What now Vino????

thebluetrain

What a joke. And he wants to be the leader of Discovery next year.

"Despite what so many people have said, we have been confident right from the start of this Tour. What happened today is the confirmation of our strength. We showed that Armstrong cannot easily follow or pick us off one by one.
"We'll start this all over again once the real mountains begin," Vino warned

thebluetrain

And he is no longer in the top 10. I thought better of him. Oh well.

996vtwin

I really like Vino but I must admit that I was getting very fed up of that funny colored kt he was wearing. The fashion police should have arrested him a long time ago.

spockroyaltea

lol i agree. i was really hoping to see vino on the podium, but i guess that outfit is just too silly.

limerickman

The guy has one bad day and you lot say he's a crap rider.

Lucky you lot weren't around in 1993-1996, you'd have said the same about
LA !

rejobako

Agreed, in principle. Vino has a fine bike racer who had a miserable day today; In general, any team should consider itself lucky to have him. I think, however, that the potshots that are being taken at him today are the result of Vino having some particularly brash comments about his team's impeccable tactics thrown back in his face.

limerickman

I didn't see any comments from Vino about tactics, I have to say.

The only comment I read was that he was in the TDF to support JU for overall GC.
But even if he did make disparaging comments, the guy is a hell of a bike rider, regardless.

tcklyde

Oh gosh, who cares what he's said? It's sport, man! A little trash talk makes it interesting. Yeah, bad day for Vino today, but after a few great days, who cares. The guy is a class rider with some major wins this year. Props to him.

__________________
Harry

rejobako

Vino has been feeling his oats lately:

"Jan [Ullrich], Andreas [Klöden] and I are all towards the top of the general classification and we have managed to show Armstrong on Saturday that we could attack him from all sides. Until now, we had never had the opportunity to start the Tour together and it’s a considerable advantage. I personally never thought that Armstrong was unbeatable."

“The instructions are very clear: the team will work for whoever turns out to be the strongest of the three of us… We know that, with two or even three of us, we can pool our resources to endanger Armstrong,”

"The only team which could make me leave T-Mobile is Discovery Channel. I’ll certainly be making a choice between those two,” (This comment in particular troubles me, in that it suggests that an offer has been made and that Vino is considering it. Even if true, it seems like a slap in the face to T-Mobile to make this admission in the midst of a Tour battle. If it's not true, then Vino is counting his chickens a bit too early (one of them leads him in the GC now, in fact. )

Vino has made other comments recently in which he's been a little dismissive of Disco's tactics, along the lines of "I won't ride that way; I only know how to attack, etc." In context, the implication is that Disco's methods are worthy of disdain as opposed to his risk-taking style. As I have said, while I applaud cyclists like Vino who have taken risks and made the Tour more exciting, and while I think the traditional romantic notion of the "go for it all" cyclist is an appealing one, in the end the guy standing at the top of the podium on the last day usually looks pretty good, even if he's cold and calculating in his process to get there.

rejobako

Your position seems contradictory. You suggest his words should be seen as irrelevant, then point out that they make the event more interesting, which is more to the point, in my opinion. The reason trashtalking is interesting isn't solely in the words spoken, but in the anticipation of making a man eat those words when he falls on his face. That happened today, and I applaud Vino for making the day more interesting as a result of his comeuppance.

Ted B

I find this comment to be very interesting. I'd be quite curious to see what Vino can do after a season or so of training under Carmichael and assoc. If the progress of the other Discovery riders is any indication, it may very well be his best shot at stepping out from Ullrich's shadow and winning the TdF.

limerickman

Thanks for posting this stuff : I genuinely wasn't aware that Vino had made any comments, except to say that he intended to support JU in the TDF.

In reading Vino words : I see nothing wrong with his saying that AK, JU and himself had never ridden together in the Tour and were prepared to attack to LA.
That is fair enough.

I can see where you're coming from re the contract offer from DC : it won't do his team mates at Mobile any favours making those comments.

rejobako

I agree; I just wanted to post more of Vino's interview on that particular day to give it some context. There was a susceptible shift in T-Mobile's rhetoric after Ullrich was hauled in by Armstrong after the initial ITT. It was the smart move, IMO, to create a 3-headed monster for Armstrong to worry about, although after today, it might not matter for much longer.