1:23
I began responding to a comment within the "random thoughts" blog regarding Levi Leipheimer and Floyd Landis, but I soon realized it's blog worthy. I disagreed with an assessment of Levi and decided to check into results. On the flip side, I wholeheartedly agree with Patrick's feelings towards Bode Miller. Since Bode has wasted enough of the world's time already I won't waste mine or yours to add to Patrick's comments.
I do want to discuss Levi & Floyd, and here's what I came up with.....
1:23
That's how much Levi beat Floyd by at the 2005 Tour de France. Overall Levi finished 6th and Floyd 9th. If not for Levi's lack of attention in Paris to Vinokourov he would have had 5th. The results show Floyd beat Levi by only :11 in the prologue, and by 1:11 in the ITT in stage 20. In the TTT Phonak beat Gerolsteiner by :34. Every other stage Levi beat Floyd up a mountain, by as much as :59 in stage 10. Results show in every other mountain stage Levi crossed the line first from start to finish to build up his advantage over Floyd.
We can't compare results in 2004 since Floyd was working for Lance with USPS and Levi was with Rabobank. Both were riding under entirely different racing situations in 2004 compared to their 2005 responsibilities. Although, looking at those results Floyd killed Levi in the TTs again throughout, especially up the Alpe d'Huez ITT. Then there were other mountain stages where Floyd was 3 or 4 minutes behind Levi after working for Lance. So 2004 is out the window for comparison purposes.
In the 2005 Tour de Georgia Floyd showed strength over Levi in the stage 3 TT by :50. The decisive stage was up Brasstown Bald. Levi was second that day as Tom Danielson won by only :14, but Levi beat Floyd by :55. Levi ended up second and Floyd was third in GC, both separated by only :05 in the six stage event. Levi was only 4 seconds off Danielson in GC.
A few weeks after the 2005 TDF Levi beat Ullrich by :31 for victory in the Tour of Germany, which consists of 9 stages. Again, Levi beat Ullrich up the mountains each time, winning mountain stage 4 by :50 over Ullrich, another :30 gain in stage 7, but lost :54 in the decisive TT in stage 8 to Ullrich. Not decisive enough for Ullrich. Again, Levi's strength in the mountains can overcome his lack of TT ability against those better at that discipline.
To sum up, Landis is obviously better at TTing and Levi is certainly better at climbing. This holds true regardless if the event is one week or three weeks long. There are more than enough mountains in a three week event for Levi to build up time on Floyd that can't be won back on a TT.
As if all of that wasn't enough, Levi has the hottest wife. Odessa should tip the scale in his favor.
Seriously though, having said all that the 2006 TDF version should be the real gauge with no Lance and a wide open field of contenders. There were be some HUNGRY racers in France during July. Let's have this discussion again this coming August!
I do want to discuss Levi & Floyd, and here's what I came up with.....
1:23
That's how much Levi beat Floyd by at the 2005 Tour de France. Overall Levi finished 6th and Floyd 9th. If not for Levi's lack of attention in Paris to Vinokourov he would have had 5th. The results show Floyd beat Levi by only :11 in the prologue, and by 1:11 in the ITT in stage 20. In the TTT Phonak beat Gerolsteiner by :34. Every other stage Levi beat Floyd up a mountain, by as much as :59 in stage 10. Results show in every other mountain stage Levi crossed the line first from start to finish to build up his advantage over Floyd.
We can't compare results in 2004 since Floyd was working for Lance with USPS and Levi was with Rabobank. Both were riding under entirely different racing situations in 2004 compared to their 2005 responsibilities. Although, looking at those results Floyd killed Levi in the TTs again throughout, especially up the Alpe d'Huez ITT. Then there were other mountain stages where Floyd was 3 or 4 minutes behind Levi after working for Lance. So 2004 is out the window for comparison purposes.
In the 2005 Tour de Georgia Floyd showed strength over Levi in the stage 3 TT by :50. The decisive stage was up Brasstown Bald. Levi was second that day as Tom Danielson won by only :14, but Levi beat Floyd by :55. Levi ended up second and Floyd was third in GC, both separated by only :05 in the six stage event. Levi was only 4 seconds off Danielson in GC.
A few weeks after the 2005 TDF Levi beat Ullrich by :31 for victory in the Tour of Germany, which consists of 9 stages. Again, Levi beat Ullrich up the mountains each time, winning mountain stage 4 by :50 over Ullrich, another :30 gain in stage 7, but lost :54 in the decisive TT in stage 8 to Ullrich. Not decisive enough for Ullrich. Again, Levi's strength in the mountains can overcome his lack of TT ability against those better at that discipline.
To sum up, Landis is obviously better at TTing and Levi is certainly better at climbing. This holds true regardless if the event is one week or three weeks long. There are more than enough mountains in a three week event for Levi to build up time on Floyd that can't be won back on a TT.
As if all of that wasn't enough, Levi has the hottest wife. Odessa should tip the scale in his favor.
Seriously though, having said all that the 2006 TDF version should be the real gauge with no Lance and a wide open field of contenders. There were be some HUNGRY racers in France during July. Let's have this discussion again this coming August!
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 3/01/2006 08:38:00 PM
4 Comments:
...or not. How tedious!
Understanding the hows & whys makes better sense when forming opinions. Our eyes and mind can deceive occasionally without investigation.
One for details I enjoyed this research, and I was surprised at the consistent results I found.
Presumably your comment tells me you read the entire blog. Gotcha. :)
I did read the entire blog as I do all of your posts. Thanks for the consistently good work. Gotta get back to my power-to-weight analysis of the 2006 TdF field. Ciao!
wow-you really did some work. that's impressive....
i really didn't mean to crack on levi-i'm a fan and i hope he does well, esp since he's american and he seems like a great dude. and i agree in part about floyd-he is definitely a strange one, and i wondered about his abilities as a leader also.
but you could argue that levi got his ride at rabobank on the strength of his performance at the vuelta in '01(i think), and, if it weren't for the tour of germany last yr, he hadn't really lived up to that promise...yes, he has been top 10 in the tour, but he's never really impacted the race.
and i think the jury's still out on floyd-remember that he came to phonak to work for tyler, and was thrust into the top role a year or two before he was supposed to be ready.
you're right-the tour this year will be the best in a while. looking forward to it.
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