Tour de France Prediction and Discussion Thread

I usually only keep up for the tour so my view may be outdated. I definitely think Sagan and Cavendish will be top of their categories, but for the yellow jersey I really believe in Nairo Quintana of Colombia - he's young and showed up last year.

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

but for the yellow jersey I really believe in Nairo Quintana of Colombia - he's young and showed up last year.

Quintana won the Giro d' Italia this spring but is not racing the tour because his manager does not want to over race him as he is so young.

Prediction: The entire field is on drugs.

Nibali has been poor this season. Yellow is between Contador and Froome.

I'm going to have to pick 40 mg corticosteroid over 50 picograms of clenbuterol

therapeutically enhanced wrote:

I'm going to have to pick 40 mg corticosteroid over 50 picograms of clenbuterol

I would have to agree with you that 40 mg of corticosteroid would be more effective for doping. Clenbuterol pills contain a 20 microgram dose so 50 picograms would be 1/400,000th of a pill. Or another way, to average 50 picograms of clenbuterol per day a person would only need to take a clenbuterol pill once every 1,095 years.

pewow wrote:

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

but for the yellow jersey I really believe in Nairo Quintana of Colombia - he's young and showed up last year.

Quintana won the Giro d' Italia this spring but is not racing the tour because his manager does not want to over race him as he is so young.

Which is a massive shame. He's the only one lasr year who looked capable oftaking on Foome and the sky machine. Nibali and the rest just won't compete.

Its not a particularly mountainous course though this year. So i wonder how that might affect things.

First 2 days could be carnage as many narrow twisty roads, then stage 5 over the cobbles could blow the entire GC wide open.

Contador and Froome both in good shape, I don't think Froome crash at the dauphine will have had too much of a impact, but I dont believe that Sky or Saxo Tinkofff have that strong a teams. so we could see the 2 of them fighting it out alone. Although they both might have significant time to make up after stage 5.

Outside bet rui Costa,

Contador wins yellow. The route suits him in a matchup against Froome this year. With only one individual time trial, Contador won't have to claw back as much time. He showed in Dauphine that he is in top climbing form. The battle up the final ascent on stage 2 was incredible and Froome couldn't drop Contador.

The route is a little boring this year after some of the epic stages last year. I am not sure what the organisers were going for, maybe they were trying to negate a domination by Froome.

Team Sky look a little weaker this year but the addition of Nieve could be key. Saxo Tinkoff have a strong team with Rogers, Roche and Majka but the loss of Kreuziger will not help. I think Contador will win but I hope he doesn't.

Sagan will take green.

Talansky will win the white jersey but I can't see him winning the yellow jersey. His performances have been very good but I don't think he will be able to hang with Contador and Froome in a three week tour.

I think Kittel will win the most stages.

Who will make a surprise breakthrough in the tour this year?

A lot of fans seem to be losing confidence in Froome coming up with excuses already before the thing has even started. Same thing happened before the super bowl with Manning. I predict a total domination by contador.

I killed off my cable, so no longer have NBCSN. Thus I don't give a crap about the TdF this year. What happened to the doped out Team Sky guys?

pewow wrote:

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

but for the yellow jersey I really believe in Nairo Quintana of Colombia - he's young and showed up last year.

Quintana won the Giro d' Italia this spring but is not racing the tour because his manager does not want to over race him as he is so young.

What?! This kid is for real. Why would he not race the biggest race of the year? I think this is a bogus reason. Maybe he has an injury or something.

I'm not a Contador fan, so these reviews of what's happening so far this season are a bit depressing.

It's not a bogus reason, basically there isn't enough recovery time between the Giro and the Tour, so you do one or the other (if you want to win). No one has done the Giro/Tour double for ages now.

He did the Giro, he won, it worked out well for him. I guess he will ride the Vuelta too, then go for the Tour again in 2015.

I thought the Moviestar coach wanted Quintana to develop more as a young rider before they throw him into the Gauntlet again. He is good, but not Froome, Contador good. Give him a few years, let him get the experience under his belt, and he will be a huge GC contender.

-Talansky won the Dauphine which sets him up well. To be a solid overall contender.

-Contador and Froome may beat each other into submission without a stud team behind them. SaxoTinkoff is good, but they lost Kruzinger.

-Kittel's 6ft diameter quads are ready to crush Greipel, Cavendish, and Sagan.

-Sagan is hands down Green jersey.

Talansky's Dauphine looked good. Being my favorite rider, I'd love to see him on the podium but I think top five and a white jersey would be a fantastic showing for him.

If any one of this year's GC competitors is going to knock off Froome, it's going to be Contador. I'm not a big Contador fan at all, but I really don't like Froome (I fall on the Wiggins side of the Team Sky spats).

I think Sagan wins green, but may not win a stage. He'll do it all in the intermediate sprints. Cavendish should be in yellow after the first stage. I think Kittel will win the most stages-he's looked fantastic this spring.

Best climber...anyone who can call best climber correctly should enter the lottery. Ten Dam could take it, Nibali could take it, or (although it hasn't been done since Merckx in 1970) I really think Froome or Contador especially could take both the yellow and the polka dots.

It is too bad that Quintana won't be there this year. He was great to watch in last year's Tour and this year's Giro. If he was in the tour this year, he'd be my favorite to knock off Froome.

I can't watch it this year cuz we got rid of directv to save money, but I gotta go with my homeboy Chris Froome

Why all the hate for Contador? The dood is incredibly aggressive, doesn't quit attacking/give up even when he's lost (see last year's tour), backed down Lance Armstrong and beat him, and gets to race with underdog status.

I think Froome will win, though, in a much closer race. More like the Schleck/Contador battle a few years ago, where the only gap between the two was a mechanical (advantage Contado), one mountain attack (advantage Schleck), and one time trial (advantage Contador. You can't read too much into the Dauphine in regard to Froome. He looked very strong with the lead and two stage wins, including both a time trial and a mountain stage. He couldn't shake Contador, but Contador didn't shake him until after Froome crashed and had stitches.

Ryder Hesjedal is sitting this one out - he will take a shot at GC in the Vuelta. I think that hurts Talansky's small podium chances quite a bit.

Might I suggest Tejay VanGarderen if you need an American hopeful?

bla bla one doper beats another doper