Maillot Pois: Riccò's to Lose?
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 15, 2008 7:48 PM EDT
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Finally! A maillot pois update... or more to the point, we finally have a competition. One of the sport's more eye-catching jerseys has been the subject of pretty feverish pursuit this past 10 days, as first Thomas Voeckler, then Sylvain Chavanel, then David de la Fuente took off after (and nabbed) spots for a day or so. Now, however, the jersey is in the hands of a pure climber, and one who may see fit to take it all the way to Paris. But there are a few factors to consider:
- Riccò stated that his ambition was the white jersey and the Alpe d'Huez stage win. While the latter dovetails nicely with spots, the former may cause him to ride more carefully.
- If he's too successful, he might start seeing himself in yellow.
- His closest competition is his own teammate de la Fuente, leaving open the chance that he'll let go of it intentionally.
- Spotty points are often won on early, long escapes. Nobody's letting Riccò out of their sights again.
On the other hand, he has said he wants to keep it, and any success on a stage finish will mean gobs of points... something de la Fuente isn't likely to enjoy in the Alps. Then there's the rest of the competition. In the top ten behind Riccò's 77 points are GC candidates Kohl, Schleck and Evans... scratch them from any interest. There's Sebastian Lang, whose presence is the result of a long attack that he's unlikely to try again. Then there are Piepoli, Cobo and de la Fuente... all Riccò's teammates. That leaves Luis Leon Sanchez Gil and Vincenzo Nibali -- at 31 and 30 points -- as the likeliest challengers.
The only alternative to the winner being decided in a Saunier Duval team meeting is the prospect of someone well down on the GC taking one or two really long fliers in the Alps. I'm guessing that the Alpe d'Huez stage alone is worth up to 80 points, and last year Juan Mauricio Soler won with 206 total points, so it's still quite early. There's plenty of time for the random unknown unheralded Spanish dude to show up and take over the classification. Or, dare I say it? Remy Di Gregorio. But a climber like Riccò, if he really wants to win the spots, will be hard to top.
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CdE & Liquigas
In all of this I wonder what CdE is thinking (other than feeling bitter as Valverde seems to be doing quite understandably). Do they go stage hunting with a vengeance? Do they try for the KOM jersey behind Sanchez? Hmmm I kinda doubt the later.
Otherwise I wouldn’t be surprised to see Liquigas make a show of contesting both young rider and KOM. Nibali is not far behind in either- and you can’t count out Kreuziger from the white jersey as he’s only 4 and change back.
Playing Possum?
We are far from the days when riders (à la Bernard Hinault) would try and win as many jerseys as they could, but Ricco might accidentally do it. That said, I wonder if Ricco isn’t bluffing when he says he’s only interested in winning the maillot blanc? He’s certainly too good a climber and too far up in the GC for any of the big boys to let him go out on a breakaway again.
I would certainly rather see him win than his teammate de la Fuente. Ricco is cocky and obnoxious, but he brings a certain panache that at least makes him interesting.
by SportsAcademic on Jul 15, 2008 10:28 PM EDT reply actions
A Ricco win
along with a Soler win last year… starts to look like a real climber’s comp again.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 15, 2008 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions
everybody says...
he’s a marked man and nobody will let him ride off again.
The problem with that is, that so far, he attacks at will and no one can really do anything about it except put themselves into the red if they try to match his pace.
Racing for Victory and Free Beer!
That's only true at the end of the stage
He’s not the kind of rider that can just fly off the front for 20 K. Menchov and Evans are too strong and would pull themselves back to him. He can get away for a short distance, that’s it. You can’t do that on every stage, it just takes too much out of a person. If someone can do that every stage with no consequences, they are doped for sure. Let’s hope not. The more plausible rider would be de la Fuente.
If I just had one more gear, I...
It's gotta be de la Fuente...
... he’s over an hour back on GC… so he can serve several purposes… go out and hammer on his own for the Pois on a break away AND be up the road if they have any sinister hope of Yellow / White contention with Riccardo “Leon” Ricco.
That WOULD of course… involve SDV team mates working on behalf of Ricco… which they weren’t so keen on doing the last time Ricco raced three weeks in a country with a romance language.
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
de la Fuente
I just don’t have much of a feeling about him. I can’t see him hanging on the big climbs. But that’s me and what the hell do I know. Probably Mark Cavendish will ride away with this jersey.
You're right about de la Fuente
He’s not good in the big mountains. I don’t really know what he’s good at, if anything.
If I just had one more gear, I...
White jersey
Has any established rider ever put everything into defending the white jersey? In the Tours I’ve seen, the white jersey is an up-and-comer or chief lieutenant. Ricco has stage wins in the Giro and Tour. Would he even care about the white?
Just an aside, Ricardo Ricco sounds a lot like “Richie Rich” in Spanish.
Cunego
The Little Prince turned himself inside out in the final time trial a couple of years ago to keep from losing the white jersey to Fothen, and he had a better palmares then than Ricco does now.
by Susie Hartigan on Jul 16, 2008 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Piepoli thinking:
“My god, I suffered for 20 years on the bike so I can play second fiddle to this wanker? Why couldn’t I have been accepted to hairdresser-school like mama wanted?”
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