ZooCougar

[Palatine]

Who do you like in the tour?

 

[ZooCougar]

Anyone but Cadel.

I don't like Brad Wiggins all that much, but I think the long time trial might work in his favor. Also look out for Valverde, with Contador out of it, the spanish riders will have to rally around somebody.

 

[Palatine]

Evans will also benefit from the time trials.

I am very interested to see how Sagan does against Cavendish. Sagan looked very good against some class sprinters in California.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

What positions do these guys play and how many stars are they?

 

[ZooCougar]

Evans will also benefit from the time trials.

I am very interested to see how Sagan does against Cavendish. Sagan looked very good against some class sprinters in California.

Wiggins has had a great spring. I can't stand any of the British and Australian riders. With the spring Wiggo had it seems that the Brits think he has already surpassed Armstrong. I am hoping that Wiggo peaked too early. Also I want to see Cadel melt down and then blame everyone but himself.

I am really lookintg forward to the Sprint battles. Cav versus Sagan will be pretty exciting.

 

[junglehusky]

With Andy Schleck gone and Contador banned, the pressure in theory should be squarely on Wiggo's shoulders given his expectations. He had big expectations last year and crashed out and Cadel managed to avoid bad luck for once. I can see why you might not like Cadel, he never got along with the media, but I always felt bad for him before last year. I think one of the others to watch will be Robert Gesink, he was only the second non-American to win in California and you know the Americans (Levi, Horner, Zabriskie, Danielson, and Teejay) are always super motivated for that race.

Cavendish vs. Sagan should be awesome. (Jimmy, Cavendish would be a Robbie Frey type on the gridiron - fast twitch muscle). It will be interesting to see how much Sky is able to support Cav in the leadout given their yellow jersey aspirations. Then again, Liquigas might be supporting Nibali for yellow as well. Too bad Tom Boonen will be staying home to prepare for the olympics.

Other things to watch for - might Teejay aim for a mountains jersey? How will Ryder and the Garmin-Sharp team (new cosponsor) fare after their Giro win? How much drama will be surrounding Radio Shack, with Andy gone, Frank possibly not getting along with Johann but Johann staying home due to the USADA investigation? Plus there was some sniping between Andres Kloden and Chris Horner, sounds like that team has plenty of issues to deal with.

 

[Palatine]

Love to see Danielson compete for the mountain jersey. He got his early training on the huge hills of East Lyme.

Horner is always my sentimental favorite. He was in killer form last year until he concussed his way out of the tour.

 

[ZooCougar]

The same day Garmin won the Giro, I ran into the other Garmin bus on its way back to Spain after Bayern Rundfart at a gas station outside Frankfurt. I talked to the driver and he was beyond stoked, it was pretty much the biggest day in the history of that team. I remember when they were just U-23 team racing in the Tour of Connecticut.


Also, did you guys know that Tommy D is from CT? I think Garmin should target KoM, but getting a stage win pretty much will mean a successful tour.

With Andy Schleck gone and Contador banned, the pressure in theory should be squarely on Wiggo's shoulders given his expectations. He had big expectations last year and crashed out and Cadel managed to avoid bad luck for once. I can see why you might not like Cadel, he never got along with the media, but I always felt bad for him before last year. I think one of the others to watch will be Robert Gesink, he was only the second non-American to win in California and you know the Americans (Levi, Horner, Zabriskie, Danielson, and Teejay) are always super motivated for that race.

Cavendish vs. Sagan should be awesome. (Jimmy, Cavendish would be a Robbie Frey type on the gridiron - fast twitch muscle). It will be interesting to see how much Sky is able to support Cav in the leadout given their yellow jersey aspirations. Then again, Liquigas might be supporting Nibali for yellow as well. Too bad Tom Boonen will be staying home to prepare for the olympics.

