Who is going to win the Tour de France?

[Iceaxe]

Place your bets!

The Tour begins Saturday. It should be very interesting without Lance.

Here is a good link to get up to speed
http://www.olntv.com/cyclysm/

[soitgos]

Well, it's not going to be Ullrich . . .

[Iceaxe]

What do you guys think of the Utah boys... Zabriskie and Leipheimer? It would be awesome for one of them to pull it off. I did some bicycle racing a few years back and raced against both of them.

OK, we were actually in the same race and I would watch them as they lapped me.

But it would still be cool to say I have raced against a Tour winner.


Leipheimer to lead Gerolsteiner
Cycling Notes

Ever since Lance Armstrong announced his retirement, the speculation has been who would be America's next great hope in the Tour de France.

Good chances are the top U.S. finisher just might be a Rowland Hall graduate, Levi Leipheimer.

After Leipheimer's win in the Dauphine Libere, Gerolsteiner announced that Leipheimer would be the man the team is riding for in the Tour de France, which starts July 1.

The former Utahn is making his fifth appearance in the Tour de France. He finished sixth at the Tour de France last year after taking third in the Dauphine. He led the Dauphine last year, but unlike the recent effort, his Gerolsteiner teammates weren't strong enough to help him keep the yellow jersey.

His team's performance was stronger this year, helping the 33-year-old win the race without a stage victory. Letting loose with such a big effort before the Tour de France is a tactic frowned upon by some of the favorites, who prefer to save themselves for road cycling's biggest event, but Leipheimer didn't hold back and by doing so earned a career-highlight victory and the full services of his team.

Another tour veteran on the Gerolsteiner team, Georg Totsching, will have a bit of freedom to try and win the race too, but the emphasis will be on Leipheimer.

Utah's other connection to the Tour, Dave Zabriskie, also had a strong showing at the Dauphine, winning the prologue and the individual time trial and was named to CSC's Tour team Monday.

Zabriskie, who wore the yellow jersey before crashing in the team time trial at the Tour last year, wasn't guaranteed a spot, especially since there isn't a team time trial this year which is his specialty, but he did well enough in the mountains in the Dauphine to earn a spot.

CSC has one of the tour favorites, Italian Ivan Basso. Basso was one of the few guys who could hang with Armstrong in the mountains last year and recently won the Giro d'Italia. He is trying to become the first rider to win both the Giro and the Tour since Marco Pantani did so in 1998.

[PunchKing]

Well this might eliminate a few of the options.

Link: Basso, Ullrich kicked out of Tour de France

[Iceaxe]

WOW!!!

Don't do drugs, just say NO!

[TreeHugger]

Alejandro Valverde
Floyd Landis

But I really hope Hincapie wins.

As far as doping goes - nothing is proven yet - only suspicion. How about innocent until proven guilty?

[Iceaxe]

Hincapie and Landis are looking good so far.

When is the first real mountain stage so we can see who the real contenders are?

[DickHead]

Alejandro Valverde
Floyd Landis

But I really hope Hincapie wins.

As far as doping goes - nothing is proven yet - only suspicion. How about innocent until proven guilty?

Scratch Valverde.....
People are forgetting that Basso, Ulrich, and a number of others were voluntarily pulled by thier teams. Innocent until proven guilty....

[PunchKing]

Don't think he has a chance to win but can anyone believe how well our local boy David Zabriskie is doing, 12th place after stage 10. This guy may be one to watch in the future some real potentail. Besides that he is from Utah he wouldn't even know where to get performance enhancing drugs, right?

[DickHead]

Don't think he has a chance to win but can anyone believe how well our local boy David Zabriskie is doing, 12th place after stage 10. This guy may be one to watch in the future some real potentail. Besides that he is from Utah he wouldn't even know where to get performance enhancing drugs, right?

The big Z is a TT specialist. He'll place well, but he's there as a domo for his team.

Oh, and I predict that a dark horse that isn't really on anyone's radar will win Le Tour.....the favorites might not even make the podium.

[Iceaxe]

They are in the mountains!

We should know more today and a lot more after tomorrow. I think someone will blow up the tour and become the favorite sometime over the next two days.

[TreeHugger]

Funny, they said today one of the riders (I think it was Landaluze) was still under investigation on suspicion of doping (EPO). Why didnt they kick him out?

I think Floyd has a really good chance if his hip doesnt give out on him, he looks very strong.

And yeah, really, it could be anybody. Tomorrow will say a lot - a lot of the real climbers were conserving energy today - tomorrow is going to be a killer stage.

Ahhhhh, Viva la Tour!!!!

[DickHead]

Funny, they said today one of the riders (I think it was Landaluze) was still under investigation on suspicion of doping (EPO). Why didnt they kick him out?

That's the thing....most of the riders under suspicion weren't kicked from the tour, they were pulled voluntairily by thier teams.

[TreeHugger]

Yeah, that's true. They were pulled with great "encouragement" by the UCI based on an ethics agreement they all signed. I guess the question would be then, why didnt Landeluze's team pull him.

Whatever, probably 90% of them are doping anyway!

It'll be interesting to watch Floyd defend the yellow jersey now, it's still anyone's Tour.

What a great stage yesterday - very exciting indeed![/img]

[Iceaxe]

If you are not following the Tour you are missing what will come to be regarded as possibly the great Tour ever...... it has been incredible so far.

Only three days left and the winner is ?????

[Iceaxe]

And I don't want to be a spoiler..... but I will tell you this......

If you have OLN you might want to watch tonights replay of todays race (stage 17). It is already being called one of the great stages ever.

[TreeHugger]

Hear, Hear!!

I'm an addict, what can I say? I watch the whole stage first in the morning and then again in the evening with my husband.

Landis is looking really good now - what a show he put on today! Wow!! Only 30 seconds down and he is the probably the strongest time trialist there.... how very, very exciting!!

Viva la Tour!!