tomorrow starts the world's and my biggest cycling event of the year starts tomorrow, and here's a preview:
The Race
The Grand Depart takes place in the Netherlands this year: A 9 km long time trial in the city of Rotterdam opens the Grande Boucle. The first week continues with a row of flat stages and a few small hills.
The real challenge for the overall begins on stage eight, when the peloton enters the Alps. The first mountain top finish up to the Station des Rousses isn't too demanding, but the climb up to Morzine – Avoriaz should bring some gaps. After the rest day, the pack will pass the Col de la Madeleine, but due to the long descent, it shouldn't be too selective.
After a hilly transfer stage to Gap, the sprinters regain the hegemony on three flat stages.
The Pyrenees start on stage 15. After passing the Port de Pailheres, the favorites have to show themselves on the climb up to Ax-3 Domaines. The following stage features the Port de Balès, followed by a rather long descent.
After another hilly stage and the second rest day, the last mountain stage finishes with the summit finish on the legendary Col du Tourmalet.
The last three stages are all flat. The 51 kilometers of time trial on the penultimate stage will finally decide the overall classification, before the Tour finishes with the traditional sprint on the Champs Elysees.
The Contenders
Maillot Jaune (General Classification)
In contrary to the Giro, the Tour features almost every single top rider.
The Spaniard is the top favorite. He is certainly one of the two best climbers in the world, and showed his good form winning the Tour de Suisse.
The younger of the Schleck brothers is the other one of the two world's best climbers. His lack of time trialing shouldn't harm him too much, as the amount of time trialing kilometers is limited. With his brother Fränk, he has one of the top helpers at his side.
Samuel Sanchez is probably the leader of a strong Euskaltel team. He showed his form winning both Spanish championships, and will build a strong duo leadership with Igor Anton.
Our captain showed an increasing shape recently and is one of the top climbers in the field. But he is one of the weaker time trialists and has a rather weak team to support him. A podium would be a great success.
The young Dutchman is on an equal climbing level as Samuel Sanchez or Ivan Basso, but also a weak time trialist. His chances might be similar to Basso's, but his shape might not be that good. Except a second place in the Dutch championship, he has no results recently.
The Basque developed into the third best climber in the world, but lacks a lot of time trialing. With a Top Ten place in the Criterium du Dauphine, he showed some strength recently, but his overall chances probably will depend on the role he will take in the team.
Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma – Lotto)
Cadel Evans (BMC)
Michele Scarponi (Lampre – ISD)
Fränk Schleck (Leopard – Trek)
Andreas Klöden (RadioShack)
Bradley Wiggins (Sky)
Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana)
Christian Vande Velde (Garmin – Cervelo)
Nicholas Roche (Ag2r)
Maillot Vert (Points Classification)
The world's best sprinter is seeking for his first green jersey. With Matthew Goss, Mark Renshaw and Bernhard Eisel, he has his usual sprint train and will be hard to beat – which he showed with 5 stage wins in the Tour de Suisse.
Farrar tried to beat Cavendish six times in Suisse – and failed every single time. Nevertheless, he proved to be at least the second best sprinter in a strong concurrence. Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd are a similarly good sprint train as the HTC one.
The German showed some good results in Suisse, but wasn't able to compete with the other two. Still, he should be considered as one of the contenders for the points jersey. In contrary to the others, he has no sprint train to rely on.
Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank – Sungard)
Tom Boonen (Quick·Step)
Joaquin Rojas (Movistar)
Maillot Blanc (Young Riders Classification)
As one of the top overall favorites, Robert Gesink is of course the main contender for the white jersey as well.
The only one who is considered to be at least a small threat for Gesink is Astana's co leader Roman Kreuziger. His chances depend to a large amount on whether he'll have to work for Alexandre Vinokourov.
The Colombian has only a chance if both other top favorites are harmed by injuries or crashes. Otherwise, he won't be able to compete with them.
Robert Kiserlovski (Astana)
Benat Intxausti (Movistar)
Pierre Roland (Europcar)
Team Liquigas
As for the Giro, we have one clear leader for the Tour as well: Ivan Basso. He aims for the podium, which will be a huge challenge. His support basically consists of Sylvester Szmyd and Francesco Belotti.
