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The 100th Edition Of The Tour de France: Chirps, Opinions, News, Updates.


Pick the yellow and green jersey winners.  

305 members have voted

  1. 1. Who will reign in Yellow?

    • Froome Dawg (Sky)
      216
    • Contador (Saxo Tinkoff)
      53
    • A Schleck, Radioshack
      13
    • Evans (BMC)
      8
    • Uran (Sky)
      0
    • Tejay (BMC)
      3
    • Gesink (Blanco)
      0
    • Hesjedal (Garmin Sharp
      0
    • Valverde (Movistar)
      4
    • J Rodriquez (Katusha)
      2
    • Suprize package!
      6
  2. 2. Who will reign in Green?

    • Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling)
      178
    • Cav' (Omega Pharma Quickstep)
      104
    • Greipel (Lotto Bellisol)
      7
    • Bouhanni (FDJ)
      1
    • Goss (Orica-Greenedge)
      3
    • Surprize package?
      12


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Posted

He's only the fastest in a 20 sec-ish burst in a straight line, Cav'.

 

But the man sure knows how to time that burst and collect wins.

 

That's the crux right there. Not many can maintain the wattage that he does over that sort of period. If Cav is delivered at top speed, no one can catch him. No one.

Posted

You can't discount J. Rodriquez he has been in a wind tunnel to improve his time trialing.

 

Andy Schleck may be a very dark horse.

For Cav his lead out train is improving.

Posted (edited)

You can't discount J. Rodriquez he has been in a wind tunnel to improve his time trialing.

 

Andy Schleck may be a very dark horse.

For Cav his lead out train is improving.

 

Yah, but the trouble is the little guys just dont produce the power to push a big gear on the long straight roads - or theoretically shouldn't be.!

 

If we remember back a few years climbers were climbers and were terrible at the ITT stages and vice versa, today its changed a bit, not quite sure how, but big fellas of 80 odd kgs fly up steep mountains and 50 kg fly weights produce incredible wattage over sustained big gear performances. Back then it was "extraterrestrial" to see those performances, today we just shrug and mutter about it in private conversations.

 

.........but never the less, one would be seriously amiss to discount Rodriguez from the podium, he is an explosive rider and a great competitor, he always seems to have a bad day somewhere though and lose huge chunks of time but maybe this year will be different, as I would like to see him up there for sure.

Edited by GrumpyOldGuy
Posted

Hopefully The Tour was as exciting as the Giro

 

The Giro is filled with riders that take risks, passionately so, and this is helluva exciting.

It's part if the ethos and culture of the Italian way in some ways - be passionate and go with great emotion.

 

The culture of racing in the TdF, especially, the 1st two weeks, can be conservative.

 

HOWEVER the last time I checked the 2013 route, there are mountain stages in the 1st week to break that 'dull' 1st week!

Posted

Hmmm... Sir Twiggo in doubt for the TdF?

 

Read more at cyclingnews:

 

Wiggins will not ride the Critérium du Dauphiné, which gets underway on Sunday, and the Daily Mail reports that he is “making slow progress” in his bid to recover from the ailments that cut short his Giro bid. Gazzetta dello Sport points to Wiggins’ troublesome knee, in particular, as hampering his progress. The Englishman was said to be afflicted by tendonitis in his left knee during the Giro.

"With these setbacks I can confirm that Brad cannot currently train properly and we are monitoring this situation carefully," Sky manager Dave Brailsford told The Guardian on Friday morning.

Posted

Hmmm... Sir Twiggo in doubt for the TdF?

 

Read more at cyclingnews:

 

 

Wiggins will not ride the Critérium du Dauphiné, which gets underway on Sunday, and the Daily Mail reports that he is “making slow progress” in his bid to recover from the ailments that cut short his Giro bid. Gazzetta dello Sport points to Wiggins’ troublesome knee, in particular, as hampering his progress. The Englishman was said to be afflicted by tendonitis in his left knee during the Giro.

"With these setbacks I can confirm that Brad cannot currently train properly and we are monitoring this situation carefully," Sky manager Dave Brailsford told The Guardian on Friday morning.

 

Wish they would make up their minds - this uncertainty will damage the teams bid.

Posted

He's only the fastest in a 20 sec-ish burst in a straight line, Cav'.

 

But the man sure knows how to time that burst and collect wins.

I hate to say it, but I recon the only reason Sagan took the green jersey instead of Cav last season was due to Cav having no team support and at times even having to do domestique work for Wiggins.

That said, I'd love Sagan / anyone else to challenge him this tour as the sprints in the Giro were extremely predictable.

 

Something else that should happen is that Orica Greenedge should realise that Goss is highly over rated and incapable of beating Cav and thus promote Daryl Impey to the teams lead sprinter slot :thumbup:

Posted

I hate to say it, but I recon the only reason Sagan took the green jersey instead of Cav last season was due to Cav having no team support and at times even having to do domestique work for Wiggins.

That said, I'd love Sagan / anyone else to challenge him this tour as the sprints in the Giro were extremely predictable.

 

 

 

What happened, happened, Wez-O.

We wont really know, won't we...

 

^_^

 

Sagan even beat the Cav in a straight sprint during Tirreno' this season. B)

Posted

Hmmm... Sir Twiggo in doubt for the TdF?

 

Read more at cyclingnews:

 

 

Wiggins will not ride the Critérium du Dauphiné, which gets underway on Sunday, and the Daily Mail reports that he is “making slow progress” in his bid to recover from the ailments that cut short his Giro bid. Gazzetta dello Sport points to Wiggins’ troublesome knee, in particular, as hampering his progress. The Englishman was said to be afflicted by tendonitis in his left knee during the Giro.

"With these setbacks I can confirm that Brad cannot currently train properly and we are monitoring this situation carefully," Sky manager Dave Brailsford told The Guardian on Friday morning.

 

Didn't they say he was just sick when he pulled out of the Giro.? Something like "Its due to an illness, not form or something like that."?

 

I dont recall Dave saying anything about his knee.

Posted

Sky news reporting Wiggins out of tour!

 

That would be unfortunate, I think he deserved the opportunity to defend his Jersey, I dont think he could win again, but he is still the jersey holder and he deserves the right to defend it,........ I cant say the SKY media releases are comforting.

Posted

Damn!

 

This is NOT good news :-(

 

I'm a big fan of Froomes, but this is definately not good news.

 

(so much so, I had to say it twice!)

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