I have gone for Gilbert to win opening stage at 13/8. The final km is 5% so that rules out pure sprinters. Form he has been in this year I think he will win it easily.
Genuine question Lar - what you make of Contador? Guilty or not? Saw him get booed at the opening yesterday.
Guilty imo. Just don’t buy his excuse and I suspect he was blood doping. Fair play to French cycling public for taking no shit and as I said yesterday it would be refreshing to see Wimbeldon crowd take same stance with Nadal but that ain’t going to happen unless media and sporting public in sports like tennis wake up to reality.
The faces on the two baldy lads on the right as Kimmage begins to speak, they know exactly whats coming :lol:
One of em is Bjarne Riis, he would know a lot about doping.
A hard rider should win it tomorrow, Cancellara is 50-1 for the first stage. Hushovd 6-1. I’m not sure if it will break up so much tomorrow.
How long more do they cycle along behind the car for?
Fucking hell. 9km to go, Astana rider at the side of the peloton hits a spectator who’s looking the other way, taking down about 30 riders. Loads of crashes today. An Omega rider went up in the air after hitting some street furniture. His hands were off the bars because he was warning other riders about a different piece of street furniture. Was kinda funny.
Big gaps after a surprisingly eventful first stage.
Gilbert won (well done Larry) and about 25 guys got some time after the crashes with Roche among them. Contador, Andy Schleck, Wiggins, Brajkovic, Sanchez all lost over a minute to Frank Schleck, Evans, Van Den Broeck and the others in that lead group.
Very interesting first day. Gilbert picked up where he left off in the spring classics with a class finish. Great riding throughout by Lotto for him and Den Broeck. Gesink and Van de Velde already out of contention 3:40 down. Encouraging for Roche he was well up in the bunch near the end and avoided the trouble. His team rival Gadret lost two minutes. Contador’s team were poor today, he had only one rider with him in the second peleton after the crash. Top riders should not be getting caught out like that. The time gaps make tomorrow’s TTT very important now, Contador is likely to lose more time. In the Giro, HTC won the TTT from Garmin and Astana over a similar distance. if that result is repeated, Hushovd or Tony Martin will be in yellow tomorrow. Lotto and AG2R will lose time tomorrow. Bradley Wiggins has a bit to do as well now.
Andy Schleck is now favourite! Rocko he was involved in pile up inside final 2km but has same time as lead group as it happened inside final 3km. Same for Brajkovic and Wiggins.
Little sloppy from Contador all right. Positioning at this early stage is a nightmare especially in last 20km though perhaps if he were more confident in his bike handling ability he would be further up peloton all right. Saxo looked noticeably poor indeed. Losing over a minute is a fair amount. (Gesink in lead group though balbec). Delighted Roche was in lead group. That time could be crucial come Paris against some of his rivals on gc. He was really struggling to hold wheel at end which is bit concerning however.
Tomorrow promises to be fascinating too. I think Radioshack may win it. Leiphemer, Kloden, Brajkovic and Popo are all excellent against the clock. My conscience won’t allow me to back them at 4/1. Instead I’m going for AG2r in stage head to heads against Vascan at 10/11.
Noticed that but the optimist in me reckons he’ll ride himself into form in the first week due to crashing out of the Dauphine. Looked a nasty, sharp bit of climbing at the end anyway. Cancellara’s effort was almost comical.
Yeah hope your right but is concerning nonetheless. There are some tough finishes like stage four coming up where he could lose time if he doesn’t have it in the legs. The again Contador was struggling to hold wheels in first week of Giro so maybe it is encouraging!
Was a bit confusing at the time so hadn’t realised Schleck and the others were affected by a different crash.
Saxo are underway already. They don’t look great it has to be said. Team getting some amount of booing. Never heard anything like it in a ttt before.
Despite looking ragged Saxo look to have put in good time. Leopard Trek are third last out.
Gadret not even doing a turn at the front. I hope to fook they don’t wait for him if he gets blown off the back. Saxo gain a minute over Euskaltel. Euskaltel were faster than AG2R at first check.
AG2r second thus far and lose 25 seconds to Saxo but gain on Vasca (lovely) and Euskaltel. Would have taken that. They’ll probably finish around 12th I’d imagine.