why did Floyd Landis' teammates abandon him on stage 16?

Question

Axel at finish line is not plural - where is the rest of the team? I do take my hat off to Axel for doing the right thing (good genes).

Answer 1

Not sure it was so much abandonment as lack of depth and tallent on that team. Merckx was the only one on that team with any chance of climbing with Floyd and he got dropped on the climb before Floyd blew up. Merckx did catch up and help out. I think if you look back at the early postal teams you'll see this same lack of depth. Lance's teams became stronger over the years as it is easier to bring on tallent when your #1 is that dominant.

Answer 2

I have to agree with another person who wrote that the Phonak team was not that good this year. It certainly did not match the effort of previous Discovery/U.S. Postal teams that helped Lance Armstrong to victory. I don't, however, think the commentators have universally praised the Phonak team either. I'm sure I heard assorted comments from Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, and Bob Roll questioning the absence of Floyd's teammates at various times during this Tour. Axel Merckx was the exception on Stage 16, as he was able to rejoin Floyd and accompany him to the finish line. Phonak did do an excellent job of setting the initial pace for Stage 17, which Floyd went on to win, thus setting up his final victory in the Tour. There is some chatter about whether Floyd will return to the team next year, as another company, iShares, will take over as main sponsor for the team.

Answer 3

I don't think any teammate would ever abandon him for any reason other than that they were totally physically unable to keep up.

I think with the exception of T-mobile this year no team came anywhere near the depth of climbers and strong mountain riders that Armstrong managed to amass in his teams over the years - there you saw so many strong riders that if two were exhausted from the previous day he'd let them ride at the back and use three more at the front!

Can you imagine if Ulrich had been there and had Kloden to work for him as well as Oscar Sevilla (also chucked out)? It might have been a different race.

Answer 4

Phonak obviously failed miserably as a team, and all the tv commentators are working on denying that, and they'll keep on denying that even though a simple viewing of the race proves Phonak abandoned Floyd Landis all through the Tour. Which proves one thing more than that they are a sorry outfit. It proves that Floyd is "one tough cookie"!!!! God Bless you.

Answer 5

You imply that they gave up. I assure you that they were suffering like dogs to get up that mountain.
Clearly his team struggled to support him in the mountains, but they did not abandon him. If you look at the team line-up, he just didn't have any mountain domestiques that could be counted upon.

Answer 6

they didn't.