In the past Disco team has been pushing the peloton to its limits so Lance and his cohorts would smash them in the mountians. Why are they not doing this this year. Unlike last year when they had co-leaders and really could not focus all there efforts on one rider.. Since Levi is the supposed leader of the team should'nt they take a page from the Lance days and punish the peloton with a blistering pace up to the mts and let Levi take over. Is team disco that much weaker. Albeit any team without Lance would be weaker but the supporting cast should be s strong...

Of course it is weaker. Any team that was built around Lance is weaker without him.

Also, there have not been any decisive mountain stages. Even if a team wanted too, there have not been any opportunities.

In the past one of Disco's ways to victory was to punish the peloton so all the climbers would be tired when they got to the hills. Then Lance would do his magic and dance on the pedals and avery other word out of Bobke's mouth would be Lance this Lance that.. I do not see it happening yet. I just thought that they had put together a pretty strong team this year and would be able to do this and let Levi unleash. Who knows they may plan on doing this later..

I dont think we will get to see a discovery train unless someone from the team is in yellow. They are trying to do several things and with the riders they have, it is not possible to use a train. They want stage wins, high gc, and the white jersey. For stage wins, its Contador, Levi, Gusev, Hincapie, and Popovych. For white/yellow is Contador. For yellow is Levi. for example tommorow will shed Noval, Pauhlino on the first two climbs. Then Egoi/Hincapie on the next two. Gusev will be there to protect Contador/Levi. Popovych will be trying for the stage so no time leading the peloton. Obviously Contador and Levi will not work at the front unless on attack or leaving the grouppo behind. So there you go, no train.

In the past Disco team has been pushing the peloton to its limits so Lance and his cohorts would smash them in the mountians. Why are they not doing this this year. Unlike last year when they had co-leaders and really could not focus all there efforts on one rider.. Since Levi is the supposed leader of the team should'nt they take a page from the Lance days and punish the peloton with a blistering pace up to the mts and let Levi take over. Is team disco that much weaker. Albeit any team without Lance would be weaker but the supporting cast should be s strong...

That is the past. Welcome to the present.

Levi is not even the undisputed leader of the team. It seems Contador is a player too, according to Bruyneel.

Tomorrow, we shall find out. We'll find out exactly what Discovery has. It'll sort out who's the leader too.

Also, if your team doesn't have the yellow jersey, there's no reason to be going up front, setting the pace and wasting energy.

fc

In the past Disco team has been pushing the peloton to its limits so Lance and his cohorts would smash them in the mountians. Why are they not doing this this year.

This is nonsense. In the first week of the Tour they did what was necessary to control the bunch if it was in their interest until the sprinters teams took over, just like CSC has done. Sometimes they didn't even do that but gave away the jersey when they had it. If they had been punishing the peloton as you say, breakaways would have been caught relatively early in the stage and not right at the end or not at all.

In the past one of Disco's ways to victory was to punish the peloton so all the climbers would be tired when they got to the hills. Then Lance would do his magic and dance on the pedals and avery other word out of Bobke's mouth would be Lance this Lance that.. I do not see it happening yet. I just thought that they had put together a pretty strong team this year and would be able to do this and let Levi unleash. Who knows they may plan on doing this later..

Granting for a moment that your assumption is true, which I'm not sure it is, have you noticed Levi does not climb like Lance?

Armstrong was pretty much the strongest climber in the Tour most every year, he was as dominant on the climbs as he was in the TTs.

This is nonsense. In the first week of the Tour they did what was necessary to control the bunch if it was in their interest until the sprinters teams took over, just like CSC has done. Sometimes they didn't even do that but gave away the jersey when they had it. If they had been punishing the peloton as you say, breakaways would have been caught relatively early in the stage and not right at the end or not at all.

Now you're talking nonsense, catch a breakaway early and all you get is another breakaway. Giving away the jersey is a great way of making allies, ie teams that will deliver controlled punishment to the peloton ripping the legs off the real climbers.

"Now you're talking nonsense, catch a breakaway early and all you get is another breakaway."

Exactly, which is why the peloton times it to catch them at the end.

"Giving away the jersey is a great way of making allies, ie teams that will deliver controlled punishment to the peloton ripping the legs off the real climbers."

The pace of these early stages is essentially controlled by the pace of the breakaway since the bunch typically tries to time it to catch them at the end. So any "controlled punishment" that would occur is just natural from the effort of closing the gap. What does any of this have to do with USPS/Disco setting a blistering tempo to shred the climbers in the first week? If they did, it was no different then what goes on now and for the same reasons.

So exactly what did I say that was nonsense?

The pace of these early stages is essentially controlled by the pace of the breakaway since the bunch typically tries to time it to catch them at the end.

There it is. It's not the breakaway that controls the speed of the peloton. If the bunch sets a higher pace the guys in the breakaway adjust and vicee versa. Now, no sane person would choose to keep the breakaway speed in excess of 40KPH, so it is in effect the peloton who has the foot on either the accelerator or the brake.

If the bunch sets a higher pace the guys in the breakaway adjust and vicee versa. Now, no sane person would choose to keep the breakaway speed in excess of 40KPH, so it is in effect the peloton who has the foot on either the accelerator or the brake.

Well I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree b/c I believe you have it backwards. The slow speed of stage 3 the other day was attributed to the 2 breakaways intentially riding slow, and this was atypical. Often breaks ride out to very large leads and don't dangle off the front by a handful of minutes, toying with the peloton as you suggest, and as the 2 stage 3 rider escapees did.