Tour de France 2007

Sure the field will give Popo a longer leash in the mountains than Soler or Rasmussen. Assuming he doesn't move up too much on the TT. But he still has to deliver and so far he hasn't shown the same strength on the climbs as his competitors. The Pyrenees are steeper and more technical than the Alpes. The pure climbers will be favored over Popovych who's more of an all-round guy.

Ok this is my take on the Levi and Contador leader dispute. To put it bluntly Levi will never ever win the tour, he just doesnt have the ability to put time into his rivals in the mountains or massive amounts when time trialling.

Contador climbing skills are explosive and I expect him to spark the main attack on the stage to Plateau de Beille on Sunday. Although he is young and potentially will have a bad day, I feel Discovery should hedge their bets on him as HE CAN WIN. Levi is podium at best with others making mistakes.

how is contador's TT compared to levi and soler? there is no point in having a team leader who can't cut it in the TT.

He's also got more speed than almost any of the other guys in the mountains, so if he can hang in a break, he can win the sprint for the points, much like he did out-sprinting the peleton for 3rd over the final climb today, beating out other guys in contention, such as Soler. He's got the strength to climb well and hang in a break as he's shown in stage 9. I think he's got a shot, and I'd LOVE to see him do it.

Levi's TT was off last year and he lost a bit of time, but in the past, as well as in some of his other races this year already (Tour of California) he's been very good. I think if he's on tomorrow, he'll be in the hunt, and most likely in the top 5.

Whoever wears the yellow jersey tomorrow after the TT wont have it for very long because their lead will be less than a minute. My prediction is Iban Mayo will be at the top of the GC but will only be wearing yellow till Col d'Aubisque at the latest. It will really be a toss up in stages 14 through 16...

I don't think Mayo has the TT skills to top the GC tomorrow. I think Kloden, Evans, Levi, maybe Valverde have a better shot at topping the podium after tomorrow than Mayo. But I agree- it will be interesting to see if whoever has it after tomorrow, can hang onto it for more than a day or two.

Levi is a far better TT'er than Contador. He beat Contador by over 2 minutes in a 40km TT a month ago at the Dauphine Libere.

I think Rasmussen got his shoes before the Alps.

Arch Stanton wrote:

I think Rasmussen got his shoes before the Alps.

Nice. I think that after the latest allegations about Rasmussen, "getting your shoes" should be the new euphemism of choice for doping.

Specifically, for getting blood.

Didn't Moreau blame his time loss yesterday on his shoes? Or something like that. He was off his bike "changing shoes" when Astana put the hammer down.

This thing goes deeper than we know.

There is mention of a similar incident in the new book "Lance to Landis". where an individual was asked to pick up a pair of shoes in the US. and bring them overseas for a cyclist. There were no shoes in the shoe box.

lance-a-lot wrote:

There is mention of a similar incident in the new book "Lance to Landis". where an individual was asked to pick up a pair of shoes in the US. and bring them overseas for a cyclist. There were no shoes in the shoe box.

its the same story

the guy only now named names

I don't see Mayo having any chance of wearing yellow after todays time trial. He needs much more time on Evans and Valverde. Probably Kloden too. I would be highly surprised if Mayo took much time out of Rasmussen anyway, so the Dane should still be ahead of Iban after the time trial.

vino is ripping it up!!!!!!

Based on current splits, they're gonna be bunched very tightly for yellow tonight. Rasmussen, Evans or Kloden will wear it. Vino, Contador and Kaschechkin not far behind. Valverde disappointing so far, riding slower than Rasmusssen. Levi is nowhere.

Something is wrotten in the state of Denmark...

Rassmussen only 2.34 behind Vino in a 54 km time trial? Hmm.

Rasmussen pulling that time trial outta nowhere today... musta got his "shoes" in last night or something. Vino pulling himself back into this, but he still has a ways to go it seems. Now with Rasmussen still in yellow and heading into 3 days in the pyrenees it is a different race. You cant count on cracking him in that last time trial anymore, although it could happen. Somehow, someone needs to break him in the mountains... but what team has the overall strength to break his team and him? He does have a good team with a very tough Dennie Menchov alongside him. Astana would have to either use kloden or vino to attack and break away to make Rasmussen chase, but they will have to decide who to sacrifice. Discovery would have to either give up Levi or Contador who are both top 5... the tour is a totally different event after today. Cadel looks great, and is good position to look for yellow after the next time trial. Levi and Contador both used a great strategy and moved up very well over the course of the TT. Valverde rode his way out of the chase for yellow today, Mayo is done for I think. It looks to be a six man race or seven I think. Tomorrow is gonna be insane, I predict an all out effort from Vino again, in his typical fashion, to try to gain some more time and break the entire field. Should be awesome!

I assume "wrotten" means something in Danish.

Obviously people are gonna jump to this conclusion now, but let's keep it in perspective.

It's not like he dominated a time trial. He lost 3 mins to a guy with stitches in his knees and he lost 1:30 to a guy who crashed. He had the advantage of dry roads AND he's wearing yellow which is well-known to give otherwise poor TTers a boost.

And at the end of the day, he has undoubtedly worked on his time trialing, spending time in the wind tunnel and on his TT bike. 2 years ago he didn't look like he had ever been on that bike before. Wouldn't take a genius to say, "maybe I should practice this."

I'm not saying he's clean or he's not clean, just that this result isn't as big of a surprise as it's made out to be.