Tour of Beijing 15h

[Robyklebt]

Grr, was all unfair and stupid tempo and and. Grrr Ha

Nice stage, was interesting. Too bad Gerrit brought Picard back to us... highly uncool stuff, highly highly grrr. But ok, due to no fighting Sproles dropped, which was ok because Leloup probably would have had problems anyway, and he really needed him. Think might have come back though. So.. Picard in front, Sproles in the back, still a small chance, if the group works... IMO we could keep Bear away. Problem is then Picard too favored, and the longer we work the more likely he wins. It can work, but... 9 out of 10 times we probably end up giving him yellow. And since everybody wants to win, probably hanging at each other.. So we gave up pretty soon. Had Daiken been in that group I would have continued the downhill, but since he was ahead, no... Without this stupid Picard, grrr, then the group could have cooperated. Legrand 52 sprint , Wilco 1" back 53, Minkovski 7" back 55, Stewart 10" 60... all can win it from the group with a sprint, 4 teams that in principle have interest in riding. And riders before the leaders. Actually even the way it played out maybe Radunion should have tried it, go with the smaller group with Minkovski and Soneau, the climbers and Bunny...if he gets Bunny help, why not, not that far back in the GC.. it was maybe worth a try? And otherwise without Picard... he would have had some interest too I guess, worth a try at least. Yeah, he needs to win it probably the smallest chances in front, but could have been worth a try.. .and Bunny maybe as well, when our leaders join, his helper goes in... with an attack, who knows. But ok, in his place I'd rather have just tried the double attack with our helpers in but ok. Anyway, Picard was there, so I'm writing this for nothing. Still was interesting. Legrand 4th, is ok, I really needed not only to follow the right wheel, but also another intermediate to win it the way it went. And more guts today, should have gone with Legrand pretty early. But there I actually thought the group in front would go through, didn't want to make it faster in the back.. .blah, big big miscalculation. Grr. Ah, but got white, nice too! Surprisingly easy, somehow was way more scared of Townsend.. ... then today Leloup, but of course he had yellow to get, so white for Rakhat, at least he won't retire without a palmares entry! REALLY lucky win just realize, somehow thought was ahead of him on time, but no.... and since I took out his wheel, Leloup, when I took out his helping, Legrand, too, if Leloup had had a wheel on his sprint... ayayay... so 5 points vs 3 in the end. uff. The luck of the intelligent it's called I think. Or something like that.