Leipheimer, the Tour, Hincappie, Contador etc...

[Bevo Incognito]

Just thinking about this year's Tour....


I see that Levi Leipheimer won the prologue at the Dauphine Libre' a couple of days ago and the George Hincapie won today's stage (the second stage). Levi is currenty 3rd overall and George is 4th. Unfortunately, Levi won't be in the Tour because his team Astana, is banned from the Tour, but Hincapie's team, High Road, has had a very good spring and is looking strong in the Dauphine.

Meanwhile, Contador just won the Giro 10 days ago and probably would be tough to beat at the Tour but, as I said, Astana is banned from the Tour this year so Contador won't get a chance to defend. Kloden is also on Astana, so he's out.

So I wonder who you guys like. Valverde? Evans? Sastre? Valerde won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in late April.

Does Hincapie/High Road even have a chance?

 

[Me So Horny]

How can anyone take this seriously anymore, considering the doping and all?

 

[6th&Congress]

The doping is gone...you can now take the Tour serious. Just remember you will never see such fine riding in the Alps again or race changing breaks like in the 2006 Tour.

 

[Knoxville-Horn]

Stupid question.

Is Hincappie the lead rider for his team? In other words, will the team be assisting him in winning the Tour or is he an "aide" to somone else?

 

[GarCiaRia]

what about that skinny *** columbian dude that surprised everyone in the mountains last year. I totally forgot his name but I remember kinda rootin' for him.

Valverde is tough when in form. Sastre is always up there too. I bet it will be a spanish rider like Valverde.

Sucks for Astana. Levi and Contador and Kloden workin together.

 

[ThrowittoRoy]

As much as it pains me, I have to say Rassmussen has a BIG shot this year without all the heavyweights in there.
letour.fr still doesn't have the riders listed. is there a site with the teams, and their riders. I've kind of lost track of who's where with all the changes.

 

[Hornius Emeritus]

Holy Cow .... Tom Boonen has been kicked out of the race. Tested positive for cocaine:


The Link



Thor Hushovd must be pretty relieved.

 

[Horneius_Maximus]

wow, cocaine?

 

[Horneius_Maximus]

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[GarCiaRia]

Thanks Horneius, Soler was fun to watch.

Boonen was kicked out of the tour of Switzerland, but haven't heard if hes been kicked out of the TdF. Wow, what are these numbnuts thinking when they snort coke knowing that they are randomly testing throughout the year???? I like Boonen, he's a monster on the sprints.

 

[Hornius Emeritus]

Valverde is looking good in the Dauphine. So is Levi.

Valverde rode perhaps the best TT of his life to take today's stage. Leipheimer was second, barely nicking Cadel Evans. By the way, Leipheimer started two minutes behind Hincapie and caught him with about a kilometer to go. That is pretty impressive.

Cadel Evans finished third in today's TT.

Now they go into the mountains for four mountain stages.

I've always liked the Dauphine.

 

[Napoleon]

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[Hornius Emeritus]

Valverde maintained his lead in today's stage of the Dauphine but it was very hard on him. Evans and Leipheimer look like they might be the men to beat

I'm also thinking that Yaroslav Popovych might be a dark horse for the yellow jersey in this year's tour but I don't know if Silence-Lotto has the horses.

I

 

[Mrmyke709]

Well, Boonen has always been good at getting to the line first.



/Thanks, I'll be here all week.

 

[GarCiaRia]

FYI, Johan Bruynell will be at Mellow Johnny's on Monday June 16 between 5-7pm. Fresh off the Giro victory and unfortunately, not having to worry about the Tour de France

 

[Uninformed]

When does the Tour start? Through DirectTv, what station number will the TDF be broadcast?

 

[TexonLongIsland]

July 5th. It's on Versus which is 603 or 604 on Directv

anyone see this crash in the tour de suisse the other day? Frank Schleck goes over the rail. Still finishes the race

YouTube

 

[taco]

^^^^^thats impressive

 

[Uninformed]

Thanks. It is the only time I watch Versus or OLN. I wish it were in the low 200s around ESPN. It would make it easier to find.

 

[gobears92]

how far did he fall..it looked like a small bridge or something...

 

[Hornius Emeritus]

I see that the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is scheduled to publish its decision on Floyd Landis' appeal today at 10:00 a.m. Central time.

Not looking for anything here but it would be nice for Floyd to get that title back, assuming he is innocent.

 

[TexonLongIsland]

It's finally over. Unanimous decision and Floyd has to pay $100k

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[Hornius Emeritus]

Man, that just really saddens me.

I really, really, REALLY liked Floyd.

 

[gobears92]

on the BBC website it says Rasmussen has now been suspended for 2 years...I didnt catch all the details...

 

[NameAlreadyInUse]

This is going to be a ****** up TdF. It's starting on Saturday and I haven't seen much talk at all about it. I looked at some of the sportsbooks and Cadel Evans seems to be the favorite. WTF?!?

And I don't remember the teams not being named this close to the tour, but I can't find a list of riders for this tour anywhere. Anyone have any info?

 

[Hornius Emeritus]

I'm thinking it's going to be Evans, Menchov, Sastre, or Valverde. Probably Evans or Sastre. Valverde has a pretty strong team but I think Sastre's CSC team is a bit stronger. Menchov has an outside chance and he was powerfully good when he won the Vuelta last year but I just can't see Rabobank putting it together for him.