I've developed this theory about T-Mobile in this years tour. Read on:
The other day the Directeur Sportif, Walter Godefroot, said that Ullrich was "not pulling his weight with the team." Ullrich responded to the press, "I don't know what people want from me. I'm not the same Ullrich from 4 years ago."
Then Jan proceeds to stay with the front group, never really appearing to be experiencing any difficulty. Plus, in yesterdays stage, Jan gets a free ride toward the end. He doesn't have to work at all in the yellow jersey group, because first Vino attacks, then his teammate and fellow German Kloden actually gets up the road. All this time, Lance is having to personally limit time losses to the leaders, because his team has pretty much blown up.
My theory is that the disparaging comments to the press by Goodefroot are made up. A bluff, if you will. I even think Jan might have intentionally looked a little "off" in the prologue. The way T-mobile is attacking, the team's morale is clearly not as low as they want everyone to believe. When riders resent working for a "washed up" leader, the attack at times that don't make sense (like when Hinault attaked Lemond in the '80s, although Hinault was the supposedly "washed up" one). T-Mobile's flurry of attacks at the end was too well-orchestrated to have been a product of the young guys trying to get a leg up on Ullrich.
What do you think? Is T-Mobile bluffing their way to their biggest victory in a long time? I hope so, 'cause this bluff would kick the crap out of the one Armstrong pulled off on the bike, pretending to be tired. If Vino and Kloden keep attacking, watch and see if Ullrich sit's comfortably on Lance's wheel. Then look for a huge ITT performance, like the one we saw in '03 when Ullrich rode for Bianchi. This could be end up being the most exciting tour in years...
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