Rallye France Alsace 2013

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Originally Posted by NxOxT

One last big battle before the goodbye... nice stuff.

Then the nightmare ends...

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are you leaving us already? ;)

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Originally Posted by NxOxT

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Originally Posted by Mirek

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Originally Posted by rallyfun

Very shocking scene today in Colmar, new champion left alone in VW van, I have seen only few jurnalists around him, at the same time a proper queue for interview with Loeb. I feel sorry for Ogier, dispite being arogant he is the champion but not much interest.

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I guess the worse performance of Ogier in first leg was more related to this situation. He became a world champion, first different one after nine years, in his home country but nobody there was interested in him. All the crowds, all French media are there because it is the last rally of Loeb. I can imagine that Ogier must have felt mad about that.

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like a garbage picker...

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NO... like a second best! :laugh:

One is The Master!

Give me a call in 9 years... :D

OK, so what can Ogier do but win the Championship in a dominant fashion ?

Ogier had to leave Citroen and then have a year out waiting for the Polo. Loeb chose to retire and not compete with him in 2013 - why ? Did he fear him and not want to risk a blemish to his legacy ? And this season Loeb has only done the events he has chosen as they are his favourites

None of this is Ogier's fault, so his Championship is as valid as any ever has been.

Like the saying goes in football, ' You can only beat the team put in front of you..'

I don't know if I have overlooked this, or if nobody has mentioned it yet...

Congratulations to Pontus Tidemand and Ola Floene for winning the JWRC! :)

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

OK, so what can Ogier do but win the Championship in a dominant fashion ?

Ogier had to leave Citroen and then have a year out waiting for the Polo. Loeb chose to retire and not compete with him in 2013 - why ? Did he fear him and not want to risk a blemish to his legacy ? And this season Loeb has only done the events he has chosen as they are his favourites

None of this is Ogier's fault, so his Championship is as valid as any ever has been.

Like the saying goes in football, ' You can only beat the team put in front of you..'

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His championship is valid and he deserves it but a 39 year old Loeb who hasn;t competed on tarmac for about a year and on any rally for around 5 months comes here with an INFERIOR car and he is just 3.5 seconds away... with such a small margin i think it really doesn;t matter who wins...

Loeb is the true winner and the media, you and me and everyone knows that... If Ogier dominated (AS HE SHOULD) the rally and Loeb was 1-2 minutes behind then it would be a different story... now you cannot say for sure that Ogier was the best man this year overall because there is always the doubt.. what if Loeb competed ?? That is why i am saying this championship is garbage and its Loebs fault.

Ogier did not do anything wrong of course but this year he just picks up the garbage Loeb left for him... maybe this was Loebs revenge...

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

... Like the saying goes in football, ' You can only beat the team put in front of you..'

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Another saying goes - "Half a life one works for status/name/career etc...
the other half the status/name/career etc., work for him for the rest of his life"... if lucky enough.

Simple!?

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

OK, so what can Ogier do but win the Championship in a dominant fashion ?

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To defeat Loeb in Monte Carlo and in Argentina. But that's of course very easy to write from an armchair.

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

Ogier had to leave Citroen and then have a year out waiting for the Polo. Loeb chose to retire and not compete with him in 2013 - why ? Did he fear him and not want to risk a blemish to his legacy ?

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Don't think so. For me it's silly to even think about Loeb being afraid of anyone. He sent a whole generation of rally gods to retirement and than defeated all the young coming one after another. I do believe he really felt tired by the whole WRC circus, all the traveling, recce, almost no time at home etc. Time is running fast and one day You find that there are some other things You shall do in Your life...

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

And this season Loeb has only done the events he has chosen as they are his favourites

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The selection was actually quite curious as he chose some events he has pretty bad record in (Sweden) and didn't select his strongest event of all times (Germany).

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

None of this is Ogier's fault, so his Championship is as valid as any ever has been.

Like the saying goes in football, ' You can only beat the team put in front of you..'

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Monte Carlo and Argentina again. People will always remember that. For the sport and especially Ogier himself it would be best if he finishes ahead of Loeb tomorrow. That would be the proper way to take the crown. Let's see.

I'm still wondering why Loeb decided to drive the four rallies this year. It's like a spiteful kick in Ogier's ass when every few months the old guy comes back and spoils the party...

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Originally Posted by Mirek

Don't think so. For me it's silly to even think about Loeb being afraid of anyone. He sent a whole generation of rally gods to retirement and than defeated all the young coming one after another. I do believe he really felt tired by the whole WRC circus, all the traveling, recce, almost no time at home etc. Time is running fast and one day You find that there are some other things You shall do in Your life...

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At first i also thought this might be the case but the guy this year travelled like mad as well with the porsche cup, the FIA GT, pikes peak, the rallies and he was in china a few days ago...

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Originally Posted by Mirek

Monte Carlo and Argentina again. People will always remember that. For the sport and especially Ogier himself it would be best if he finishes ahead of Loeb tomorrow. That would be the proper way to take the crown. Let's see.

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It deosn't really make a difference. the gap is so small it is not about driving ability anymore...

Ogier failed to dominate over Loeb this year while he had everything on his side... so he picks up the garbage this year and he focuses to dominate the following 2-3 championships to make people forget.

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Originally Posted by NxOxT

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Originally Posted by Mirek

Don't think so. For me it's silly to even think about Loeb being afraid of anyone. He sent a whole generation of rally gods to retirement and than defeated all the young coming one after another. I do believe he really felt tired by the whole WRC circus, all the traveling, recce, almost no time at home etc. Time is running fast and one day You find that there are some other things You shall do in Your life...

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At first i also thought this might be the case but the guy this year travelled like mad as well with the porsche cup, the FIA GT, pikes peak, the rallies and he was in china a few days ago...

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Maybe tired to do the SAME all this years.Fia-gt is something different,pikespeak is again different.He didn t said that he will stay at home.
Maybe the deal with Citroen wanted these 4 particular rallies for their marketing reasons.
between citroen-loeb discussions both sides had to give something to other side.