Dominik Nerz and Christiano Salerno won't be of too much use in the high mountains, so they will seek for their chances in breakaways.
Jacopo Guarnieri is our man for the sprints. He is at least one league under the top sprinters, so already a Top 10 result would be a success. Daniel Oss and Paolo Longo Borghini will try to support him, and might be of use as helpers or escapees on flat stages.
Timothy Duggan is actually nothing but a fill-in, and he will be a pure domestique.
This will be interesting And Dominik's biggest moments of his career. I hope for some nice stages in the 2nd or 3rd week and maybe a chance to go for a succesful breakaway then
Le Grand Depart in Rotterdam. These 9 km won't bring much time gaps, but may give a little insight in the rider's shape.
13:00: Belarussian champion Branislav Samoilau (Movistar) starts the race. The Tour de France 2011 is opened!
13:08: Dominik shoots out of the starting box. He seems really motivated at the start of his first Grand Tour!
13:16: Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) sets a good best time. 10'29
13:19: Dominik finishes his first Grand Tour stage. A solid time, we'll have to see what it'll be worth. 10'47
13'27: Jurgen Van den Broeck finishes 14 seconds down. Being only four seconds faster than Dominik shows how good Dominik's time was. 10'43
13:28: Alexandre Vinokourov said that he aims for a Top 5 overall. On this hard mission, this time is a good start. New best time! 10'25
13:32: Time trialing world champion Fabian Cancellara decided to wear his recently conquered Swiss national champion instead of the world champion shirt. For today, he's the big favorite, and he strengthens that, overtaking Mark Renshaw and crushing all former times. 9'51
13'34: Australian champion and Contador's super-domestique Richie Porte comes in provisional second. 10'19
13:46: The leadership in Team RadioShack isn't really decided yet. Janez Brajkovic underlines his ambitions with a great time. Provisional third. 10'21
14:10: And his team mate Levi Leipheimer isn't able to beat that: 10'31
14:28: And Klöden can't either. 10'26
14:36: Robert Gesink didn't have the best day today and loses quite a bit. 10'44
14:59: Will Roman Kreuziger help Vinokourov or does he have his own ambitions? Today, he sets a great time and beats his team mate by a second. 10'24
15:03: A bit surprising, the German Linus Gerdemann is able to contest with the best and comes in provisional third. 10'20
15:08: Samuel Sanchez presents his new Spanish champion jersey, and honours it with a good time. 10'26
15:25:Christian Vande Velde is one of the outside shots for a top overall ranking. At least, he seems to be in great shape. He is the one coming closest to Cancellara, yet. 10'17
15:48: Now it's time for the top favorite: Alberto Contador is on his way!
15:55: And he finishes with a great time. Sure, he can't touch Cancellara, but he is way faster than all the others. 10'08
16:13: Ivan Basso comes to the finish line. He sets an acceptable time, but loses quite a bit. 10'41
16:30: Igor Anton has very limited time trialing skills, and so is his time... 10'56
16:39: Bradley Wiggins underperformes today. Being one of the best time trialists, this time is a bit disappointing. 10'32
16:59: Eventually, one man came at least a little close to Cancellara. Old and new German champion Tony Martin finishes second. 10'00
The first wearer of the yellow jersey this year: Fabian Cancellara.
Result
1
.Fabian Cancellara
Leopard - Trek
9'51
2
Tony Martin
HTC - Highroad
+ 9
3
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
+ 17
4
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 26
5
Richie Porte
Saxo Bank - Sungard
+ 28
6
Linus Gerdemann
Leopard - Trek
+ 29
7
Janez Brajkovic
Team RadioShack
+ 32
8
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
9
Roman Kreuziger
Astana
+ 33
10
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
...
14
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 35
...
47
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 50
...
54
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
+ 53
...
64
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 56
...
73
Andy Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 59
...
