Man, talk about a team who promised all sorts of loyalty and then hung him out to dry when the pressure was on. If that had been Armstrong he would have had his entire team around him nursing him to the line. That must've really pissed Hamilton off when he saw his domestiques riding off like that in chase of a top 20 gc position instead of helping their only real overall chance when he had a bad day. Personally I think he may have even been better off at CSC than that bunch of individual riders who haapen to be riding with the same jersey. In reality who on that team has any chance at all except for maybe Sevilla (who didn't even have a great day himself). Maybe a couple of them can stick in the top 15 until the final tt where they'll just get blown away.

And Ullrich!!! What a mistake going back to that mess of a team at T-Mobile. They've got too many ambitions and not enough strong workers. They should have:
a. built a team around Eric Zabel who has a real chance at winning the green jersey (and stages if he had a proper lead-out)

b. built a team completely around Ullrich with the same structure as USPS.

c. built a team like CSC with a lead-out for Zabel and then a couple of strong riders like Kloden who have a chance at stages and a top-20 finish overall.

Instead they chose a single climber to support Ullrich (Guerini) who is known to struggle in the mountains. Brough no lead out for Eric Zabel who is sitting conveniently in 2nd place on the points classification. And then they have Kloden who is riding his own race instead of helping his two team leader.


Ullrich would have been better off at Bianchi.

You were being sarcastic, right? Right?!

You've got to be kidding, right? First of all, Phonak didn't leave Hamilton--he told his guys to go ahead. And Kloden's job was to shadow Armstrong and maintain his high GC position for tactical advantage. What good would it have done for Kloden to drop off and finish with Ullrich? Then T=Mobile would have no cards to play.

"You've got to be kidding, right? First of all, Phonak didn't leave Hamilton--he told his guys to go ahead."

The whole reason Hamilton left CSC was because everyone was doing their own thing and he had no support. Why would he tell his guys to go at their own pace instead of dropping back to help pull him up the road when he needed it most? There were four of his team meates up the road, at least one or two of them should have dropped back instead of leaving the pace setting to one rider (Hamilton only had one team mate with him).


"What good would it have done for Kloden to drop off and finish with Ullrich? Then T=Mobile would have no cards to play."

They've got Eric Zabel in 2nd on the points classification, they don't need any more cards to play. They need to pick one goal and focus completely on achieving it if they want any major success. The question they need to ask themselves is whether they want to win the yellow jersey, the green jersey, or would they rather finish the tour with two guys sitting anonymously in the top 20 in the GC and another guy sitting anonymously in the top 5 of the points classification. In a race this big you can only have so many goals.

not enough Indians. (no offense to my Native American brethren)
Mitakuye Oyasin

Wrong on the T-Mobile count at least. Kloden presents a problem for USPS - well at least they will have to be very attentive to him. He couldn't help Ullrich pedal any faster today so his only value will be as a spoiler and a distraction in coming stages. He effectively has taken Vino's place in this game of chess.

Who ever said that LA would halve his time gap today, was on the money! Good job! Tomorrow will be fun to watch, but I doubt it will be fun to ride :O)