I wanted to get your take on Michael Boogerd's
tactics (in stage 11). It seemed to me that after he was done
pacing the lead group up the final climb, he should
have ridden behind Kloden and rode his wheel all the
way to the line, rather than continue to be a "rabbit"
motivating Kloden up the climb. Of course this is a
simplistic view of the situation, not knowing a whole
lot of factors, but what do you think?
My first reaction to what you mentioned is that think the last person
Denis Menchov is worried about is Andreas Kloden. And that is what
Boogerd would have probably been thinking about. Primarliy though, I
think they were interested in that stage win. So, Boogerd had done his
job to weed out that group and then he just needed to get to the line.
But maybe I'm being to simple-minded, so let's investigate.
Checking the time trial result, it shows that Menchov and Kloden
finished on same time. So, as long as Menchov can out climb Kloden,
they're not worried about him too much. As things worked out, in
hindsight, Boogered put about thirty seconds into Kloden by the line.
So he got pretty far away in the end. But for awhile there, he sure
did dangle right out in front of him.
You do raise a really great 'by the book' point about tactics. Under
those circumstances you shouldn't do that - be a carrot. But I think
that Boogered felt like since he had dropped Kloden once already by
riding tempo, once he had recovered a bit, that he would drop him
again. While it is important to follow rules, there are niceties, and
I will discuss them further below.
The carrot thing tends to play itself out a lot more in medium
difficulty road races or in your weekly local criteriums. A break will
go and get established. Then there will be a counter-attack that goes
clear of the pack. The pack will go ape chasing the counter-attack.
Once the counter comes back everybody except the break sits up and
then the break rides away. Classic carrot example. The only prayer
you've got there is to be in the counter, and drop it bridging to the
break.
BUT, where there are clear, non-tactical splits that happen based
solely on strength, like in a Tour mountain stage, I don't think it is
such a big deal though to risk being a carrot, so I wouldn't fault
Boogered, except for having a mouthful of teeth. No drafting is going
on. He had a little gap that he worked and made bigger.
I have seen some real doosey carrot moves though. Once, a teammate,
we'll call him "Yogi" went off in a break. Nice move. Then another
teammate tried to bridge across, we'll call him "Carrot Top". Carrot
Top got about halfway across to the break, and of course everybody in
the pack wanted to play too. By the time Carrot Top got across to the
break, he had dragged the whole pack with him. This is when being a
Carrot equals chasing down your own teammate. Please don't do that,
especially if it is me up there! Since Boogered not only didn't bring
Klooden up to Menchov, but eventually dropped him, he's ok in my
'book'.
posted by Mark @ 8:08 PM
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