Other things to watch for - might Teejay aim for a mountains jersey? How will Ryder and the Garmin-Sharp team (new cosponsor) fare after their Giro win? How much drama will be surrounding Radio Shack, with Andy gone, Frank possibly not getting along with Johann but Johann staying home due to the USADA investigation? Plus there was some sniping between Andres Kloden and Chris Horner, sounds like that team has plenty of issues to deal with.

 

[junglehusky]

That's awesome, I've been a Garmin / Slipstream fan ever since they moved up to Continental / ProTour. There's a documentary on the team (filmed during the time of their first Tour de France) called Blood Sweat and Gears, you can rent the DVD from Netflix. I suppose Garmin might have multiple targets, maybe a mountains jersey, a podium if Ryder's recovered from the Giro, and stage wins if Farrar can perform with just 1 leadout guy. Plus Zabriskie and possibly others will mix it up in the TT's, if there were a team time trial that would be a target too, but there are only individual TT's this year.

 

[Palatine]

Garmin will protect Hesjedal, he is their GC contender.

 

[ZooCougar]

So what do you guys think so far?

The Garmin carnage has been tough to watch. I think the nature of the Tour has changed, they can't run this many sprint stages and not expect all of these crashes.

I think Cadel is a better climber than Wiggo, but unfortunately, we have a battle between two defensive riders. Boring. This will come down to who has the better team, so that means Sky. Cadel does not have a teammate like Froome, so he is just going to have ride Wiggo off his wheel. Last year, he won because Baby Schleck could not descend. So Cadel needs to find the chink in Wiggo's armor and drive a truck right through it.

 

[Palatine]

Sagan has been truly amazing. But if Sky had been protecting Cavendish early in the tour, he would have another stage or two.

I think you are right about the crashes. They are the new normal. They also added two team so there is less room on the road. Poor Tyler, he has been destroyed.

It's too early but......Wiggo looks like the class of the race. Very disappointed in Frank Schleck and I had hoped TeJay would have shown better climbing. Naboli, hard to tell if he has a surprise. He obviously has good form. But, like I said, it's too early.

Disagree about Andy. The TT did him in last year.

 

[junglehusky]

I think there is validity to the two ideas that having race radios where the managers / DS's are constantly in the ear of their team urging them to be at the front, combined with having 22 teams all competing for glory / survival since they're worried about losing sponsorship, is what gives rise to the first week carnage. It's kind of a perfect storm. Reducing to under 20 teams would help. I know there's arguments both ways on radios, I'm not sure which way is safer. Also, road furniture in the roundabouts and intersections doesn't help either.

Wiggo and Sky look like they're in control, but all it takes is one bad day and the yellow jersey can go somewhere else. Though I'd be happy if any of Wiggo, Cadel or Nibali winds up winning, at this stage I wish there were one or two more contenders that hadn't lost time or crashed out, just to make it a bit more compelling in the mountains.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think there is validity to the two ideas that having race radios where the managers / DS's are constantly in the ear of their team urging them to be at the front, combined with having 22 teams all competing for glory / survival since they're worried about losing sponsorship, is what gives rise to the first week carnage. It's kind of a perfect storm. Reducing to under 20 teams would help. I know there's arguments both ways on radios, I'm not sure which way is safer. Also, road furniture in the roundabouts and intersections doesn't help either.

Wiggo and Sky look like they're in control, but all it takes is one bad day and the yellow jersey can go somewhere else. Though I'd be happy if any of Wiggo, Cadel or Nibali winds up winning, at this stage I wish there were one or two more contenders that hadn't lost time or crashed out, just to make it a bit more compelling in the mountains.

Sky looks an awful lot like US Postal/Discovery looked back in the day. Almost too strong to be real. Froome has been a strong climber for a while, but I couldn't help but call BS when I saw Michael Rogers drop climbers like Ivan Basso, Levi, Frank Schleck among others. Michael Rogers is a Time Trial guy or someone you put out front with 50k to go to finish off the breakaway. He has never been able to climb like that, until now at least. Anyways, it's a red flag.

Today's time trial is going to be good. I think Spartacus wins, Wiggo will gain another 30-45 seconds on Cadel.