Från Cervélo TestTeam:
24-May-2009: A disappointing day for all in the Giro.
The 15th stage of the Giro started well for the Cervélo TestTeam. "The mandate was clear," said Sports Director Jean-Paul van Poppel. "Make the race hard, go in the breakaways and get somebody in the break who could help Carlos at the end. Same strategy as yesterday. Today the boys did well again, we had Serge in the breakaway 16 km from the start and he did a marvellous job, ending up with Bertagnolli at the top of the last climb.
At that time, Basso had escaped and Carlos asked Serge to wait. Of course this is something that happens hundreds of times a year in cycling, nothing special. In fact, a little earlier Basso had his teammate Stangelj drop back from Serge's breakaway to help him. Maybe Serge didn't understand, but we let him know a couple of times that he really had to wait. Unfortunately Serge didn't stop at the top of the last climb, as he was told. If he had done that, he would have rejoined the Sastre group while it was still 40 seconds behind Basso and it would have made perfect sense. Now what happened was that Sastre's group gets closer to Basso's group even without the help of Serge.
Instead he slowed down at the bottom of the hill, and by that time it wasn't necessary anymore as the Basso group had been caught already, so it looked silly. Of course, looking back it's easy to say that if Serge doesn't get called back he may win the stage, and he certainly looked to have the strength to do that, but at the time the call was made Carlos really thought he needed the help. At the time Serge actually slowed down, the situation had already changed and it was no longer necessary. A tough pill to swallow for the team, especially Serge, but his time will come.
"I was so torn", explains Serge Pauwels. "I know that my job is to help Carlos, that's what I signed up for when I started this Giro. So I know that I should drop back to help him immediately when he asks, that's part of the game. But it was so difficult, because I could see that I had a chance to win this stage, and that would have been so amazing. By delaying the moment where I waited, we look pretty stupid. Lesson learned."
"It was bad timing for us," reports Jean-Paul van Poppel. "It's not easy for a small team like ours to try and put a rider on the final podium in the Giro. Sacrifices have to be made to make that happen, but everybody agreed that was our goal at the start. Of course it is easy to say that Serge deserves the chance to go for the victory, but it is also fair to say that over the past 10 years, Carlos has earned the right to have the team support him when he feels he needs it.
Today, a sacrifice was made that in retrospect wasn't needed. The whole team would have loved to see Serge win a stage, and if the final information about the Sastre group catching Basso had reached the front team car a few seconds earlier, it might all have ended differently. But that shows the highs and lows of the sport, yesterday we get a brilliant victory by Simon Gerrans, today we're the losers of the day."