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Will Andy Schleck ever win anything?


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Great tour and one hellava exciting end!

Mickey Mouse won (Evans), and he clearly deserved it. Handy Andy will have to try again next year.

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Dude was tired. Probably tried to win without using drugs to overcome the fatigue, and failed.

 

Which just goes to prove that you can't win without drugs... ;-)

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Dude was tired. Probably tried to win without using drugs

 

Hahahaha, thx for the laugh on a Monday. Andy has been charging since his junior days.

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For guys that can't TT I think they did relatively ok. 17th and 20th for the Schleckies. But Martin and Evans just blew everyone apart.

 

Andy just doesn't seem comfortable when he's doing the TT. We don't know the inner workings, but I'm sure they must practise that in the team and who else to learn from than the best, the Spartacus?!

 

I really hope Andy gets a Tdf in the future, but I'm also glad for Evans - his best ride ever and he really fought for it. Kudos.

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Hahahaha, thx for the laugh on a Monday. Andy has been charging since his junior days.

Like they say, never change your routine just before or during a race!! See what happens!? Dude's got to be kicking himself.

Edited by davetapson
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Bit harsh on Andy, he did after all get 17th out of 176 contesting the TT even Cancellara who was expected to do much better posted 1'42 behind Martin. He has never been a very good TT nor ever claimed to be and has done better TT's. Who knows if he was just off on sat which happens to all and it was just not his time.

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Andy did his TT 56 seconds slower than Cancellara, which under normal circumstances would be considered a very good performance. Cadel was 1 minute 35 seconds quicker than Cancellara, which is quite phenomenal. The tour was more won by Cadel than lost by Andy.

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For guys that can't TT I think they did relatively ok. 17th and 20th for the Schleckies. But Martin and Evans just blew everyone apart.

 

Andy just doesn't seem comfortable when he's doing the TT. We don't know the inner workings, but I'm sure they must practise that in the team and who else to learn from than the best, the Spartacus?!

 

I really hope Andy gets a Tdf in the future, but I'm also glad for Evans - his best ride ever and he really fought for it. Kudos.

 

Gotta agree with this.

 

Everything is relative - 17th and 20th aint bad for a TT - just bad compared to Cadel.

 

Also - the Shlecks were broken the previous day - both crossed the line and promptly grabbed the railing for support - Cadel crossed the line angry and ready for more!

 

Cadel had the beating of the Shlecks before the TT even started.

 

Cadel didn't have his customary bad day either - he's obviously got his prep dialled now. One "standard" Evans offday would have seen a Shleck 1-2. I think it's a bit short sighted to say that Andy will never win a tour.

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The only way that either of the Schleckondbest sisters will ever win the Tour is if the organisers cancel the TT, and allow them to enter on a tandem.

:D :lol: :lol:

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Andy will get there to claim yellow in Paris.

 

It will be tough.

 

Climbing is one attribute.

TTing powerfully is another box to tick for the young brother.

 

 

Earning yellow requires both and a lot of good tactical prowess.

 

---

 

Cadel worked on his ability to limit damages in the mountains.

And he kicked azzzz in the TT.

 

He is the champion of 2011.

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It was sad to see Andy lose it so badly in the TT, but at the end of the day, the best man did win.

 

My question is surely time-trialing is something you can train to get better at? How is it possible that professional cyclists can have such massive gaps on a tiny little 43km stage?

Time trial performance is about power to drag ratio. A good climber may have a very good power to weight ratio, but on a TT, absolute power helps more than good power to weight.

It is safe to assume that all the top guys have had their TT positions optimized in a wind tunnel, so the only thing to work on is increasing power output over 50 to 60 mins. This is very very hard to do if you are already in top shape - you hit a genetic limit, and the only way around this is to dope. Take Basso, for example - he was way off Armstrong in TTs, then joined dr. Fuentez and became a TT monster, then served a 2 year ban and came back claiming to race clean. I believe he is cleaner, because he is now back to his natural TT ability.

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You just have to look at the bodies of the guys he did good in the TT. More powerfull leg muscles. Now look at Andy. He could try and build more leg muscle to have a longer sustained power output on the flat, but that might just make him heavier which then affects his climbing performance. It is all a balancing act. That is probably why some type of tours suits some men better than others.

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I stand corrected! Andy is very likely to win his first Tour in the next two weeks. For his sake, I hope he gets it, it could be his last chance...

 

He was a minute off Cancellara's time, who TT'd in the wet and was clearly off his game. He was still more than a minute and a half behind Contador.

 

17th in the TT isn't bad, I agree, but it's definitely not a champion performance... especially someone with yellow on his back.

 

If I were him I'd ride the Vuelta in August, even if it is just to get some more practice in riding a TT with fatigued legs...

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Besides, I think he was just tired out from the previous 2 days when he did all the work and Frank did none. According to the 'experts' Andy was better at TT than Frank, but Frank I think beat him on Sat.

 

Correction: Frank was faster than Any over the first part, but Andy did have a better overall time.

Edited by Moridin
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Time trial performance is about power to drag ratio. A good climber may have a very good power to weight ratio, but on a TT, absolute power helps more than good power to weight.

It is safe to assume that all the top guys have had their TT positions optimized in a wind tunnel, so the only thing to work on is increasing power output over 50 to 60 mins. This is very very hard to do if you are already in top shape - you hit a genetic limit, and the only way around this is to dope. Take Basso, for example - he was way off Armstrong in TTs, then joined dr. Fuentez and became a TT monster, then served a 2 year ban and came back claiming to race clean. I believe he is cleaner, because he is now back to his natural TT ability.

Kinda makes sense, but that means the odds will always be against a good climber to win the TdF if the 'bigger' / more powerful guys are able to hold their own in the mountains which seems to be achievable if you look at Cadel / Lance.

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