Did gerrardno1 read that “tip” in the Metro this morning where it was their bet of the week?
Wouldn’t surprise me
Wouldn’t fancy Cunego for KOTM but a good price. I reckon Schleck junior for KOTM.
And Thomas Voevkler the new Champion of France to win a stage
Cunego will do nothing. Sastre for top ten is a nice bet though.
Cuengo certainly won’t challenge for GC but thats part of reason why he could be contender for KOM. He can climb and has explosive kick also. Whether or not he targets it is another matter.
Wiggins has decided to go a couple of hours earlier than other GC contenders in prologue today. Sky reckon it could well rain and air will be hotter than. Considering he came 2nd in Giro prologue Bookwalter is good value each way bet at 45/1 imo.
It’s only the prologue and Andy Schleck won’t expect to win the Tour because of his timetrialling but what an awful performance from him today. Down in 122nd place among the specialist sprinters who would just have wanted to get around the course without crashing.
Worrying show of strength from Armstrong.
Have a feeling Armstrong will have a big impact this year, I know that was just the prologue that must be his first big time trial performance since he has come back, if he is within a minute of Contador before the big ITT in the penultimate stage it’ll make things very interesting.
My only bet in this is on Gesink @ 20/1 for the polkadot jersey. I think he has the profile to win it. Toying with the idea of laying Contador, I think he will surely lengthen after the pavé stage.
Yeah that was certainly Armstrongs best showing since his return. Read quotes from Contador this morning saying that he was pleased with the result because he was ahead of virtually all his rivals!
Out of the other GC guys there were a few surprises. Evans, Sastre and F Schleck performed pretty much as expected.
Poor Showings:
- Awful performance from A Schleck. He has supposedly worked hard on his time trailing with Bobby Jullich but to lose 45 seconds to Contador over such a short distance is terrible. He will need to gain a few minutes before last TT if he has to have a chance of yellow in Paris
- Menchov’s time is also very poor. He has targeted Tour this year but for someone who is good against the clock he is behind some of the climbers
- Wiggins like Menchov has dedicated his year to this. To go from such a good showing last year to 77th this year is real poor
- Van de Velde finished a minute down. He is still recovering from injury
Good performances:
- Great to see Nicolas Roche put in a decent showing and finish ahead of some of main GC guys.
- Gesink can be relatively satisified also and he has a decent chance of getting the white jersey if A Schleck isn’t in form (he may well target the polka dot though as you pointed out manaboutdog).
- For Cancellera to finish ten seconds ahead of second place is some result regardless of the condition of the roads
- Leipheimer has had very poor season thus far so to get eight is excellent result for him
- Taaramae is someone who is good value at 28/1 to get a top ten placing. 45 seconds down yesterday which isn’t bad at all.
I did indeed
Several crashes in the stage today. Rumour going around that Leipheimer broke his wrist but he is okay apparently
Interesting article from Roche below. Like the way he is very clear about his objectives
n the days leading up to a Tour de France it’s easy to envy swimmers. A pair of togs and a towel and they’re ready for action. You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff I need to bring with me for a three-week bike race. It took me two hours to pack on Tuesday for my trip to Holland the following morning.
After a belated spring-clean of my apartment in Varese (the last thing you want to see after three weeks of slogging your guts out around France is a sink full of dirty dishes or a pile of laundry!) I filled my team-issue suitcase full of cycling gear for all kinds of weather.
Long and short-sleeve jerseys with short zips and full-length zips, leg and arm warmers, jackets, gloves, mitts, overshoes, rain capes and anything else you can think of were folded neatly and crammed inside. I also stuffed all of my Ag2r T-shirts, shorts, tracksuits and other casual clothing – the stuff we wear at meals and all other times during the Tour, into another big bag that I would have to bring to the Grand Depart in Rotterdam. That’s not counting another bag of spare items and my ‘rain bag’ that I already had waiting in Holland with my bikes.
jersey
Unfortunately for me, one thing I had to leave at home this year was the white and green shamrock jersey of Irish national champion. I lost the title to Matt Brammeier of the An Post/ M Donnelly team in Sligo last Sunday and I’m really disappointed that I won’t be able to wear it at the Tour again. Although Matt beat me fair and square, and I’m not going to whinge about it, I think everybody saw I was a bit grumpy after the finish last Sunday.
