Well, I love the way you write and report, so it's a pleasure to read 'race finish' reports for every stage on the TdF =) After all, the TdF is the race for Discovery/Lance's team.
Seeing all jerseys Top 3 is great too, and about the little jerseys I'm indifferent, even though I like them.
Your "standard" reporting style is already excellent, and the mini jerseys certainly make the need of including the top three on secondary classifications redundant ... So if you don't feel like it, I think you should stick to what you usually do.
Great job in Suisse, by the way, and good luck with Levi on the Tour!
lluuiiggii wrote:
After all, the TdF is the race for Discovery/Lance's team.
It's my team, not Armstrong's
But I guess I'll just go ahead and do the extended coverage then, even though I wasn't planning to. It seems like it's wanted
My morale has taken a small blow though. This Tour variant seems really poor. It's the 2003 Tour de France, which is a good thing, but visually it's horrible. Climbs are mostly just one long, straight road without turns, and there are a million caravan cars along the roads. I have to be really creative with the angles to make this look good.
Yeah, I meant like the team Lance is leader usually has the TdF as main race: US Postal, Discovery, RadioShack. With Discovery being in the middle of these 3, the TdF should be the main race, even without Armstrong.
If this variant is from the 2003 DB, indeed not good. The Huez stage, f.e., has goddamn a lot of those car/trailers with the roads, and the Alpe d'Huez climb has only 2 turns =P
But I believe you can still get some nice SS. Looking forward for the TdF =)
Past winners 2009: Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel)
2010: Alberto Contador (Astana)
La Grande Boucle kicks off for the 98th time! The best cyclists once again get together for the world's biggest annual sporting event. Three weeks of pain, suffering and eventual glory await!
Last year
In 2010, Lance Armstrong attempted his 9th Tour win. He eventually lost out to Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck, but not without putting up a fight. Discovery Channel's Andreas Klöden took the yellow jersey from Vladimir Karpets after stage 5's TTT, before handing it to teammate Armstrong two days later. After consistently losing time to Contador in the mountains, the eight-time winner finally had to give in on the last mountain top finish. Contador defended the jersey through the final time trial, and brought it to Paris to claim his 2nd Tour win.
Alberto Contador does the pistol celebration on top of the climb to Flaine, the day he took yellow.
Levi Leipheimer(Discovery Channel)
With the increased amount of time trialing, our own Levi Leipheimer finds himself among the hottest Tour favourites. He finished 4th last year while riding for Armstrong, and who knows what he might have done had he been our leader. This year's Tour de Suisse winner has tasted yellow before, as he wore the jersey for six days in 2009.
Andy Schleck(Saxo Bank)
Andy Schleck has shown steady improvement over the last few years, reaching as high as 2nd in the Tour last year. He is the winner of the white jersey for the last three years, and showed promising form in the recent Tour de Suisse, finishing 2nd. In the absence of his brother Fränk, Andy will probably count on support from Denis Menchov, 3rd in the '08 and '09 Tours, depending on the Russian's form after returning from injury.
His dominant Vuelta win last year proved that Valverde is a true GT contender.
Other riders to watch out for in the general classification are the likes of Robert Gesink (Quick-Step), Cadel Evans (Rabobank) and Juanjo Cobo (Saunier Duval), who all did well in the warm-up races. Especially Gesink can be dangerous, as he has a strong team including Scarponi and Barredo. Michael Rogers (T-Mobile) and Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) are good time trialists who have managed top tens in the Tour before, while other TT specialists like Tony Martin (T-Mobile) and Gustav Larsson (Silence - Lotto) have been top ten in the Giro, and will benefit from the parcours.
The Tour is lacking a bit in sprinters. The two biggest names are Heinrich Haussler and Daniele Bennati. Both of them have won ProTour stages this season, and should be in contention for the green jersey. Lesser names like Weylandt, Rojas and Feillu can also contest flat stages. Of the wildcard teams, I expect most from Cofidis. LPR and Vorarlberg have smaller expectations on their shoulders, although Vorarlberg's Geslin has been getting some results this year. The two new ProTour teams Ceramica Flaminia and Agritubel will also struggle to make an impact. I certainly miss Bouygues Telecom, who were also absent last year.
