# Andreas Kloden - say what?



## Richard (Feb 17, 2006)

Is it just me or does anyone else believe that Andreas is getting short shrift in this year's coverage. Everytime they spotlight the "GC contenders", he's noticeably absent. Granted, I'm pulling for Horner (hope springs eternal), but for crying out loud, Kloden has been "hovering" in the top five, no drama, very consistent, and he's had a pretty good year so far.

He rarely gets even a mention.


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## RichieRichRK (Apr 15, 2010)

I've noticed that also....they are biased with alot of the other cyclists. Personally I cannot stand contador but versus network think he's the greatest thing to happen in cycling! But I take the fact were in sprinting stages....when they get into the mountains we will see those names such kloden, Horner, etc..


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## Buzzard (Sep 7, 2004)

Could be the dark horse. I just hope he has the legs when the roads turn up. I would love to see him quietly grind it out for awhile and then launch some attacks. His ITT is pretty good. He's smart and obviously knows his limits. I think he'll ride to his full potential this year. If Berto doesn't have it, I could easily see Klodi taking a podium spot.

VS is really pimping Horner. He seems like he's been right on the edge all week. That has to take a lot out of a guy. He's talked some big talk, so we'll just have to see if there's anything to it.

Can't wait for mountains!


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

VS has a huge investment in the american teams and cyclists. they are, after all, broadcasting to the US. however, its not just versus.

they get the feed directly from the race. they dont have their own cameras, other than when you see them on set or the packages with ventura or hummer. they comment on the video feed they get. its the production running the feed the determines who is on your screen when it comes to the actual race coverage. thats one reason you see so many french riders

as far as short shrift, basso, leader of liquigas, has also gotten less coverage. boonen was nearly absent until he kissed the concrete the other day. once the road kicks up there will be more about kloden, but probably wrapped around levi and horner. and maybe the schlecks again.

one reason they are showing contador is not love, but quite the opposite. contador is basically the heel in modernday cycling. plus, he is not only the defending champion, but the current winner of the Giro. he has a shot at taking the double, which hasnt been done since pantani. he is also suffering from extremely bad luck this season.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

TBH, Kloden has been nowhere to be seen really always in the pack only sticking out by his minimization of his losses.


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## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

Marc said:


> TBH, Kloden has been nowhere to be seen really always in the pack only sticking out by his minimization of his losses.


how else would a GC guy race the first week of the tour?


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

den bakker said:


> how else would a GC guy race the first week of the tour?


Like cadel Evans.


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## Chef Tony (Mar 2, 2004)

Kloden should be RadioShack's GC choice for support. It would be a mistake to use these early stages to see which of him, Levi or Horner are in best condition. they need to unite behind one rider. I like Horner a lot, but Kloden's been 2nd twice and has earned the top spot on the team.


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## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

thechriswebb said:


> Like cadel Evans.


because Kloedens qualities considered that would make so much sense. ride till he pukes and still ends up short. just brilliant.


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## WinstonSmith (Apr 25, 2009)

Not sure why Kloden is not taken seriously. Versus is very biased toward the American riders as they are trying desperately to up their ratings in the US, which is understandable I suppose. Bob Roll is obviously the worst offender. He is the Don Cherry of cycling commentators and everything he says or predicts is worthless due to his inability to be neutral or logical. 

Contador is portrayed as the enemy and the anti-American ever since his run-ins with Armstrong. Funny how Versus amplified the audio of the few people booing Contador during the opening ceremonies and claimed that he was largely booed when it was only a few. 

I appreciate Versus covering this stuff but I would sure like to see neutral coverage regardless of country of origin. This is asking too much of Versus since they are basically the cultural cesspool of sports networks with their pro-violence, bull-riding, cage-fighting and fist-fighting focus.


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## jorgy (Oct 21, 2005)

Agreed that Kloden is flying under the radar of contender coverage. Good in the mountains, great time trialer and smart rider.

Levi's probably lost enough time that he will hopefully accept his fate as a mountain domestique for Kloden. Horner might have lost some time today, too.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

jorgy said:


> Agreed that Kloden is flying under the radar of contender coverage. Good in the mountains, great time trialer and smart rider.
> 
> Levi's probably lost enough time that he will hopefully accept his fate as a mountain domestique for Kloden. Horner might have lost some time today, too.


now that Jani crashed out and both Levi and Horner lost significant time, Klodi becomes the only chance Radioshack has left for GC.


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## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

55x11 said:


> now that Jani crashed out and both Levi and Horner lost significant time, Klodi becomes the only chance Radioshack has left for GC.


so will he actually be protected or will they continue their "every man for himself" approach....


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## jorgy (Oct 21, 2005)

55x11 said:


> now that Jani crashed out and both Levi and Horner lost significant time, Klodi becomes the only chance Radioshack has left for GC.