A few years ago, a silver medal at the nationals would have been something great. But after having the national champion’s jersey last year, it will be a comedown to have to revert to the usual team kit for the Tour – especially those ugly brown Ag2r shorts.
Last year, it was so easy to pick me out in the bunch, for commentators and for fans. So many people recognised me and came up to me and told me I was doing a good job. It wasn’t just that I was wearing the jersey of Irish champion. I felt that I was an ambassador for Irish cycling, flying the flag in the top races. I’m going to miss it.
As a small compensation, shoe manufacturer Specialized gave me a new set of shoes for the Tour when I arrived in Rotterdam. Mainly white, they have my name and a big Irish tricolour along the side and should be easy to spot in the peloton. Years ago, you wouldn’t change your shoes a few days before a major race like the Tour for fear of injury, but nowadays it’s a lot easier. I change mine about five or six times a season and the ones I have at the moment are almost worn out anyway.
While it’s always a worry changing shoes, I have my own way of getting the cleats perfectly aligned. I try to make sure they are in exactly the same spot as the old ones, to the millimetre. Then I ride the home trainer and see how it goes. I slowly play around with them, adjusting them millimetre by millimetre, and then I go out on the road for an hour and bring an Allen key with me. It takes me about two hours to get them the way I like.
The day after, I do a few sprints on them to make sure everything is okay and then, the third day, I’m all set. I also use Time cleats, which give me a bit of movement in the pedals if they’re not exactly bang on.
I’m more confident going into this Tour than I was last year, although the nerves are increasing day by day. It might be only my second Tour, but a lot is expected of me this time around. In fact, I feel like I can only disappoint people from here on. This year, I have more responsibility within the team and more pressure to get results, which I like. All of the team leaders’ race numbers on the Tour end in the number one. I am No 81. I have more expectations from the team, from my family, my friends and from Irish fans. But I also put a lot of pressure on myself to progress and be able to ride with the top guys now.
I think my second Tour will be very different to my first. Last year, I got into a lot of trouble with the team because I was sprinting faster than the actual team sprinter in the first week. This year, I have a different role to play. We have two good sprinters in newly-crowned Swiss champion Martin Elmiger and Frenchman Lloyd Mondory, and I will let them at it.
The first week, I will try to ride conservatively. The plan is to save as much energy as I can until we get to the high mountains where I will try to follow the top guys when the big battle begins. The Belgian cobbles and climbs on the first two road stages combined with the nervous nature of the first week of the Tour means I will have to try to stay around the front of the peloton just to keep out of danger, but don’t expect to see me contesting bunch gallops at the finish of these stages.
This year, Ag2r La Mondiale have a very different team than usual. It’s a lot younger and not so top heavy with climbers. Only myself, Christophe Riblon, Mondory and Rinaldo Nocentini survive from last year’s Tour team. This year we only really have Riblon and John Gadret for the mountains.
David LeLay, Maxime Bouet and Dmitri Champion can aim for breakaways and stage wins – which is also what Ag2r are looking for.
For the first time in a major Tour, the team is relying on me to challenge for the overall classification, with Nocentini – who wore yellow for a week last year – to back me up. Both of us are coming back from injury.
For me, the hamstring tear I suffered at the Tour of Romandie is gone, completely healed. But it doesn’t stop me worrying about it. I’m always thinking ‘will it be okay today? Will it hold up?’. But it’s not actually bothering me, on the bike or off it. But in the back of my head, it’s still niggling.
Nocentini had a great start to the 2010 season but a crash in February saw him break his leg in two places and some bones in his foot. He has bounced back and is in good form.
If I finish around 15th place overall in Paris, I will be happy. Hopefully, I will be as close as possible to 10th. I’m conscious that’s going to be a very hard task, but I always like to give myself a hard target.
