Azevedo acquisition

[sellsworth]

So what do all think of USPS picking up Jose Azevedo to replace Heras? I think that it's a great move. Azevedo will definitely be better in the TTT than Heras. Heras riding for another team may actually help Lance. Heras will most likely attack on the steep climbs that will most likely put Ullrich into difficulty much more than Lance.

[Keith A]

I agree. I think it is a win/win situation. I'm happy for Heras to get the chance to make a run for the TdF himself. This will add one more team that is interested in the overall GC which would help USPS.

[TmcDet]

Am I the only one that thought that the Posties didn't push Ullrich enough last yr? He seamed to just sit there and ride with Postal too much of the time, I understand that he did not have a strong team but it always seamed to me that Postal was missing out by not really pushing him harder. I have heard that Lance wasn't feeling well, but Ullrich never really had enough to do anything more than just sit there on the wheel.

[Len J]

It seems to me that Postal has some better options this year than last. Watch for them not to take the yellow until later in the tour, hoping that Ullrich will have it requiring T-mobile to do all the work chasing breaks. Obviously, Postal will make sure Armstrong doesn't lose too much time, but they may be able to keep the pressure off the Postal boys until the mountains.

The real questions of the 2004 tour are:

Is Ullrich peaking as Armstrong declines & is this enough to win the tour?

Was Armstrongs performance in 2003 a function of overconfidence, sickness, family distress and injuries or was it decline?

Will Heras & Mayo put enough pressure on the leaders in the mountains to break one or both of them?

How much will the limitation on the time losses in the 2004 TTT affect the outcome (Ullrich would have won the tour if this years rules were in effect last year)?

Any way you cut it, the final 10 days of the 2004 tour will be amazing.

Len

[sellsworth]

Len - great comments. One question - how do you figure that Ullrich would have won if the new rules had been in place? If I remember right Bianchi lost 40 seconds or so in the TTT, so the new time loss limit wouldn't have helped Ullrich.

[Len J]

Sellsworth:

You may be right, I thought I remembered that Bianci lost several minutes to postal in th TTT. I could be wrong though (old age & all). I just looked it up & you're correct, Bianci lost 43 seconds. Sorry about that.

Len