The 2007 Tour de France will start in London and head clockwise through France. It contains 6 mountain stages, and 2 individual time trials over 50 km. In this article I will look at each ProTour team anaylsing what they have to aim at at Le Tour.
Ag2r Prévoyance With no notable sprinters, it is likely that Ag2r will gear their team to support Christophe Moreau and Cyril Dessel in the mountains. Having both finished in the top 10 last year they will be looking to improve and maybe aim for a top 5 position. I think they may struggle to do aswell, and if Ag2r are to get a stage win they will have to rely on breakaways.
Astana Team The current favourite for victory at this year's tour is undoubtedly Alexandre Vinokourov. He has stated that this will probably be his last chance of victory and will give 100% to finally succeed. Behind him Astana have many strong climbers including Andreas Kloden, Eddy Mazzoleni, Paolo Savoldelli and Andrewy Kashechkin. If all 5 are selected Astana could well fill the void left by the Discovery Channel team since Lance Armstrong's departure. I think that Vinokourov should win the tour and will defnately get a podium, and Astana could well win the teams classification.
Bouygues Télécom With no notable climbers or sprinters you can expect a Bouygues Telecom rider in many breakaway attempts, Thomas Voeckler will undoubtedly attack many times.
Caisse d'Epargne While they may claim to go into the tour with two leaders. The 2006 runner-up Oscar Pereiro's main aim at this years tour will be to help Alejandro Valverde to overall victory. If Valverde can avoid injuries then he stands with a good chance of victory, and crucuially his time trials are improving as that was his previous weak point. As Paris-Nice has shown Caisse d'Epargne have many capable climbers who can assist Valverde.
Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone Cofidis' Bradley Wiggins will be aiming to take the first yellow jersey of the tour in London but aside from that Cofidis have no real overall hopes. David Moncoutie could earn himself a top 20 position but lacks the ability to break into the top 10.
Crédit Agricole Thor Hushovd will again be looking to win his second Green Jersey classification, along with a stage or two. Pietro Caucchioli is their most able climber and like Moncoutie could earn a top 20 placing.
Team CSC CSC will be looking to have two riders in the top 10 at this years tour: Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck, with Sastre gunning for overall victory, or at least a podium positon. Fabian Cancellara or Dave Zabriskie will be favourite for all 3 time trials, while Stuey O'Grady will aain be looking to sprint to some stage victories.
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team Ivan Basso will be looking to make up for missing last year's tour with the team of his greatest rival at previous tours. Unless Operation Puerto reappears Basso will be one of the favourites to win and will be provided backing from Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and tour debutant Tom Danielson. If Allan Davis is selected, Discovery will also have a strong sprinter to challenge in the flat stages.
Euskaltel-Euskadi Haimar Zubeldia has been a consistent performer at Le Tour in the past but will not be a challenge to the overall standings. EUskaltel have a few other good climbers and it will be interesting to see if ProTour runner up Samuel Sanchez will participate this year.
La Française des Jeux Brad McGee could pose a threat in time trials but other than that FDJ have a relatively weak squad for Le Tour. Gilbert could win a breakaway stage and Casar could be strong in the mountains and win a hilly stage.
Gerolsteiner Markus Fothen will again be looking to win the young riders jersey having just missed out last year, and in doing so may well earn a top 10 place, although top 15 is more likely. Bernhard Kohl and Stefan Schumacher are both strong climbers and could grab a top 10 finish.
Lampre-Fondital With Cunego not taking part this year, Lampre will probably focus on preparing a team to support Sprinter Daniele Bennati, who could win the green jersey classification.
Liquigas As it is unlikely that Di Luca will race its hard to see who will lead Liquigas. No doubt Magnus Backstedt will try to win an early stage before withdrawing in the mountains.
Team Milram Milram will of course be led by Zabel and Petacchi. Only time will tell whether Petacchi will gain form for the tour or whether he will be out of form and scupper Zabel's hopes aswell (As in San-Remo).
Predictor-Lotto Predictor will again have two leaders, Cadel Evans in the mountains and Robbie McEwen for the sprints. Evans will look to build on his 5th place last year but without any teammates he will struggle yet again to make it. McEwen meanwhile will hope Fred Rodriguez doesnt crash out this year as he aims to win the green jersey once more.
