Many of us Schlecklanders are watching the lovely Jakob with slightly worried expressions, as he is now over 6 minutes down, for no apparent reason.
Is he injured? Did he crash? Is he being bullied by Eddie the Mad Flatmat Aru, on the grounds that he, Jakob, should be supporting Aru instead of Nibbles?
It might be none of the above - it's quite possibly just team tactics. If Jakob is several minutes off the GC, then he will be allowed to get away in breaks, and this has several advantages for Ass-t'na:
1) It gets the name on tv, as the break always get coverage and even a team as big as Ass-t'na need sponsor time.
2) It puts a rider way, way up the road so that if Nibbles and/or Mad Eddie make a break, Jakob is there to drop back and help them with it.
3) This one is not relevant at this point, but by having someone in a break, a team with a jersey can use them to mop up any points along the way, which might prevent another team from stealing a jersey off them.
and of course, best option from our point of view,
4) If the peloton just doodle along, well hey! Jakob is such a strong rider that whatever break he is in, there is a real chance that he could nip off the front of the break and take a sneaky stage win, which would be fab for all concerned.
I have fingers crossed that it's team tactics and not crashes!
Stage three seems to have been one big yawn - apparently Tom "Desperate Dan" Dumoulin was caught pretending to yawn to a camera bike, and they certainly took the stage much slower than planned. I often wonder what sort of problems this causes for all the little villages along the route:
"Maman, esker vous allow moi to cross le rue yet?"
"Non, mon petit, le race is n'est pas ici, vous must remain in le maison for un petite while longer"
"Mias, Maman, je has been waiting ici for troi heures et trente cinq minutes, je suis bored!"
And what about all the pavement cafes, itching to set out the tables again? You do sometimes wonder what the organisers are up to, putting in such long stages: I guess it's all part of the stamina/wear you down aspect of le Tour. Luckily, I was at work all day so I didn't have to sit through it!
Well!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first glanced at the title of this post, I read "Jakob's Dangler"
Which put me into a fit of hyperventilating *cue brown paper bag* when I had finally calmed down enough to read it properly I was disappointed to find it said "Jakob's Dangling"
I wasn't in such a rush to scroll down to look for photos.... (yes, I know, calm down)
Poor Jakob having to play nursemaid to Nibbles or Beaker, it's just not fair! I really do wonder why he stays with Asstana
I've been wondering for years why Jakob stays there. It can't be Vino's warm, charming personality, surely? I mean, the man has no eyebrows!!
ReplyDeleteI assumed that when he chose to leave Leopard rather than swing over with the Leopard-trek-Nissan thing, it was because he sadly realised that with both Andy and Frankie in the team, he was never going to get a chance at the GC. It was either be a bridesmaid all your career, or change teams.
So he changed teams.
But now he's been Nibali's bridesmaid for 3-4 years, and it looks as though he's going to be handed down to Eddie the Mad Flatmate. He might just as well as stayed with Leopard!
In fact, as things turn out, if he were in Trek now, he'd probably BE the GC contender!