Horner might be out. He's not showing up in the results. Bummer. That's a big blow for Kloden's chances.

Edit: Looks like Horner finished over 12 minutes back. Hopefully he was conserving his energy knowing that his GC chances were over versus really injured.


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## baker921 (Jul 20, 2007)

And then there was one! I don't know whether AK should be elated to be the last man standing or just looking for somewhere to hide considering the teams luck so far.


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## burgrat (Nov 18, 2005)

Kloden is now the only GC contender left for the Shack. I was pulling for Horner, but that's down the drain now. They really had 3 good hands to play (Kloden, Levi, and Horner), now Kloden is the sole survivor for GC standing. Although Levi and Horner will be super domestiques at this point, this totally screws up Radio Shacks tactics of having 3 or even 4 top contenders. I would like to see Kloden do top 3.


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## lesper4 (Jul 15, 2008)

How did Horner finish so far back did Buryneal not send anyone to help get him back to at least the second split of the peleton?


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## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

lesper4 said:


> How did Horner finish so far back did Buryneal not send anyone to help get him back to at least the second split of the peleton?


he seemed to be by himself at least when the doc was cleaning him up.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

den bakker said:


> he seemed to be by himself at least when the doc was cleaning him up.


what i don't quite get is how Vino and Levi are in the same chase group for quite some time, and Vino catches up and finishes with Cav, while Levi is 3:09 or whatever back. Did I miss something?


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## harlond (May 30, 2005)

55x11 said:


> what i don't quite get is how Vino and Levi are in the same chase group for quite some time, and Vino catches up and finishes with Cav, while Levi is 3:09 or whatever back. Did I miss something?


Believe Levi flatted out of the group and could not get back on.


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## nate (Jun 20, 2004)

lesper4 said:


> How did Horner finish so far back did Buryneal not send anyone to help get him back to at least the second split of the peleton?


Why would Bruyneel send the team back to help when two of his riders that are much better grand tour contenders are up the road? I don't believe for a second that Bruyneel ever thought Horner could contend in GC despite his public statements about having four GC contenders.

I've said it a couple times lately, but it makes no sense to me that Horner was considered by some as a potential contender in a grand tour. Kloden and Leipheimer are both better and, though only slightly, younger. If they had to rely on Horner, it would only be as a last ditch effort.

Edit: After seeing the video of Horner, it seems that Bruyneel also probably knew that Horner was likely to be out of the race after today or at best severely injured and well below 100%. Hopefully he'll be okay but I would guess he is out of the race.


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## lesper4 (Jul 15, 2008)

^Yeah after reading about the injuries I can see that. I will have to watch the coverage tonight.


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## Buzzard (Sep 7, 2004)

Kloden finally makes an appearance on VS' overall contender list this morning...


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## JSR (Feb 27, 2006)

Buzzard said:


> Kloden finally makes an appearance on VS' overall contender list this morning...


...and then promply falls off the list in today's stage. TRS is doomed.

JSR


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## spookyload (Jan 30, 2004)

JSR said:


> ...and then promply falls off the list in today's stage. TRS is doomed.
> 
> JSR


 Looking at the results from today he is still 4th on GC at 10 seconds. Who is making this list?


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

jorgy said:


> Horner might be out. He's not showing up in the results. Bummer. That's a big blow for Kloden's chances.
> 
> Edit: Looks like Horner finished over 12 minutes back. Hopefully he was conserving his energy knowing that his GC chances were over versus really injured.



Horner wasn't conserving anything when he came in 12 minutes down yesterday... the dude didn't even know what country he was in, when he finished.... or that he even finished... he certainly wasn't thinking about conserving anything.


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## nims (Jul 7, 2009)

spookyload said:


> Looking at the results from today he is still 4th on GC at 10 seconds. Who is making this list?


Graig Hummer it's one of his new duties ;p


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## JSR (Feb 27, 2006)

spookyload said:


> Looking at the results from today he is still 4th on GC at 10 seconds. Who is making this list?


My bad. When I saw the preliminary results, Klodi wasn't listed - or I just missed it.

He has as good a chance as any of the other TRS guys would have had, and I'm pullin for him.

JSR


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## jorgy (Oct 21, 2005)

ProdigalCyclist said:


> Horner wasn't conserving anything when he came in 12 minutes down yesterday... the dude didn't even know what country he was in, when he finished.... or that he even finished... he certainly wasn't thinking about conserving anything.


That's obvious now. But it wasn't clear when I wrote that yesterday before the story was known. Duh.


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

jorgy said:


> That's obvious now. But it wasn't clear when I wrote that yesterday before the story was known. Duh.


