Le Tour de France 2008

[Duke]

Viva Le Tour & Go Cadel !!!

I know I am ready to be even more sleep deprived for the next month courtesy of SBS, what about others around here as I know a few are keen cyclists too?

[nutty]

I love the TDF, ive watched 10+ years of the 6pm coverage.

But first time since they started showing live stages im working fulltime day jobs, not going to see much live =(

[Nigel]

I will be watching. Love Le Tour.

[Gizmo]

Cadel has a real shot this year i think. There are going to be alot of late nights with the tour and the olympics

[nutty]

I dont know, it seems from last year that he just didnt have the sudden burst of power needed to win stages. But if he rides solid like last year he should do very very well

[Gizmo]

They have done away with time bonuses which will suit him. If they didn't have them last year he would of won. But he's starting as pre-race favourite, first time in the history of the Tour that an Aussie has started favourite!

[Duke]

Yep & he has been given the No.1 saddle cloth due to Contador not being able to race as the TDF organisers banned his new team Astana over drug related issues (remember Vinokourov). This also means another of his main threats Andreas KLÖDEN (3rd last yr) is also out along with one of the best TDF Managers & tacticians Yohaan Brunneel (remember US Postal / Discovery Channel with Lance).
To be honest if Cadel doesn't win it this yr then it will be a waste of unfulfilled talent.

Although watch out for Team CSC this year the Schlek bros have added to an already talented line-up and this squad is well managed with a big budget.

Can't wait for this to start, not long now.

[Gizmo]

Pitty O'Grady is out due to injury, he would of been a real underdog. He had a fantastic tour last year. He rode from the front and wasn't scared to make brakes and chase them down. I didn't know Astana was kicked out. They were the underdog team last year. Did really well on one or two stages. Do you remember the guy in the Borat bathing suit following them around the whole time?

[pab]

Since when has O'Grady been out? As of yesterday he was posting in his Tour diary about getting ready for the race!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2008/ ... ogrady0801

Oh, and Flinty, Levi Leipheimer was third last year, Kloden was withdrawn from the race when Astana left after Vinokourov's positive (Kloden had been 2nd in 2006 as a member of Team Telekom).

[Duke]

Oops your right Pab & believe it or not Levi Leipheimer is also part of Astana so another big threat gone.
I think Gizmo means Michael Rogers, don't you?

EDIT: by the way Rogers team is now called Team Columbia not High Road.

[Gizmo]

I did mean O'Grady while writing the post, but it was Rogers that was in that big pile up not so long ago.

This is going to be a GREAT race this year!

[Duke]

Well even though the telecast hasn't started the Tour has, you can check out the lastest updates on the official TDF website: http://www.letour.fr

Also there is a great pre-race interview with Cadel Evans on the SBS TDF website: http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2008

[Gizmo]

Cadel looks to be in good forum. Baring a crash i think he's going to be hard to stop.

[Nigel]

got to feel bad for the guy the crashed and broke his wrist 100k into the race.

[pixelboy]

Good start for Cadel.. only 1sec down.. he's just gotta keep in touch for the first week..

[Duke]

An interesting opening stage last night.
Interesting to see that Valderde being such a huge threat for GC used so much energy to claim the 1st Yellow even more interesting was seeing Cadel close the gap which was the spring board for Valverde's stage win.
Pity about Soler getting involved in that last crash then I had to laugh when his 2 team mates nearly make him fall off again going to hard into a corner while trying to chase & limit the loss, he is another real threat although his focus is always going to be the Polka Dot (KOM) Jersey but loosing 3mins will make that hard to achieve now.
Tonight is a stage similar to last night, I reckon a breakaway might succeed tonight if it contains the right mix of non-threatening riders as I can't see the Caisse D’epargne team wanting to use much energy to keep the yellow also cross-winds may also play havoc with the peleton tonight.....can't wait!!!

[Gizmo]

Bloody protesting idiots last night....grrrrr. Tonight should be good, the shorter time trial distance should suit valverdi more and he's going last. I think o'grady is the underdog, CSC has been very quite so far this year.

[Duke]

Bloody protesting idiots last night....grrrrr. Tonight should be good, the shorter time trial distance should suit valverdi more and he's going last. I think o'grady is the underdog, CSC has been very quite so far this year.

That protest was piss funny, half hearted Frenchy's.
The peleton really cocked it up last night but I suspect there were some tired legs given the unusual start to the tour and the massive cross-winds encountered so far. Pity Lotto are not supporting Robbie as they would have made sure they caught the break as it was a typical Robbie sprint stage as proven by him leading the main bunch home.
Yeah tonight should see some real sorting of the GC table although time gains won't be huge as it is a short ITT @ only 30km's
by the way Giz, Valverde won't be last off as he is no longer in the yellow, but he will be the last of the real contenders to go.

[Gizmo]

That's what i ment. I throught robbie would of gone it himself last night and he did. I don't think he'll win the green this year because the team is with cadel.

[Gizmo]

Well i was wrong, o'grady just took it easy.

[DexterPunk]

wtf its on again already?? seems like only a few months ago it was on

[Gizmo]

The Paris Rebuex was on not long ago. Maybe your thinking of that. Stefan Schumacher had a storming ride and now holds the yellow. Evans is snipping on the heels also.

[DexterPunk]

nah was def the tour i was watching.. think its just the years flying by faster and faster.

[Duke]

Looking forward to tonight at last some real hills, not quite the mountains we will see later but at least it might show who has the form to hang with the leaders. I am not expecting any big changes apart from the climbing group coming to the fore but should be an interesting stage to see what might happen once they get to the Pyrenees and then later on the Alps. Go Cadel !!!

[DexterPunk]

so far so good.