Re: 2007 tour de france
 

rasmussen - ride of the day
vino - may have [censored] himself by riding so hard
contador - could win
evans - he is so boring, last attacked on a climb when he was 12

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

[ QUOTE ]
rasmussen - ride of the day
vino - may have [censored] himself by riding so hard
contador - could win
evans - he is so boring, last attacked on a climb when he was 12

[/ QUOTE ]

Rasmussen may pay tomorrow too. He looked pretty ill on the podium afterwords. He gave everything he had on that one.

Astana is going to come out with guns blazing tomorrow, considering they have 3 people in the top 9. The leaders are going to have a tough time keeping track of all of them.

My opinion is the race is down to six riders. Here is the order I would put their chances:

1. Evans
2/3 Rasmussen
2/3 Kloden
4. Contador
5. Vino
6. Levi


Edit: What the hell happened to Valverde, wow, he looked horrible.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Levi really needed a better TT to become a favorite, cuz he can't climb like the others. It's really amazing how well "climbers" like Rasmussen and Contador did. Rasmussen definitely got lucky with the weather, the roads were a lot drier when he went out, if he had a crash it could've really cracked his nerve like last year and killed him, but he obviously practiced a lot and has been thinking GC all year.

The Pyrenees should be fascinating. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Vino attacked and only Rasmussen and Contador were able to stay with him. It's gonna be really curious to see what Kloden and Vino do too; if Kloden still has to play the helper it will kill his chances. Discovery seems to have the strongest team of the top contenders, so they may be able to use that to their advantage. I think in the alps when they sent those guys ahead it was for Levi to use to jump off, but he didn't have the legs for it.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

"I suffered through a hard week. I really suffered," said Vinokourov. "But the Tour is long. Today was important to try to regain some ground in the GC. My legs have been back for the past two days. This win gives me great motivation. The Tour isn't over. I lost a lot of time in the Alps. We'll see what the tactics are [Sunday in the Pyrénées]. What I can say now is that I will attack."

Man i love vino and i hope he puts the hammer down hard

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

129K to the bottom of the first big climb(of two climbs). They should all be together at that point. If the early pace is slow Rasmussen is the best climber and could win the stage.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

i dont think rasmus will be super strong tomorrow personally. He absolutely burried himself out there to maintain yellow in the time trial. should be a very good stage

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

He may be the best pure climber but more than anything the next stages will be about who is the strongest.

So far the only rider who noone has been able to follow when making an attack has been Contador.
He WAS later caught on the downhill of course and it's such a small sample size so to speak but in the close to 20 tours I've seen I can only think of a couple of instances where the first rider that people wasn't able to follow in the mountains, didn't end up also winning.

I think whoever, or if anyone, can drop the other favorites tomorrow, that rider will also win the tour.
And I think Contador if anyone can this tour and I'm kinda hoping noone can, is the most likely to pull it off.
Then Vino. Then Mayo. Then Rasmussen and Valverde.
Evans, Klöden and to a lesser degree Leipheimer I think can all be strong but I honestly can't see them drop the other favorites.

What will be really cool is if we have a race like 2003, and it looks likely with several tendencies pointing towards it, where several riders and their various levels change many times during the race and noone is really dominating.

Regarding Valverde, he said he simply didnt have the legs today and there wasn't any talk about another knee injury thankfully.

Mayo claimed he wasn't bothered about his loss and thinks he will be very strong in the mountains.

Should be very exciting and I have that "I can't wait feeling" that I haven't had before a big mountain stage since probably 2004.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

I think mayo has made it clear his objective is to win a stage i dont see him doing great in the overall.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Wish they would have showed more of Levi in the second half of his ride, he made up a lot of time there. I think it was a disappointing performance for him, and I agree that he needed to do better to be an overall contender. But, I wouldn't discount him either.

I don't know if it was the best idea for Rasums to defend the yellow today as strongly as it did...hopefully it doesn't come back to hurt him tomorrow. Either way, great stage today, thank God Vino is back!

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Rasmus put in a big effort, but Vino put in even more, but you all think he'll be fine to go crazy attacking and Rasmussen won't? I'm sure Rasmussen will be smelling his best chance in his life to win the tour and will be putting in max effort the whole rest of the way.

Also the guys who make the best attacks and win tomorrow aren't necessarilly in the best position if they get cracked the next day. There are a few days in the Pyrenees and a guy like Levi who just sticks with it near the front the whole time might actually benefit the most.