The thing that really upset me, though, was my frustration regarding the strategy (or lack of) employed by the Garmin-Sharp team management. With one flat stage to go before hitting the first of the mountain stages, team manager, Jonathan Vaughters, decides to send one of his riders, David Zabriskie, out in the breakaway instead of using him and the other Garmin riders to keep Ryder at the head of the peleton.
The other teams with major GC contenders such as Sky and BMC were doing just that, but this seemed too simple a tactic, perhaps, for Vaughters.
I could not help noticing that every time they showed an image from the Garmin-Sharp car, Vaughters had his faced glued to his phone. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the race and protecting his main asset, Ryder Hesjedal.
It's hard not to wonder if the fact that Ryder is a Canadian riding on an American team might have had something to do with the half-hearted commitment from Vaughters. How to explain never seeing any Garmin riders at the front of the peleton until stage 7 when Ryder had abandoned.
It really is a puzzle when you consider that he won the Giro d'Italia, his first time riding as the acknowledged leader of the team, with a team that had been divided between the Giro and the Tour of California. You would think that all of Garmin's energies would be directed at supporting Ryder in winning the Tour de France.
I just hope his injuries are not so severe as to affect his chances at the Olympics in August or the Canadian races here in September.
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