TDF: a shiny new thread for 2012

[jobob]

Rolland made no friends today by attacking.

True. But Inner Ring pointed this out today, which makes sense to me. Though I can be gullible.

Rolland took off on the descent and seemed to want to profit from this moment but he was not aware Evans being in trouble. He told French TV he had not heard about the problems behind and was annoyed to find journalists grilling him at the finish. We should give him the benefit of the doubt for now because remember the team cars were a long way back. The climb was so narrow that the cars were stuck behind the dropped riders – the same reason it took so long to get help to Evans – and so team managers did not know what was happening for some time, yet alone broadcast it over the race radio.

Ed.: Ooops, I was just reading Jens' excellent blog post On Tacks and Tacky Attacks he posted today (how does he manage that??) and this was his take:

And then there was Pierre Rolland, who attacked while the peloton waited for Cadel Evans and the others who flatted. What can you say? Perhaps he didn’t know what was happening the first time he attacked. But he was caught and riders must have told him what was going on. But what did he do? He attacked again! If you know that guys are crashing and puncturing and you take advantage of it—well, that’s just a lack of class!

Errr, nevermind.