I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t think I know a single rider in this year Tour. However, maybe that’s a good thing. I’ll watch it this year like I did before the Lance years. Just enjoying the scenery and picking a rider to cheer for. At least with the Versus coverage, I won’t have to wait for the late night ESPN coverage.
Anyone else going to follow the Tour this year?
I think I have it on one of my TV channels, for the first time, so I’ll probably watch more of it than usual. I’ll be keeping an eye on all the British riders - probably the most interesting is Mark Cavendish. He’s a world class sprinter (2 stage wins in the giro) and will be in with a shout of a stage win or two in the tour. Bradley Wiggins is a bad man on the track, but I’m not sure if he can win a timetrial in the tour. I’m not sure if he’s even riding actually because of the Olympics.
I’ll watch. I was going the root for my man Tom Boonen, as usual, but. . . schmuck. I think I’ll still root for the Belgian and Dutch teams. I suppose I’ll root for Stijn deVolders-- he’s been kicking some ass. And Geert Stegmans. I guess I’m still for Quickstep, and I’ll root for Lotto, too. If an American does well I’ll be on that bandwagon as well (maybe Hincapie or Zabriskie pull something out.)
I’m excited about the Tour; it’s certain to be the cleanest and most open competition in years, literally over a decade.
Obvious GC favorites:
Spaniards:
Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxo)
Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne)
Australian:
Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto)
Italian:
Damiano Cunego (Lampre)
Russian:
Denis Menchov (Rabobank)
Among these, I’d love to see Evans pull it together. He’s a classy rider, has several solid wins already this year, and it’d be awesome to see an Australian win. All of those guys are looking really strong, though. I suppose the consensus favorite is Sastre or Evans. I don’t think Valverde has a good enough time trial (although he’s been way better at this of late) and I don’t think Cunego and Menchov are consistent enough. However, this year’s Tour is light on time trials, so perhaps it could be Valverde’s year (he did just win the Dauphiné Libéré), or some other hot climber like Cunego.
Dark horses:
Roman Kreuziger of the Czech Republic, who just won the Tour of Switzerland (Liquigas), Italian Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott), or Frenchman Christophe Moreau (Agritubel).
I’m rooting for Evans!
Strategy: Avoid elimination and hope the drug tests come back positive.
If Cadel Evans doesn’t win this year, he probably never will as 1 and 3 from last year are both gone. I dunno can his team compete with Rabo though? I’m not what you’d call an expert though…
I figure I’ll be cheering for Kim Kirchen though. Maybe one of the Schleck boys, too. Keep it in Luxembourg this year…why not.
I’ve got my PVR ready to record every stage.
I’m going to amend my previous post. Going over the year’s results, I have to conclude that Valverde’s time trial has been really solid (including a TT stage win). That, plus his very good climbing ability, probably makes him the best contender along with Cadel Evans. (Cadel of course having taken second last year, in the second closet Tour ever.)
By the way, Zabriskie is not in the Tour this year, due to an injury from the Tour of Italy (I think).
Hincapie might be able to pull off a stage win, but I doubt it. He’ll be working for Kim Kirchen.
It’s pretty thin for Americans this year, especially with no Zabriskie and no Leipheimer. Christian Vande Velde is a very good rider, but not likely be remotely close to any GC contender. The only other Americans are Danny Pate and William Frischkorn, whom I know nothing about.
By the way, don’t be so harsh on Garmin-Chipotle. Jonathan Vaughters is a class act.
The first day is an actual stage? What happened to the prologue?
No prologue this year.
Ah, it’s time for Le Tour again! I love spending weekend mornings in July with Phil, Paul, and Bobke. Slurping coffee, puttering around the apartment, rushing back to the TV when their voices get excited. During the week I just get a quick glimpse before heading into work, where I have the various websites bookmarked. Lucky for me, my boss is a fan too.
Google has the route on Street View this year: 2008 TDF Map
No team time trial. Again. 
Awesome stage finish for Stage 1! It was uphill, and the climbers were able to take it away from the sprinters. Kim Kirchen jumped off with about 1k to go, but an elite chasing group got going right at the end. Valverde blasted by him and took the stage. Really quite amazing to see all the favorites showing themselves right away!
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
2 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux
3 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
4 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Columbia
5 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Scott
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto
7 Fränk Schleck (Lux) CSC-Saxo Bank
8 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas
9 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
10 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
So we’ll see Valverde tomorrow in the yellow jersey!
Incidentally, Soler (one of the mountain jersey favorites, and a possible GC contender) was injured in a crash. Not sure his status, but I did see him finish the stage.
IMHO, good. You have some favorites hamstrung right off the bat that way. I’ve always hated them.
Good stage. I was really pulling for Kirchen to hold on, oh well.
I know that it hurts weaker teams, but it’s just so good to watch.
9 men pedaling hard and slipping back to draft, then taking the lead again? Poetry in motion. I can even get behind the wussy ‘can’t lose too much time’ version from a few years back.
Word is that Mauricio Soler (a top contender for the polka dot jersey) will be continuing with race.
Hervé Duclos-Lassalle broke a wrist and is out, poor guy! Sucks to have to leave the Tour on Stage 1.
Strange to have a sprint that was between Thor and someone that wasn’t Boonen, hah. And where was Robbie McEwan?
McEwen got a bit caught behind or beside a crash I think.
It was a close one for the sprinters, for a second I thought Chavanel’s little surge off the escape group at 1.5k to go had a chance. Hah! The sprinters wanted it today. Cancellara also had a gutsy little attack at 1k to go. But Hushovd timed it perfectly, and was fastest at the line as he so often is.
Stage 2 Top 10
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 3.45.13 (43.84 km/h)
2 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia
3 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Columbia
4 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld
5 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
6 Iouri Trofimov (Rus) Bouygues Telecom
7 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
8 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Agritubel
9 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
McEwen came in at 17.
Very little changes to the GC.
King of the Mountains:
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 19 pts
2 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 11
3 Björn Schröder (Ger) Team Milram 9
Best Sprinter:
1 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia 54 pts
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 49
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 46
Mauricio Soler lost 7 minutes, not looking good at all. Apparently he does in fact have a wrist fracture. Ouch! It’ll be tough for him to keep going.
Is anyone following this thread?
Stage 3 was really, really interesting. A escape group got away, and one of them was William Frischkorn, an American on the Garmin Chipotle team. There was a crash at about 10k to go, and the peloton split into pieces. Moreau lost a lot of time, and both Menchov and Ricco lost something like 38".
Top 10 stage 3 finishers:
1 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis
2 William Frischkorn (USA) Garmin Chipotle - H30
3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
4 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Barloworld 0.14
5 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Silence-Lotto 2.03
6 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
7 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
8 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole
9 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
10 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Columbia
GC is a bit shaken up. Should be an interesting TT tomorrow!
After Stage 3, GC:
1 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
2 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Barloworld 0.35
3 William Frischkorn (USA) Garmin Chipotle - H30 1.42
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 1.45
5 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Columbia 1.46
6 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
7 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
8 David Millar (GBr) Garmin Chipotle - H30
9 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto
10 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas
(I am. . .) I’m on the US west coast so I can only catch the last hour or so live while having coffee. I love watching the time trials because I’m a very simple person with a short attention span.