Anybody else getting tired of boonen?

[creekster]

Here is how it goes:

Tom winds up; gets reasonably well-poisitoned and then is passed by 3-8 guys within the last 200 meters and as McEwen or someone else flies over the finish Line, Tacky Tom slaps his handle bars as though if only some little thing had gone differently he would have won the sprint. The dude is lucky to be in yellow at all and clearly is not he same sprinter that he was at the beginning of the season and yet we get whines about the 'pressure' of being in yellow. Wha, wah, wah. Or maybe that his lead out wasn't as good as McEwen's. Wah, wah, wah.

Just a rest day ramble by yours truly. Of course, the only sprint I have ever won is the sprint for the buffet line, so what do I know?

[bluegoose]

Originally Posted by creekster

Here is how it goes:

Tom winds up; gets reasonably well-poisitoned and then is passed by 3-8 guys within the last 200 meters and as McEwen or someone else flies over the finish Line, Tacky Tom slaps his handle bars as though if only some little thing had gone differently he would have won the sprint. The dude is lucky to be in yellow at all and clearly is not he same sprinter that he was at the beginning of the season and yet we get whines about the 'pressure' of being in yellow. Wha, wah, wah. Or maybe that his lead out wasn't as good as McEwen's. Wah, wah, wah.

Just a rest day ramble by yours truly. Of course, the only sprint I have ever won is the sprint for the buffet line, so what do I know?

I agree that he is being a bit of whiner this year. A couple of times, he has even called out other riders for pulling some funny business in the sprint, when it looked okay to me, from the 37 different angles that OLN is showing the sprint.

I didn't get to see any of the races in the early season when he was so dominant. Did he lose anyone from his team that led out for him earlier? McEwen has embarassed him thus far, and in doing so has embarassed me for picking Tom to win at least 3 stages. Come on creek, just one little edit to my predictions. Please?

[SteelBlue]

I'm a Boonen fan. I haven't read too much about his post race comments, so I've just assumed that he smacks his bars because he just lost when he was set up so well.

What I'm getting sick of is "wow, it's like McEwen is wearing Harry Potter's cloak".

[creekster]

Originally Posted by SteelBlue

I'm a Boonen fan. I haven't read too much about his post race comments, so I've just assumed that he smacks his bars because he just lost when he was set up so well.

What I'm getting sick of is "wow, it's like McEwen is wearing Harry Potter's cloak".

The Harry Potter stuff is a bit much, I agree. OTOH, McEwen's rather amazing slice behind the front guys and spurt through the opening to almost steal the win from Oscar on today's stage was pretty amazing. RObbie just seems to have a different gear right now. He moved laterally behind 4 guys and then cut forward through an opening and almost won the stage.

Boonen, who I have liked in the past, was situated perfectly today. He just couldn't do it. Phil said he started to early but I think it looked more like he never started at all. Just as everyone was in position the final sprint for the line starts and they all surge and Tom never did.

[bluegoose]

Originally Posted by creekster

Boonen, who I have liked in the past, was situated perfectly today. He just couldn't do it. Phil said he started to early but I think it looked more like he never started at all. Just as everyone was in position the final sprint for the line starts and they all surge and Tom never did.

I haven't seen todays stage finish, but it sounds a whole lot like last weeks stage that Freire won. He got a good jump. Boonen was in good position and looked like he was digging like a dog to keep up, but just didn't have the engine. Freire is such a smooth sprinter, he's fun to watch. It appears effortless to him.