echappist

Titled so to avoid traffic from the 41

Anyways, pick your GC favorites along with points favs, and stage contenders if you feel like it

GC:

1. Cuddles
2. Wiggo
3. S Sanchez

Points: Sagan

Prologue: meh

Stage 1: I say Gilbert gets first win of the year

YMCA

Wiggins to win GC

Green to Goss

Polka to Chris Anker Sorenson

Team classification to Garmin

Cav, Greipel, Gilbert, Valverde and Sagan get 2 stages each

Prologue to Brett Lancaster

echappist

wow, Gilbert seems to have his short-term power back. tipping him ftw tomorrow

& looks like Tejay is the real deal

hammy56

Im a Cadel fan. Have been. Mostly because he got a bit of a bad rap in tours past...finishing runner-up with basically no help when he was with Lotto. And because he's got a nutty personality, and gives good (wacky) interviews. Unlike guys who will ****in bore you to death, like Wiggo, and Lance (by far the most painful to listen to), and Boonen. I listen to these guys and want to stick a knife in my ear.

So Im hoping Cadel is coming into form and maybe Wig will lose some steam...but clearly he's going very well.

Psimet2001 

I believe there will be races. Lots of wondering on who will win. Then several anti-climatic stage finishes. I estimate that 40-50% of "fans/viewers" tune out before the mountains.

hammy56

I usually tune out until the mtns.

guadzilla

I've tuned out already this year. Aint the same, without Contador and Andy. I am more excited about the Vuelta.

I hope anyone except Wiggins wins, b/c in case Wiggins does win, the British media is going to be absolutely intolerable for about 6 months after the Tour. I cancelled 2 subscriptions to Brit cycling mags after Froome came second in the Vuelta (really - under normal circumstances, who gives a crap about a second-place Vuelta finish?).

Homebrew01

Ditto. For the early flat stages, ffw to the last 10 min for the sprint.

jsutkeepspining

steephill's collection of last 5-10 km videos ftw for the first couple of stages!

gerundium

1. wiggins
2. evans
3. Menchov

green: sagan
polka: hoogerland
white: kruijswijk
team: sky

Psimet2001 

gesundheit

botto 

boonen is actually quite entertaining in interviews. at least he is in flemish.

Creakyknees

I could've sworn I posted in this thread. I like the Tour.

Creakyknees

chicken and egg question: is Cancellara tactically obtuse, or is Sagan a wheelsucker?

YMCA

Sagan wheelsucker??? no way

Cancellara is just too strong for his own good. Once he had the gap, he tried to slow down and get the other two to take a quick pull, but who the hell would. Fabian is like a flipping motorcycle when he is on. And winning is all that matters.

Luckily Cadel's effort and Gilbert's sprint closed the peloton back to those three, otherwise Tejay would have lost his white jersey to BHagen

mollusk

If it was only Sagan and Cancellera I would have thought that they would work together because it would make sense: Sagan mostly wants the win and Cancellera mostly wants the time. Hagen showing up changed that. Now Sagan wanting the win means that he cannot work. He played it smart.

echappist

you think that just happened or was it intentional?

mollusk

I'm thinking that catching Cancellera and limiting his time was more important than the white jersey, but that is just my take on it. This tour route has more of a TT emphasis than usual.

Creakyknees

At first while watching I thought, Cadel was riding smart near the front, then got stuck on the front when Fabian went. Those 3 are not GC threats, so Cadel seemed to be tempo-ing more than chasing... readbing body language, didn't seem like he was riding to launch Gilbert.

But, Gilbert did launch... almost got there, so who knows what Cadel was thinking.

jwible

The more I hear about Sagan the more I like him. Quiet, shy, doesnt't like the limelight, but starting to accept the fact that he's becoming a star.

MajorMantra

Shy? Have you seen his victory salutes?

YMCA

Cadel's pull was intentional for Gilbert's chance to win, so I believe Tejay benefited through a bit of fortune, otherwise BHagen gets the white, even if they only were awarded a single second.

jwible

That's fairly recent, I don't think he did that last year in the ToC. By shy I mean interviews and and comments. Maybe humble is more appropriate. I want to see him head to head with the big guns.

Creatre

I feel like in Milan San Remo and yesterday's stage Fabian is holding back a bit. He's riding like 90% because he doesn't want a wheelsucker so he can eventually win the stage/sprint. But the thing is, no one can hold fabian's wheel if he guns it. If he went balls out that whole time yesterday, or in Milan San Remo, he would have won both of those. He's backing off the throttle a bit when people are bridging to him, when those people are at the max, if he kept full throttle he would get those wins simply by dropping them.

Creakyknees