93
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'05
Dominik's Comment:
Wow! What a great start into this Tour! I felt incredibly good today, and rode the best time trial of my life! As a result, I achieved a way better result than some guys that are usually quite a bit better than me. I mean, who would have thought that I'd ever be in front of Andy Schleck in the GC? That's a pretty great feeling!
Also, Ivan Basso did quite well, and only Alberto Contador is already a bit away.
The first road stage of this Tour de France. It's a quite long transfer stage from Rotterdam to Bruxelles, and most likely to end in a mass sprint.
The stage crashed multiple times while loading, so I had to simulate it, and I can only give you the result.
It came down to a mass sprint. Mark Cavendish underlined his strong shape, and took the stage win. The podium was completed by Tom Boonen and surprisingly Filippo Pozzato.
Jacopo Guarnieri finished at a respectable 19th place.
Very unspectacular stage for us today. Jacopo did quite well, but there is room for improvement. I was glad that I had no problems to stay in the pack.
Stay tuned,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 25-07-2011 11:01
The next flat stage, and we're still in Belgium. It leads the peloton from Bruxelles to Spa. Two small hills towards the end might provide a small difficulty.
Km 7: The first attacks are being launched. Daniel Oss is one of the riders who tries it.
Km 34: It's very windy today, and the pack is very nervous.
Km 50: The group of the day seems stable now, and although both Longo Borghini and Oss tried, there's no Liquigas rider in it. Instead, it has a pretty strange member: Alessandro Petacchi. He was one of the favorites for the mass sprints, but disappointed yesterday with a 20th place. Is he out of shape?
Km 73: The group has now an advance of 5 minutes. In addition to Petacchi, they are: Luca Paolini (Katusha), Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Karsten Kroon (BMC) and Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil). Some strong classic riders.
Km 82: Björn Leukemans takes the first mountain points of this Tour.
Km 103: Garmin, HTC, Leopard and Quick·Step work together, and the advance slowly decreases.
Km 128: With 40km to go, the advance is down to 2 minutes now.
Km 151: The last escapee is back in the pack. The last 16 kilometers are for the sprinter's teams.
Km 158: Carlos Barredo (Rabobank) attacks and takes some mountain points. The pace is hard now, and the pack lengthens.
Km 162: The pack has passed the last mountain sprint. The last 7 km are mostly downhill or flat now.
Km 165: The sprint is about to begin, and Cavendish has a great position behind Matti Breschel. Tom Boonen follows him, while Jacopo Guarnieri has no energy left.
Km 166: Cavendish passed Breschel quite early. Can he hold the speed?
Km 168: No! Boonen overtakes him easily on the last kilometer and wins in his homecountry.
He seems to be one of the two best sprinters at the moment: Tom Boonen.
I have to admit that today was much harder than yesterday. Due to the strong break, the pace was pretty fast, and the winds and the hills did their part as well. But although I struggled a bit, I stayed in the pack relatively easy.
In contrary to Jacopo. Obviously, he isn't able to compete in such a strong race, at least not yet. Maybe he can show something on a completely flat stage.
We enter la France today. On this controversial stage, which used to have cobblestone passages, whose were eventually taken out, another mass sprint is expected.
Km 3: Again, the stage features strong winds. The riders have to be attentive!
Km 6: Paul Martens (Rabobank) is the first rider to attack.
Km 34: Already the first breakaway try was successful and together with Martens, Vicente Reynes (Omega), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Alberto Ongarato (Vacansoleil) are about 3 minutes in front of the peloton.
Km 86: The advance reached it's climax with 8 and a half minutes now. Leopard starts chasing.
Km 90: Surprisingly, Daniele Bennati (Leopard) does a lot of work in front. Leopard doesn't seem to target the mass sprints at this Tour.
Km 156: 50 km to go, and the advance is down to three minutes.
Km 189: They had no chance today: The break is back in the pack.
Km 202: The sprint is about to start and the trains are being built. Haussler leads out Farrar, Cavendish is on his wheel. Tom Boonen is a bit behind.
Km 204: Haussler seems to be stronger than Farrar and creates a small gap.