Our goals
We have two big goals for the Tour de France 2011. The main target is the yellow jersey, and we believe Leipheimer has a genuine chance to win it. He should be able to put time into his rivals in the time trials, and judging by his Tour de Suisse performance, he can hang on pretty well in the mountains too. We will also look towards the white jersey. That's Kreuziger's territory. He's not in top shape yet, but hopefully that will come during the Tour. Roman's main competitor among the young riders is probably Gesink. The white jersey would be a nice consolation for missing out on the chance to defend his 2010 Giro win.
Our team contains a lot of GT experience, with five riders who have been top ten in the Tour in the past. Individual chances for the rest of the team will be limited, as our policy is all for Leipheimer and Kreuziger. Apart from our French alibi, Di Gregorio, the entire team are strong time trialists, a skill that will be important in the TTT.
The route fits Leipheimer and Discovery very well, one TTT and two long ITTs. I'm confident of him doing great, hopefully great enough to wear yellow in Paris.
This should be something to be corrected, but most TdFs after first season have few good sprinters...
Tactics meeting
Flat, short and fast. The Paris prologue is one for the high wattage guys. Judging by his show of power at the Tour de Suisse time trial, Cancellara should take this. Leipheimer has a good result in him, and I'm curious about how Contador will perform. Anyway, the Tour de France has started!
In the last year or so, Thomas Lövkvist has shown that he's capable of some good TT times. Today he posted another good one, enough to take the early lead.
Last year's prologue winner, Vladimir Karpets, is certainly a power rider, and shot through the course 4 seconds faster than Lövkvist. The Russian would be hoping for a replay of the 2010 prologue!
Valverde started his assault on the yellow jersey by doing a slightly mediocre prologue ride. Provisional 6th for the ProTour leader, but he would most likely end up a lot further down by the end of the day.
Former triple World Champion Michael Rogers has still got it. The winner of the Pais Vasco ITT lowered Karpets' best time by 10 seconds! Solid lead for Rogers so far.
Roman Kreuziger has recovered from the injury that kept him out of the Giro, but his form is not yet completely up to scratch. That was proven by his provisional 18th place, 29 seconds behind Rogers. Let's hope Roman improves quickly, because this was not very impressive!
A rider who definitely was impressive, was Fabian Cancellara. The current World ITT Champion lived up to the expectations, and moved into 1st place with a stellar ride! Rogers was beaten by 6 seconds.
Now then, Levi Leipheimer. Our American TT champion couldn't quite reach the podium, but a 4th place, 11 seconds down on Cancellara, was very good. Levi would likely end up best among the main overall contenders. He was already more than half a minute ahead of Valverde.
Question mark of the day was Alberto Contador. We got confirmation that his form is a bit off target by his 12th place. The normally superb time trialist was 8 seconds behind Leipheimer!
Andy Schleck just had to limit his losses today, as he's not the best against the clock. 27th place, 24 seconds behind prologue winner Cancellara is decent compared to the Luxembourger's standards.
Not unexpectedly, Fabian Cancellara blitzed through the prologue to take first yellow jersey of the Tour de France. It's the first time ever that Liquigas holds the Maillot Jaune. I'm happy to report that Levi Leipheimer got off to a good start, finishing 4th. He was the best placed of the big favourites, and this is great for our morale.
Klöden's 10th place and Phinney's 11th helps us to 2nd in the team standings. Our only worry is Roman Kreuziger, who was a little bit too far back for comfort today. He's 6 seconds behind white jersey rival Robert Gesink.
Tomorrow is the first of many sprinters' stages, which means we take a back seat in the race. We will re-emerge in the team time trial in a few days' time. Until then, unleash the sprinters!
Cancellara is a hell of monster in this save game. He could even win the Giro with that =P
Nice start by Levi, thank god Contador is not there (at least yet). And hopefully Kreuziger manages to get better form quick. At least there is the TTT where he should gain some good time on Gesink.
Cancellara is a monster indeed. Hope he wins Lombardia or Ardennes classic.
And good luck for the Tour. Hope Kreuziger does well and Di Gregorio takes a stage, not a fan of Leipheimer so I hope Kreuziger and Kloden beat him.
