'm wrong 'cause I was trying to mop floors and watch at the same time!

Tim