Km 205: Cavendish overtook Farrar and is on the chase. William Bonnet (FDJ) and Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) fight for the podium.
Km 206: What is happening here? Haussler, Bonnet and Westra suddenly stop sprinting and let Cavendish and Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) simply pass!
Km 206: Cavendish accepts the gift and takes the stage easily! Tom Boonen finishes only 10th.
A strange win for the man in green, Mark Cavendish.
I tried, just for fun, myself in the mass sprint today, and I have to say I was a bit surprised by the result. 34th is pretty good, only 2 places behind our sprinter Jacopo, and faster than guys like Grega Bole or Jeremy Hunt – that was really nice.
Due to the strong winds, lots of riders lost time today, and I advanced a little in the GC, and am now close to the Top 50. Among the riders who lost time were Dario Cataldo, Quick·Step's leader, and Lance Armstrong.
Also, I have to announce the first abbandon of this Tour. Astana's Simon Clarke didn't finish the race.
The flat stages continue for the next three days, then we hit the mountains.
The peloton moves on south today, from Cambrai in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais to Reims. It's another flat stage, and rather short.
Km 1: The attacks start right off. Among the escapees is again Alessandro Petacchi. He shows a really strange behaviour at this Tour.
Km 22: Only Serguei Ivanov (Katusha) is left in front, with about 1'30. But the attacks keep coming.
Km 73: 12 riders are 4 minutes in front now. A couple of pretty good sprinters (Petacchi, Brown, Lorenzetto) are there as well as classic specialists (Hincapie, Leukemans, Ivanov).
Km 94: The pack started chasing, again it's mostly Leopard doing the work to defend the maillot jaune.
Km 102:Leif Hoste attacks followed by Flecha, Armstrong and Devolder.
Km 111: Armstrong is quickly caught again while the others catch up to the escapees.
Km 125: The front group dissolves. Some riders try a last, desperate attack.
Km 137: With 16 km to go, everything is back together. Again, nothing could prevent a mass sprint.
Km 149: The teams lead out their sprinters. On the left side, it's Cofidis for Dumoulin, while Jeremy Hunt tries to bring white jersey wearer Boasson Hagen in a good position. Haussler again leads out Farrar, followed by Rojas, Boonen, Haedo and Cavendish.
Km 151: This time, Haussler isn't too fast, and Farrar is in a great position. Boasson Hagen accelerates fast in the middle of the street.
Km 152: But Farrar is just too slow! He can't really accelerate, and so it's Boasson Hagen leading within the last kilometer. Romain Feillu comes closer as well as Danish champion Matti Breschel, while Dumoulin already slows down a bit.
Km 153: It was a close decision, but Boasson Hagen wins it!
Km 153: A surprisingly strong Paolo Longo Borghini could take the tenth spot. A great result for him and the team.
First Tour de France stage win for Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Today, we achieved our best stage result so far. Longo Borghini made use of the strange finish and got a great 10th. For the rest of us, the day was unspectacular. Just Timmothy Duggan fell back as always. Will be interesting to see if he'll make it to Paris.
good (unexpected) result for longo borghini - and cav didnt even finish in the top 10
and duggan is in the battle for the lantern rouge, maybe?
now waiting for the mountains to finally begin to see how dominik will perform
Yep, infact, I didn't pay attention to Longo Borghini at all. He was just in front and I told him to sprint and then watched the sprint for the win. Looking at the results, I suddenly noticed the Top 10^^
Oh, and yes, Duggan is one of the top contenders for the Lanterne Rouge
Another flat stage, another chance for the sprinters to take some points for the green jersey.
Km 2: Karsten Kroon (BMC) sets the first attack.
Km 6: Pablo Lastras and Oscar Freire attack as well. Freire wasn't able to get any good results in sprints, so he tries it in a break.
Km 24: This seems to be the group of the day: Freire and Lastras are accompanied by Romain Zingle (Cofidis), Vicente Reynes (Omega) and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar). They lead with about 2 minutes.
Km 48: The advance grew to 5 minutes now.
Km 73: As the advance is at 8 minutes, Leopard starts the chase. Same procedure as every stage.