Tactics meeting
The first proper stage takes place not far from Paris, and finishes in the village of Meaux. It's the sprinters' first opportunity to show themselves. For those fighting for the green jersey, it's important to begin collecting points already today. The Tour will also award the first KoM jersey en route to Meaux.
A nine-man break got away in the early parts of the stage. In it were Tour Down Under stage winner James Vanlandschoot of Cofidis and Giro stage winner Claudio Corioni of Lampre. Garmin's William Frischkorn got the KoM jersey ahead of Corioni, even though they ended up with the same amount of points.
The inevitable catch happened with 11km to go. Roman Kireyev was the last to be reeled in.
2km before the line, Gasparotto had his Lampre teammate Simone Ponzi in a good position on the inside of the last turn, while the Lotto & Caisse trains were going well for Roelandts and Rojas, respectively. Where were Haussler and Bennati?
Roelandts accelrated away in the closing meters! Rojas was catching up, but did he have enough road left?
A Belgian win today! Jurgen Roelandts ahead of Rojas and Geslin. The latter gets a good result for wildcard team Vorarlberg.
A strong sprint by Roelandts gives him his first Tour de France stage win. But I have to ask the question, where were Heinrich Haussler and Daniele Bennati, considered to be the two strongest sprinters in the Tour? 8th and 10th is not where they were expected to finish.
The first road stage saw no major crashes, and all our riders made it to the finish safely within the main field. Tomorrow is another day for the fast men.
Tactics meeting
Stage 3 brings the Tour to the town of Sedan on the Belgian border for another sprint stage. It's one of the longest stages of the Tour, but it contains only a couple of 4th category climbs to bother the riders. Will Bennati or Haussler show something today?
The usual breakaway went early on the stage. A few strong classics riders put themselves in the spotlight: Alexandre Pliuschin (AG2R) and Gregory Rast (Cofidis). The rider who got the most coverage was Katusha's Stijn Vandenbergh, who earned himself the KoM jersey.
The break was duly caught because of the work of Silence - Lotto and Caisse d'Epargne. The teams of the two top riders yesterday (Roelandts & Rojas) obviously fancied their chances again.
And in the mass sprint, Roelandts and Rojas were up there. But so was Haussler! The German champion sat on the wheel of Geslin.
He has arrived! Haussler, the big sprinting name of the Tour, took the stage win ahead of Geslin and an impressive Simon Clarke. Vorarlberg are enjoying some success in their first ever Tour, as Geslin consistent finishing gives him the green jersey to wear during tomorrow's stage.
Saxo Bank got their lead-out right today, which meant there was no stopping Haussler. The other big name for the sprints, Bennati, is still lingering around the bottom part of the top ten. Vorarlberg - Corratec is proving themselves worthy of their wildcard invitation, with Geslin seizing green ahead of Haussler.
Join us tomorrow for another sprint stage. Haussler has got his Tour off to a good start, will Bennati do the same tomorrow?
Stage 4 Charlesville Mezieres - St. Dizier: 167.0km
Tactics meeting
More sprinting is probably on the menu for today. Saxo Bank surely want to capitalize on Haussler's good form. This is the first of two consecutive stages finishing in St. Dizier. Tomorrow's team time trial also ends here.
Many strong names in the breakaway today. Grabsch (T-Mobile), Martens (Rabobank), Vanlandschoot (Cofidis), Ista (Lotto), Corioni (Lampre) among others. Corioni took the KoM jersey off the shoulders of Vandenbergh.
But the break was of course brought back. Saxo's Dominik Klemme did an amazing lead-out for Haussler with the finishing line in sight.
And Haussler won it by some margin! Two in a row for the German, who is rewarded with the green jersey. Geslin & Feillu completed the podium. The last time those two were on the podium in a Tour stage, Boonen took the green jersey and never lost it again. An omen for Haussler?
Haussler confirms himself as the best sprinter in the Tour de France. Bennati was also up there today, but in terms of meters, he was still a long way behind Haussler. Geslin continues his string of good results. He's had an amazing season this year.
The sprint trains are now suspended for a day, or at least they will have to be used differently: Tomorrow is the team time trial. Will we see Levi in yellow again?
Edited by Squire on 22-04-2011 16:00