Quick Step-Innergetic Tom Boonen will look to finally win the green jersey and do much better than last year. Now that Quick-Step have been reinforced with Gert Steegmens, the only thing stopping Boonen from winning the jersey will most likely be the mountains.
Rabobank It will be interesting to see whether Michael Rasmussen will again go for the Polka-dot jersey or instead try to do be better overall. It is probable though that he will again go for Polkadot with Menchov going for overall triumph. Oscar Freire meanwhile will again be going for the sprints.
Saunier Duval-Prodir Like Wiggins, David Millar will be determined to win the opening prologue in London and could also feature in the other 2 timetrials. If picked, Francisco Ventoso could grap a stage win, while in the mountains we will have to wait and see whether Mayo or Simoni can finally release their potential at the tour.
T-Mobile Michael Rogers will be at the tour to aim for time trial wins and to improve his climbing skills, Sinkewitz and Guerini could provide the only backup though. I predict T-Mobile to aim at the sprints, with Eisel, Ciolek, Cavendish and Hammond all capable sprinters if picked, and of the 4 Eisel seems the obvious choice.
Unibet.com If ASO do decide to hand Unibet an invitation, they will probably aim for the sprints with Baden Cooke, a former Green Jersey winner and Jimmy Casper (Winner of a sprint last year). Unibet also have Jose Rujano in their squad.
Wildcards Of course no one knows who will recieve a wildcard for the tour.
I would expect Agritubel to recieve a wildcard and if picked their strong riders include Juan Miguel Mercado, Stage winner last year, and Hans Dekkers, a young sprinter.
Tinkoff Credit Systems are unlikely to recieve an invite following their Giro invite but if invited, Tyler Hamilton would probably lead.
Barloworld would by led by sprinters Robbie Hunter or Fabrizio Gaudi if picked.
DFL - Cyclingnews - Litespeed would be led by classics specialists Nico Mattan.
Relax - Gam contains Francisco Mancebo, wjho has previously finished in the top 5 of the tour, in 2005.
Nice synopsis. I do wonder if Discovery will fare well this year. They have what I consider to be the strong GC team on the ProTour but I have doubts as to whether Basso can win the TdF after attempting to win the Giro. I doubt that he's strong enough to win both. And after Basso, I don't think that Disco has anyone strong enough to win: Leipheimer, Danielson, probably also Contador don't have it in my opinion.
Also, one should consider Mr. Lovkvist on FdJ as a possible top 15 finisher. His TT skills are first rate, as evidence by his strong performance at the Criterium this weekend.
Anyway, in the absence of any doping scandals, I'm hoping that all the racers you mention will be present for a great Tour!
I dont think Basso will have same form as at last years Giro. In this case i think that we will see something more like Vuelta with Alejandro Valverde Belmonte and kazakhs prince Alexandre Vinokurov, maybe Levi Leipheimer and Carlos Sastre shoud see this two top stars from behind longer than anyone else. If this prediction will happen, so my last thought is that Vino is still more experienced rider and with, in my opinion, the strongest team behind him he is unbeatable. He will crush them all as Lance did in his era
If boonen has the green jersey heading into the Alps he should win it in Paris. All he needs is a good team around him and not waste all his energy on the early stages. But overall i agree with your predictions.
i agree with your predictions apart from (i think) Basso and Vino should be swapped, as 0buKKaKe said Vino has an awseme team behind him with Savoldelli, Kloden, Kessler, Kashechkin whereas Basso only has Leipheimer and although Basso is a better climber than Vino i think that Vino's teamates will give him the edge.
I feel quite confident the top 3 will be those guys. Levi's TT has vastly improved. He's broken records for least amt of drag in the wind tunnel...showed it at the TOC. If he does win the ITT @ the TDF....its feasible that he can play shadow to the Valverde and Vino. He can definately climb when on form (Dauphine).
However, the winner will be Vino or Valverde. Valverde definately was stronger than Vino early at last year's vuelta, however, he slipped a bit near the end (he's young endurance will come). You have to wonder if the TDF injury hurt his form a little. Vino, on the other hand, had more expereicne and longer lasting power and won. This year, he has a super redonkulous team behind him that will be completely dedicated to him (thats a first). Also, if you watched last year's vuelta, they totally owned valverde and his team with superior tactics.
Either way, these guys are clean and i like all of them.
It doesn't seem as if Basso will be allowed to race in TdF, the director of the race doesn't want any of the riders who were involved in operation Puerto.
