Re: 2007 tour de france
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I don't understand why a team like Astana doesn't let Kloden and Vino both go for GC; see who's got it in the Alps and then work for that one. Supposedly Kloden was the one who was hurt worse in their crashes but it certainly didn't show.
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They are really hoping that yesterday was just variance as far as Vinokourov is concerned. In their view Vinny is the stronger rider with the better chance. I think that's probably true. He was probably the most common pick to win the tour at the start and has looked stronger every day since the crash. For this reason they are going to have him go for it.
Because cycling is such a team sport, unless you have two guys that are absolute badasses then it is very unusual to have two guys each going for the GC. When this happens there are usually a lot of problems within the team. The last notable time was with Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault in 1985 and 86. Even on teams where there are two or three reasonably equal in talent they will either designate one as the GC guy or go with whichever is riding the strongest early.
Looking at tomorrow's stage, if Vinokourov can hold on there are then 3 flat stages where he can continue to improve before the ITT. I think he's actually in pretty good shape and Valverde et al lost a big opportunity to possibly knock him and especially Kloden out of the race.
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