Starts Saturday. I'm hoping that Andy can get it done this year. Hopefully AC is still wiped out from the Giro and will show some cracks. Smart thing would be for a few teams to work together to attack him

AC's drugs are a good as his lawyers. Get used to hearing "one of the all time greats" thrown about.

The tour is setup this year so that there isn't a 2nd TT so it will be even more of a climber's year. However, the early TTT means that the defender of the yellow jersey in the P's will be interesting.

i still have a soft spot for cadel evans.


but andy is a favorite too.

Cadel doesn't have a prayer hehe big george used up all his towing power destroying the peleton for lance.

Andy just needs to keep his chain on the rings and have jens, fabian and frank tow him around until he can attack for time. AC only beat him by the time he lost due to the chain incident last year.

Andy has not looked in top form this year. I think his brother has actually finished ahead of him in the major pre-tour stage races this year.

Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, OTOH, are looking in top form.

TS

Yea.. but i don't see Saxo bank being a dominant team in the TTT so he'll have to make up some time.. but probably nothing out of his reach. I dunno if he'll have the team support once they get to the 2nd half like up Galbier twice 2 days in a row then the 3rd day up L'alpe d'huez.

I think a lot of the Versus talk will be on the "if he clears his court case etc" so i'll be avoiding it :)

I wonder if Cav will even ride a TT bike the day before the Champs ;) he'll be soft pedalling that like a weekend coffee ride.

Taking AC's stupid first day mistake into consideration, I think the setup is going to put a little twist on the first go thru the mountains. Usually the GC contenders font have to worry about climbers who can't ride a TT. Usually climbers like Sammy S kill themselves trying to get over intermediate level mountains first. But because there are so many mountain top finishes and because AC gifted 90 seconds, fewer 'pure' climbers aren't going to foolishly chase points.

That was a pretty crazy finish. Can't believe HTC Highroad just lost it in the last K. They had like seven of them up there. Pity those two from the original breakaway got caught so close to the end. They tried.

Problem with "easy" stages.. too many fresh legs at the end and a lot of craziness. It's nuts how hard guys can crash and just get up and keep going.. Confidis guy did a full flip and just got up and rolled in.

good win for USA on 4th of July.. and a nice tribute to WW from his best friend. yellow jersey and world champion lead out.. can't ask for more haha.

Good thing the guy was a n00b, or he wouldn't have his helmet on. He had the helmet = suck power going.

HTC went too soon, they should get it right next time.

Gotta admit, the middle sprint is a nice add. I'll be curious to see how it continues to work out.

who was a noob? all riders are required to wear a helmet 100% of the time....

HTC have gone that far back before.. they had plenty of riders to do it but they got a bit tangled up and Cav got shuffled out. apparently he had a little shoving battle with Thor too..


raining today... might cause a bit of trouble