Km 90: Linus Gerdemann has a puncture, but seems to be able to reconnect with the pack.
Km 131: The pack is down by 3 minutes at the moment.
Km 155: Shortly before they're caught, Freire launches another attack out of the front group.
Km 167: With 18km to go, Romain Zingle is the last escapee being caught. Time for the bunch sprint!
Km 180: 5km to go, and the only viewable lead out is Jeremy Hunt for Boasson Hagen on the right hand side. Boonen and Cavendish are quite a bit back in the pack.
Km 182: The sprint is about to begin, and Australian champion Haussler managed to catch Liewe Westra's wheel. No sign of the other sprinters.
Km 182: Cavendish, Rojas and Boonen sit back in the pack, their positioning failed completely today.
Km 184: With a bit more than a kilometer to go, Haussler jumps out of Westra's slipstream, while Boasson Hagen accelerates on the right side of the street.
Km 184: What the hell is Haussler doing? Just like two days ago, he just stops sprinting, although he is in a great position. Westra does the same, Boasson Hagen benefits...
Km 185: … and takes an easy stage win, his second in a row. Because of Cavendish's and Boonen's miserable day, he also overtakes the green jersey!
The maillot vert is his for at least one day: Edvald Boasson Hagen has a great Tour so far!
Your game looks really bugged. Sprinters jumping in the breakaway, and Cavendish not even sprinting! Hopefully there aren't any major bugs when it comes to the mountains.
I'm almost done with the tour, and I can asure you that everything works perfectly fine in the mountains, and I have a very realistic final result Just the sprints are sometimes a little weird.
Plus, it's not that Cav wasn't sprinting at all. He just came from far back.
Stage 7 leads the riders closer towards the Alps, still it's pretty flat.
Km 9: Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) sets the first attack. Robbie McEwen and a couple of others follow.
Km 32: They were successful: Together with Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), Kurt Arvesen (Sky) and Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r), they lead with 5 mintues. Arvesen is the best-placed rider in the GC, only 50 seconds behind.
Km 43: Mondory wins the first intermediate sprint. The advance is now at almost 7 minutes.
Km 62: The pack is down by 10 minutes, and the sprinter teams slowly up the pace.
Km 91: Gerald Ciolek hits the ground. He won't come back to the pack anymore.
Km 132: Arashiro takes the mountain sprint. With 94 km to go, the advance decreased to 5 and a half minutes.
Km 182:Mondory wins the second mountain sprint and has now an equal amount of points as Pablo Lastras. Nevertheless, Lastras will wear the jersey tomorrow due to his better position in the GC. The escapees have and advance of less than 2 minutes left.
Km 205: The escapees are caught and the sprinters prepare for the last intermediate sprint...
Km 208: Boasson Hagen takes it in front of Boonen and Dumoulin.
Km 211: Boonen took the speed from the sprint and created a gap to the pack!
Km 216: The pace is really high now and some riders struggle. Unfortunately, Dominik Nerz is among those riders.
Km 217: Boonen is still in front...
Km 218: Meanwhile, the sprint preparations begin. Again, Heinrich Haussler is in front, Farrar and Cavendish on his wheel. Boasson Hagen in his green jersey is in that train as well.
Km 221: With 5 km to go, Boonen maintains a gap of 40 seconds! That looks great for him.
Km 224: The sprint begins, and Cavendish accelerates immediatly. Boonen is still in front.
Km 226: Boonen's insane move really succeeds!
Km 226: And Cavendish easily wins the sprint behind him.
Green is Tom Boonen's goal, and he came closer to it today.
I really improved my flat skills recently, but 225 Tour de France kilometers are just a bit too much for me. Without Boonen's attack and the other teams on his chase, I might have been able to keep up with the pack, but not like this.
Nevertheless, the mountains start tomorrow, and I'm quite happy about that.
And Dominik's biggest moments of his career. I hope for some nice stages in the 2nd or 3rd week and maybe a chance to go for a succesful breakaway then 
for your GT-debut's opening stage. Well done!
A banana is always nice!
