SB Nation User Blog: Frinking

Astana's dominance?

Frinking — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:08:58 -0000

Disclaimer, hey I like them!: I used opinions from posters to make a sort of case. No offence intended. And I was a little suggestive. I hope you don't mind..

I was looking through my old posts. Why? Because I wanted to know how bad my English was and I found 2 interesting posts who are deserving an evaluation. This post is going to be about Astana, GT's, expectations and opinions.

Post found here

The post was about ranking the strength of teams in the year 2009. I ranked the teams teams based on their strength to see how they were going to perform and how strong they would be in sections of the year. After some puzzling this was the results:

	Spring	3-luik	Suisse/Dauphine	Grand Tours	WC and Lombardia	Total
Astana	3	0	10	8	3	24
Caisse	1	9	8	7	7	32
Liquigas	4	2	7	9	3	25
CSC	8	8	4	9	8	37
Quick-Step	10	0	4	4	0	18
Rabobank	7	7	5	7	8	34
Silence-Lotto	9	5	8	6	6	34
Katusja	6	5	3	5	5	24
Lampre	8	8	0	5	10	31
Team Colombia	6	7	7	8	0	28

SaxoBank 37
Silence-Lotto/Rabobank 34
Caisse D'Epargne 32
Lampre 31
Team Colombia 28
Liquigas 25
Astana/Katusja 24
Quick-Step 18

How far of was I? To the moon.. and back he said. Some points, not yet the real deal

Yeah you see it right.. Freaking Silence-Lotto was second in the list! The last 5 races of the seasons not included they were Silence..
Lampre.. Who is that Gaspa guy again? He fooled me.. And Cunego is a little overvalued no? Yeah..
Team Colombia.. Uuh.. If we look back they should have 10 at least in all those categories.. But I didn't see it coming.. Well that's life.
The others seem solid in place. Or did I miss anything?

Well.. Now getting to the real point of the post. Their was a discussion about the Astana GT ranking. I ranked Liqui with a 10, you are not a Basso fan are you?! Was it so obvious?, but put them down to 9. Astana stayed at 8.. The question is.. How did they do this season?
Expactations:

Honestly
I expect they’ll win all three. Can’t say I’m hoping for it, but I’d be more surprised if they didn’t win than if they did. -jsallee00

All three for sure

How much of each podium is all I’m wondering. - Sminer:

Well this is a forward projection for 2009

obviously so the ranking is based partly on what you expect to happen. If Basso rides the Giro/Vuelta – he’s not riding the Tour where Conador will be trying to hit his peak for the year -double, I think he’s capable of winning both. If that’s the way one thinks why shouldn’t Liquigas rank ahead of Astana? It’s all speculation and semi-educated guesswork of course but that’s fun. That’s why we play VDS. - Rothko

Me? As the numbers suggested not so keen at Astana's chances in the Giro and Vuelta.

Numbers:

Giro:

Leipheimer 6th, The Old men 12th

Tour:

Won TTT, Contador won 2 stages, Overall: Contador 1st, The Old men 3rd, Kloden 6th

Vuelta:

Navarro 13th, Zubeldia 14th

Evaluation:

They were superior in the Tour. No doubt about that. Winning the Tour with 4:30 and a half team who also ended on the third place is one of the most superior Tourwins I have seen. The other GT's, Giro to begin:

We have seen a lot of Astana's.. Who were surrounding The Old men. We also saw The King of California who struggled. A day for the loooooonnngggg TT he was in pole position for the win. After that he had to climb and it went downhill, obvious one of the reasons why everybody passed him... uphill... Disappointing for Levi. The Old Men did what everybody expected with a solid 12th place.

La Vuelta.. With only Zubeldia powered up a solid top 5 place was max. He failed in his missiion to ride top 10 without seeing him. Navarro, who knew!?, became 14th...

Verdict:

Up to you.. Has Astana saved their whole season in the TdF? (and their subpar perfomances in La Vuelta and Le Giro) Was it good enough? Were the expectations too high?! Etc, etc?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still interested? (I was planning to avoid this part because it now looks I want to make my point...... and wanted to focus on the Astana question)

The Liquigas/Astana case.

This is going to be a close call.. Who has the best performances in the 3 GT's? Liquigas or Astana? (Well maybe Saxo or Rabo but that's again an other case)

Expactations:

High on my side. Serious. I thought they would won 2 GT with Basso, have a competetor in the jersey competitions in 2 GT's and have still a lot of talent left in the Tour with Kreuzi and Nibali.. They were going to be Da Bomb in the year 2009.

Numbers:

Liquigas

Giro d'Italia

Pellizotti: Stage 17 and 2d overall, Ok this may be not OK...

Basso 4th overall, See Pellizotti

Tour de France: Overall: Nibali 7th, Kreuziger 9th

Vuelta a Espana: Overall: Basso 4th

Evaluation:

Basso was not as good as expected. Still he was 2 times 4th in a GT which isn't bad. Also with a podium spot for Pellizotti in the Giro and 2 top 10 in the Tour this was a very strong GT team. Too bad Benna-ouch wasn't there to relief their pain for stage wins.

Verdict:

Up to you. Were they better than Astana?