No need to get all touchy about it... and BTW... your edit was made at 4:37 PM which was after VS was already showing clips of Horner crossing the line in a fog. So you may not have known at the time that you Edited... but it was pretty clear he wasn't conserving.

And what GC rider just arbitrarily decides to just sit up and conserve after a crash with out being injured anyway? Especially considering there were other riders in the same crash that managed to limit their time loses fairly effectively... Answer: a GC rider wouldn't sit up and conserve unless it was due to injury.


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## tricycletalent (Apr 2, 2005)

Kloden doesn't stand a chance. He wasted his opportunities racing as the sole contender in the absence of Ullrich, and he got screwed over big time when astana was thrown out due to Vino getting caught. He missed out when Landis won, as well. Klöden is too old, he has f-up too many times, he has proven before that although on his best form, he has been a sick time trialling machine, especially concerning his slender frame, but he will drop like an anchor weight in the mountains.


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

tricycletalent said:


> Kloden doesn't stand a chance. He wasted his opportunities racing as the sole contender in the absence of Ullrich, and he got screwed over big time when astana was thrown out due to Vino getting caught. He missed out when Landis won, as well. Klöden is too old, he has f-up too many times, he has proven before that although on his best form, he has been a sick time trialling machine, especially concerning his slender frame, but he will drop like an anchor weight in the mountains.


LOL... I'll have to remeber this one and dig it up in about a week.

Klodin has every chance all the other GC riders have right now. He's actually in a better spot than he could have hoped for going in to the tour... because he's now become the de-facto team leader. 

And although he's lost a couple teamates so far he still has Haimar Zubeldia, Yaroslav Popovych, and Levi Leipheimer to ride for him in the mountains, with no real pressure on him personally because any good things that happen now are a bonus considering what has happened to the team over the last few days.

He can also hold his own in the TT, and he's no stranger to having to do work on his own in the Mountains (he got second in the Tour de France while actually riding for someone else)

Not saying Kloden WILL win (or anything of the sort)... but I highly doubt he's going to "drop like an anchor weight in the mountains."


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## Buzzard (Sep 7, 2004)

*Klöden Suffers Back Injury in Stage 9*

Posted by Cathy Mehl | 01:19:00 PM PDT July 10, 2011

http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_kl-den-suffers-back-injury-stage-9/



> _Team RadioShack has suffered a variety of mishaps in the first nine days of racing, including the race-ending crashes of protected riders Jani Brajkovic on stage 5 and Chris Horner on Stage 7. On Sunday’s stage 9 another massive pile-up involved many riders in the peloton, including The Shack’s race leader Andreas Klöden.
> 
> “I think Garmin-Cervelo went very fast on the descent,” explained Andreas said after a trip to the hospital for x-rays. “I was in a good position, I think maybe fifteenth from the front of the peloton. But they came in too fast to a left-hand corner and some guys crashed in front of me. I had no chance to stay on the road. I went off into the forest and fell down maybe 7-8 meters down the incline and I hit my lower back. Afterwards I had to ride and come back to the peloton which I did. But in the last kilometer uphill I couldn’t follow the last accelerations because I couldn’t stand up on the pedals. So I lost some time. It’s very painful.” Klöden lost eight seconds and holds the 8-th position on the classification behind new race leader Frenchman Thomas Voeckler.
> 
> ...


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## moabbiker (Sep 11, 2002)

And to top it off, Levi lost more time getting gapped at the line. The dude just cannot accelerate.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

ProdigalCyclist said:


> Not saying Kloden WILL win (or anything of the sort)... but I highly doubt he's going to "drop like an anchor weight in the mountains."


Exactly. Klodi will "drop like an anchor"? HA!

Anyone remembers this stage 17 of 2009 TdF?

Everyone was dropped except Schleck brothers, Contador and Kloden (who also did a lot of work for Armstrong before). Anyone who can hang on with Contador and Schlecks on the climbs is far from "anchor weight".

https://velonews.competitor.com/2009/07/news/2009-tdf-stage-17-andy-schleck-tries-to-get-rid-of-contador-and-kloden_95672


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## cda 455 (Aug 9, 2010)

55x11 said:


> Exactly. Klodi will "drop like an anchor"? HA!
> 
> Anyone remembers this stage 17 of 2009 TdF?
> 
> ...


Agreed.


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

moabbiker said:


> And to top it off, Levi lost more time getting gapped at the line. The dude just cannot accelerate.


haha never mind, i thought you said andreas. my bad. :mad2:


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

bas said:


> haha never mind, i thought you said andreas. my bad. :mad2:


the thread is about andreas, not levi


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## Ridin'Sorra (Sep 7, 2004)

WinstonSmith said:


> I appreciate Versus covering this stuff but I would sure like to see neutral coverage regardless of country of origin.


