Oh, well, never mind Frankie, you did your best.
I haven't seen any footage of the alleged incident when Rasmussen shoved on a team-mate, thus losing his own momentum and causing Frankie to bump into him, fall off, and dislocate his shoulder, but I did check the tweets, and honestly Frankie, I don't think you did yourself any favours with those comments.
If you want sympathy (and who doesn't, once in a while?) it is always better to say "had a really bad day today, fell off and hurt myself" than to name names: that just leads to hand-bag waving and bad feeling.
Still, you have your revenge on Mr Bruyneel for shoving you into the race at short notice, don't you? What with Eeeeebennati dropping out as well, we're down to just three Leopards in the team now, none of whom were part of the Saxo departures, so it will be interesting to see if anyone else abandons.
An extremely unworthy thought did cross my mind, bearing in mind that we haven't heard anything from Andy lately, and that we knew Frankie didn't want to do the Giro - I'm wondering if the boys have decided to forego extending their palmares this year, do the minimum, fail to finish races, and get their contracts broken?
I still don't know whether a contract can be binding if it is bought by another sponsor, so although I'm pretty sure they had a joint four-year contract with Mr Becca/Leopard, I have no idea if they are still bound by that contract now that they are at Shack. Is it possible that poor performance this year could lead to early termination of that contract?
I was disappointed when I heard Frankie had quit the Giro (not to mention I agree that his Twitter comments did nothing to elicit any kind of sympathy). Part of me was wondering if Frank's injured shoulder was just a convenient excuse to get out of the Giro early so he could still be competitive for the Tour, but you do raise an interesting point Coug. Maybe they are trying to get their contracts broken. Things do seem to be rather strained at RSNT and Frandy certainly don't come across as happy as they used to be *quick pause to remember the golden days of SexyBank, sigh* I wonder if part of this is from all the pressure to get results? After all, we now know that Mr Becca isn't particularly understanding/accepting of anything less than winning (I still shudder at the thought of those poor guys told to go home cos they didn't do well in the TTT). Well, the Tour will certainly be interesting to watch unfold, though a large part of me dreads the idea of Bruyneel directing Andy at the Tour. I wonder what team they would go to if they did get out of their contracts? Dare I say, SaxoBank? There was an article last week, I think, that talked about the possibility of Jakob and Matti going back to Riis next year. I rather like the idea of a 'reverse' mass exodus from RSNT... How about a SexyBank reunion?
ReplyDeleteBris Gal
They used to be such a happy pair of bunnies *joins in collective sigh for SexyBank days*.
ReplyDeleteI think there has been growing-up all round, and a lot of pressure, and yes, I agree with you that Mr Becca and his unrealistic requirements are a big factor in the current unhappiness.
It's a bit mean of me to even suggest that they would deliberately ride at less than their best: perhaps it would be more fair of me to suggest that as they are about as demotivated as it's possible to get, they must be finding it very hard to keep going in the face of accidents, injuries, illnesses etc. I also feel that when someone is under the sort of pressure that makes them unhappy, they are more likely to fall ill, and less able to deal with minor illnesses than they would be in better times.
RadioShack are still not issuing their squad lists for the next few races, which is annoying for us, and quite needless: they are at perfect liberty to change the squad, right up until they have to submit the list to the UCI, so what possible harm could it do to put up the provisional squad on the calender? It would keep us fans interested, wouldn't it? As it is, I am increasingly uninterested in RadioShack, to the point where I am starting to refer to them again as The Shack, and to refer to our boys as the Leopards. There will be a post on this subject shortly!
Meanwhile, we have no idea what Andy's doing (fitting stablisers to TinkerJil's pink bike? joke.), Frankie is now at home with a sore shoulder - and he has my sympathies, I had a shoulder dislocated for me many years ago, so I know what that's like. Mind you, in my case it was four days before I realised there was a problem and had it relocated, so the relief from four days of pain (once they'd got me down off the ceiling) was wonderful!
As to who they'd go to - well, yes, as I've said before, it would be nice if they went back to SaxoBank, as lessons have been learned all round, and I'm sure they would be able to establish a much better and more balanced working relationship with Bjarne.
I don't think I'd want to see them go to Euskaltel, can't quite see Andy in orange: BMC seem to be a bit full up at the moment, and although I imagine Leelu would loooooove to have them all in Greenedge, I rather think they'll stick to a western European team if possible. Garmin Quackacuda could be possible: the kit is not that far from what they are wearing (ha! ha! not that it matters!) and they'd be joining JVS, which would be nice for Schleckland solidarity.
Pity they're not likely to join Sky...
Coug
From the mouth of Bruyneel:
ReplyDelete"Currently none of the team is at the level that we expected. Only Fabian Cancellara was, before he crashed; all the others have under performed. Currently there isn’t a single rider set for the Tour de France. Nobody.”
Ouch. I really do feel sorry for those guys. *sigh. sending thoughts out into the universe that there will be a return to Sexybank*
Bris. Gal
I read that Frank would be doing Tour of Lux???? I guess I am going to choose to believe that since it makes more sense out of his Giro withdrawl.
ReplyDeleteBad blood all around is how it's looking and it's Johan's JOB to prevent/mitigate that. Instead he seems to be encouraging it.
Now there is scuttle that Horner had some "help" during the ATOC. Which I certainly don't want to believe....
BE
Hey Brisbane Gal, I have just found that news report, so thank you for mentioning it: ouch! I have so much to say on the subject that I had to make a new post!
ReplyDelete*points to new post*
Coug