De Fauw commits suicide

Frinking — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:52:27 -0000

De Fauw has commited suicide. De Fauw rode in Grenoble just 2 days ago, where he become seventh with Marc Hester, and was mulitple Belgian National Champion.

2 years ago he was involved in a heavy chrash with Isaac Galvez. Isaac Galvez died of his injuries and this brought de Fauw in a deep depression. He struggled with this depression for a long time.

He was just 28.

via www.dewielersite.net

I hope you found your rest.

Found a guestbook on his site.

Maybe they should. What do you think 'bout the new outlook?

Frinking — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:32:15 -0000

~~Maybe they should.~~ What do you think 'bout the new outlook?

Live Cyclocross in Hoogstraten Over (Dutch time)

Frinking — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:09:06 -0000

Live Cyclocross in Hoogstraten Over (Dutch time)

See title. All the big names are ready for their next battle. Can Albert throw Nys from his crown or will Nys sit there for a little longer?
It's rumoured Franzoi! will race here. Also Mourey, other roadcyclist will race.

Ed: That's 45 minutes from now
Have/Good fun

Update: Rasmussen signed by CDC-Cavalarie? Rasmussen denies! Advocate CDC-Cavalari says there is a contact.

Frinking — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:34:00 -0000

Update: Rasmussen signed by CDC-Cavalarie? Rasmussen denies! Advocate CDC-Cavalari says there is a contact.

Rasmussen signed by CDC-Cavalarie. CDC-Cavalerie is new in the Continental circuit. Last year it was an amateur squad. Other well known riders who signed are Riccio and Callegarini.

Well a GT seems pretty far away now

Edit: See Majope's link below

Edit II: This is going to be a strange case. CDC-Cavalari and their advocate have reacted on the statement of Rasmussen saying that there is a legal contract between Rasmussen and CDC-Cavalari for next year. The advocate stated:
"Maybe Rasmussen is thinking this was some sort of a pre-contract but there is a legal contract for next year" Also:
"It seems Rasmussen will retreat from this contract because he got a better offer somewhere else. I hope he admit his fault so we can work to a peaceful solution"

CDC-Cavalari is also not happy about Rasmussen's statemensts claiming the sponsors wouldn't be happy with the statement.
To be Continued

O/T: Did he, or didn't he?

Frinking — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:07:14 -0000

O/T: Did he, or didn't he?

Searching photo's of the cyclingseason, the fall of Flecha in the corner, I came around this.
The background is Albertina promised me a date if Franzoi won Paris-Roubaix.. Well the question is.. Did he, or didn't he? Have I won my date?

"I never understood what his problem was. He won the Tour and everyone who watched it on TV and...

Frinking — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:49:34 -0000

"I never understood what his problem was. He won the Tour and everyone who watched it on TV and knows a bit about cycling realised what we sacrificed for him. And he went out in the press and said things that made no sense, like we did not want to work for him."(...) "We were one hundred percent for him, working for him," (...) " He has a problem with his head." By Andy Schleck abou Carlos Sastre

Cyclingnews

Photos from cyclingseason 2009.

Frinking — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:07:34 -0000

The cyclingseason is over, it really is Drew. Everybody is relaxing on vacation en we had a tremendous year. There for the 6th review of this year. This time it's with pics.Are there pics who blew your mind? Are there pics who were very funny, pics who were ouch, etc post them and build a sort "picturebook" of this cyclingseason.

There is only one rule. The pictures has to be functional and really has something to do with cycling. So, ladies, it's not an Hottitude thread! Well that said I will start with 1 or 2 or 3 pics.

Jens Voigt. Just one word Power! I think the pic is made by a pdc'er wasn't it? Dunno but man what a beautifull shot.

Photo by Lyne

via img19.imageshack.us

Skill fell.. There will be nicer pics but you know.. The nicest one is not always the best one

via img26.imageshack.us

And the last one for now. How does a cyclist look when he went 150%?

via zeeuwswielrennen.files.wordpress.com

I hope more are enthusiastic because I've seen a lot of beautiful pics this season which I didn't store..

Fransisco de Bonis caught in the Giro

Frinking — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:04:15 -0000

Fransisco de Bonis caught in the Giro

Not too much of a surprise that this rider of Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli is caught. There were rumours going on.

Most will remember de Bonis from his stage win in the Tour de Romandie 2008 were he was in the breakaway and was caught by Gadret but outsprinted him at last.

Edit.
I don't know what those GST had in their water but:
Schumacher, Kohl, Rebbelin and De Bonis.

~~I'm not getting conclusions. Just coincidence~~

Bosisio tested positive

Frinking — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:53:07 -0000

Bosisio tested positive

Italian Gabriele Bosisio (LPR Brakes-Farnese Vini) tested positive for blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition control, according to press agency RCD. The International Cycling Union (UCI) tested Bosisio September 2 at his home in Rogeno, Italy.

Bosiso, master helper of Di Luca. Won a stage in the Giro 2007 and wore the pink jersey for a couple of days.

When do we get the denial and the story of the big unjustice he has to deal with. In an hour?
When do we get the story oops.. maybe i did it.. But it was just once. After the B-sample? Also my guess..