Try watching the British GP with BBC's coverage... 

They should be more conservative or they could end up eating humble pie as BBC did with yesterday's Alonso victory at Silverstone.

As for Kloden, I'm not sure if he has a real chance to win it with the likes of the Schlek's, Evans and Contador. However, he's a definitive contender.

For sure he had/has a better chance than Leipheimer... not to mention Horner.


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## twain (May 18, 2004)

Glad that there are some Kloden fans out there. It amazes me how he always gets overlooked. He's placed 2nd twice and 6th once at the TDF. He's not the best climber but can hang with them. And he is an awesome time trialist. He has ridden a very smart tour this year, staying at the front. 
It's such a shame that he crashed. Hope he is able to continue.


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

twain said:


> Glad that there are some Kloden fans out there. It amazes me how he always gets overlooked. He's placed 2nd twice and 6th once at the TDF. He's not the best climber but can hang with them. And he is an awesome time trialist. He has ridden a very smart tour this year, staying at the front.
> It's such a shame that he crashed. Hope he is able to continue.



The latest reports are that he will, in fact, continue. The Xrays were all negative but he has a fairly badly bruised lower back. He said the pain in his back really caused him discomfort on the last part of yesterdays stage (during the last climb) Hopefully he can work it out over the rest day (and the next few days) before the climbs go in to the high mountains.


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## SantaCruz (Mar 22, 2002)

I'm pulling for Kloden - but not wagering on it.
Back pain with 2 weeks remaining is not good.


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## nate (Jun 20, 2004)

SantaCruz said:


> I'm pulling for Kloden - but not wagering on it.
> Back pain with 2 weeks remaining is not good.


He is done. 

He started today but abandoned early enough in the stage that the streaming Eurosport coverage hadn't even started. His back was so bad that he apparently needed help to put on and take off his shoes. 

I think they said Radio Shack only has four riders left?


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

nate said:


> Yup. He started today but abandoned early enough in the stage that the streaming Eurosport coverage hadn't even started. His back was so bad that he apparently needed help to put on and take off his shoes.
> 
> *I think they said Radio Shack only has four riders left*?



Phil Liggett just said they have 5 riders left... they just showed Klodi abandon on the Vs coverage
.


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## paredown (Oct 18, 2006)

nate said:


> He is done.
> 
> He started today but abandoned early enough in the stage that the streaming Eurosport coverage hadn't even started. His back was so bad that he apparently needed help to put on and take off his shoes.
> 
> I think they said Radio Shack only has four riders left?


He went down pretty hard yesterday on the crash just after they crested the first climb, when TV locked up his brakes, someone else reacted and Klodi went down hard. I was amazed that he managed to get back on--his jersey looked pretty torn up on the shoulder.

Can only imagine how much that hurt--to go down hard when you've already got back problems...


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## nims (Jul 7, 2009)

This is pretty crappy, I'm starting to think there is a conspiracy at play. With now 4 riders down, I guess they can start trying out for breakaways. Levi should try to loose time and become a non GC contender and try to win a stage. 

Can't blame the bike as Leopard doing fine on them.


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## yanksrock528 (Jul 15, 2011)

I havnt seen that much either and its too bad he deserves more attention than that.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

nims said:


> This is pretty crappy, I'm starting to think there is a conspiracy at play. With now 4 riders down, I guess they can start trying out for breakaways. Levi should try to loose time and become a non GC contender and try to win a stage.
> 
> Can't blame the bike as Leopard doing fine on them.


I am sad to see Klodi go. He was one of those quiet, underrated riders who could have been a real dark horse in this year's TdF. I hope Leipheimer and Zubeldia can salvage this disastrous tour for Radioshack.


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

55x11 said:


> I am sad to see Klodi go. He was one of those quiet, underrated riders who could have been a real dark horse in this year's TdF. I hope Leipheimer and Zubeldia can salvage this disastrous tour for Radioshack.


I don't think Levi can keep the rubber side down this year... it's looking like Zubeldia is their last hope at anything.


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## Len J (Jan 28, 2004)

ProdigalCyclist said:


> I don't think Levi can keep the rubber side down this year... it's looking like Zubeldia is their last hope at anything.


Assuming all the teammembers have gone home, how odd must it be on the RadioShack bus in the morning?

Len


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## asciibaron (Aug 11, 2006)

Len J said:


> Assuming all the teammembers have gone home, how odd must it be on the RadioShack bus in the morning?


kinda like a RadioShack store... empty.


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## ProdigalCyclist (May 3, 2011)

asciibaron said:


> kinda like a RadioShack store... empty.


HA HA HA.... LMAO... That says it just about perfectly.

I have no clue how Radio Shack even stays in business!


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