If I won a stage and was nowhere near that placing overall, I would probably be even happier. The complexity of the situation is that if I do manage to remain close to the overall contenders, nobody will be willing to let me slip into a breakaway group, so taking a stage win will be very difficult this year.
I know I could take it easy for a few days, lose a lot of time and be given a bit of freedom to chase stage wins, but I’m at the stage in my career where I need to know how far I can go in the challenge for the overall race.
I love the thrill and excitement of riding for general classification. People say I could be a green jersey contender if I concentrated on that but it would mean having to go for every sprint, every day and forgetting about the overall. It could be something I’d like to do in a few years, if I see that I’m not going to be a realistic overall contender. Also, I think I could challenge for the Mountains jersey in the future, if one day I decided to go for it. I may not be a super climber but I am capable of being in four or five breakaways in a week if necessary and taking points on the major climbs.
Contador, Armstrong and the Schleck brothers are the usual suspects for overall victory again this year. Outside of these, Janez Braijkovic had a fantastic Dauphine but I think he will be giving his all to Armstrong for the next three weeks. Robert Gesink had a great Tour de Suisse, and I think Tony Martin could be a surprise this year.
I rode the prologue course yesterday morning and although I’m not a specialist and won’t be a major threat to the favourites, I enjoy prologues and want to finish in the top 20 in this afternoon’s 8.9kms race against the clock. After that it’s a matter of keeping safe and not losing too much time in the first week before the real racing begins.
If you’re travelling to the Tour, come and say hello – I’ll be the one with the green, white and orange shoes!
He’s certainly ambitious anyway. Like his attitude and he’s not afraid to let the world know what he expects of himself and of others.
Several crashes today. Cavendish at fault for one of them again. Last thing he needed after the Tour De Suisse farce. Pretty crazy scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5tqtj8roMQ
Taaramae currently part of a breakaway. If he can gain time here he could be in yellow tonight. Unlikely probably though as sprinters teams will be keen for it all to come back together.
Absolute carnage again today. Most of the GC guys crashed but everyone slowed down and waited for one another which was bit of a pity as took any excitement out of it. Cobbles tomorrow which should be dramatic.
Today’s stage sounded like a belter. Andy Schleck taking time out of his GC rivals on the pavé, his brother Frank crashing out of the race after a heavy fall, Lance losing a little time to Contador, Vino dropping his team leader on the final stretch of cobbles, I must make sure to tune into the highlights later on.
Cadel Evans threw himself into the GC picture aswell, nullifying his bad start.
Really sets things up before we hit the alps in a few days time.
Absolute belter of a stage today indeed. Most exciting stage I have seen in a long time. Great inclusion in Le Tour and really adds something to the first week which is normally quite boring. Armstrong looked strong before his puncture and was impressive after it though really he was looking to gain time on Contador today and not lose it. A Schleck’s performance was surprise also though an awful lot of it was down to Cancellera. Thomas has looked real strong this season and I expect he will continue to surprise a few people. Great to see Roche finish in the second group with and he now stands 11th on GC. Regret not putting anything on him to get top ten but he is 8/1 with billyhill so had a small nibble at that. Funny to see Vino speed away on Contador at end though he may have thought Contador’s mechanical happened in last 3km
Roche up to eight GC after stage yesterday. He targeted top 15 placing which was ambitious and that is looking pretty good. Mountain top finish today in a brute of a stage. Today is day when Contador will probably try and distance rivals.
http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com/2010/06/16/2/gr214545_600.jpg
A great stage today, Andy Schleck looking very strong, but he’ll have to take more time before the final TT. I was hoping they might let Gesink off for the stage win & KOTM points but they kept him on a tight leash when he attacked.
Bye Bye Lance you won’t be missed!
While time gaps weren’t big that was a big blow for Schleck and for Contador’s rivals.Astana looked super strong though and there aren’t that many mountain top finished and they are ideal place for Schleck to gain.Evans too can be happy and unlike Schleck he can time trial…Good ride by Roche.Really gutsy.16th on gc now after losing 2’20 today…Almost felt sorry for Armstrong there.To lose 12 minutes today had to be his worst nigthmare.
Armstrong lost 12 minutes? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: