Tour de France 2010

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Britain, Australia, USA....We all suck at football but we all have excellent road cyclists who will be competing in this year's Tour de France.

USA: You have Lance Armstrong in probably his final Tour, big George Hincapie in possibly his, Garmin sprinter Tyler Farrar who may be Cavendish's main threat...and another few guys too.

Australia: You've got World Champion Cadel Evans who has become friendlier since last year when everyone hated him. You've also got the old man of sprinting Robbie McEwen.....Oh and plenty more guys too.

Britain: We've got 8 guys in the race this year which is pretty much the most in aaaages. Brad Wiggins going for the overall win, Mark Cavendish going to win the jersey for best sprinter, David Millar who's the captain of Team Garmin...and a handful of other guys there to help out the big names in their teams.

For the Brits, previous years daily highlights have been on ITV4 at a reasonable evening time (around 7pm) and that continues this year.

It's an hour long show and will be worth watching.

Also, if you know nothing, here's a list of teams, their number one rider and their jersey colours so you can just randomly pick a favourite so I'm not the only one watching the race over the next 21 days.

AG2R-La Mondiale - France

White with brown shorts and blue/brown 70s wallpaper patterning

Their main men are Russian Vladimir Efimkin and Irishman Nicholas Roche.

Glory hunter rating: 3/10

Astana - Kazakhstan

A rather neon light blue with yellow and white

Their main men are race favourite Alberto Contador from Spain and stony-faced Kazakh ex-doper Alexandre Vinokourov.

Glory hunter rating: 9/10

BBox Bouygues Telecom - France

Blue and white

Their riders are there to get into breaks and try to win stages. Thomas Voeckler and Pierrick Fedrigo, both from France, will try that.

Glory hunter rating: 8/10 (to win a stage) 1/10 (for overall chances)

BMC Racing - Switzerland

Black and red

Their main men are Aussie world champ Cadel Evans and American hero George Hincapie. The rest of their team sucks though.

Glory hunter rating: 7/10

Caisse d'Epargne - Spain

Red and black

The cyclist I hate the most (Alejandro Valverde) has just finally been banned for doping and won't compete. That leaves them with Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez. They'll do ok in the Pyranees climbs.

Glory hunter rating: 5/10

Cervelo - Well, the team was set up by Sastre so Spanish kinda...but not.

Grey, black and white

2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre and 2009 green jersey winner Thor Hushovd will keep you interested most days.

Glory hunter rating: 8/10

Cofidis - France

Red and white

Frenchmen David Moncoutie and Samuel Dumoulin. Possible challenge for the king of the mountains jersey....But a bit poo.

Glory hunter rating: 2/10

Euskaltel-Euskadi - Basque

Bright orange

They only sign riders from the Basque region so are kinda useless except Sammy Sanchez who's great in the mountains.

Glory hunter rating: 3/10 - unless you're Basque then you HAVE to support them whatever.

Footon-Servetto - Spain

Gold and black

Nine men who have never raced in a major Tour. They're gonna suck badly.

Glory hunter rating: 1/10

Francaise des Jeux - France

White with a huge blue and red clover design

Christophe Le Mevel and Sandy Casar are both French and are both pretty decent sometimes. A top 15 place for either of them will be a good performance.

Glory hunter rating: 6/10

Garmin-Transitions - USA

White, blue and orange with that design you find on the socks of old men

Americans Christian Vandevelde and Tyler Farrar will be looking for a podium place and sprint victories respectively while my own fave David Millar will be trying to win the time trials and doing all the hard work for them.

Glory hunter rating: 8/10

HTC-Columbia - USA

White, yellow and green

Their team is centred around Manxman Mark Cavendish winning as many sprints as he can and will support Aussie Michael Rogers get a good position in the overall standings.

Glory hunter rating: 9/10

Katusha - Russia

White, blue and red

Vladimir Karpets rocks a fine mullet and a fine Russian determination for the overall standings. They win quite a lot of races too.

Glory hunter rating: 7/10

Lampre - Italy

Blue, electric pink and a drop of white

Sexy kits, sexy Italian men. Damiano Cunego was brilliant when younger but hasn't been so good recently. Alessandro Petacchi will try to roll back the years to win some sprints. Being an Italian team they focus more on the Giro d'Italia though.

Glory hunter rating: 6/10

Liquigas - Italy

Bright green and blue

Ivan Basso won the Giro d'Italia and looks powerful. Fellow Italian Vincenzo Nibali and Czech Roman Kreuziger are also fantastic. They could have three riders in the top ten.

Glory hunter rating: 8/10

Milram - Germany

White and blue Friesian cow design

German Linus Gerdemann is great but not fantastic and sprinter Gerald Ciolek is the same.

Glory hunter rating: 5/10

Omega Pharma-Lotto - Belgium

A mish-mash white, red, green

Having lost all their good riders they now rely on Jurgen van den Broek and Greg van Avermaet for overall and sprints. Ain't gonna happen.

Glory hunter rating: 4/10

Quick Step - Belgium

Blue with white and red

Their best rider, sprinter Tom Boonen, is injured so they'll just be chasing stage wins with riders like Frenchmen Jerome Pineau.

Glory hunter rating: 4/10

Rabobank - Netherlands

Orange of course with blue and white

Russian Denis Menchov and Dutch youngster Robert Gesink will be looking for top ten positions. If Menchov is on form he can go top five.

Glory hunter rating: 6/10

Radioshack - Lance Armstrong

Grey and red

Lance Armstrong's personal retirement home project. They'll get the most coverage because of Lance. They've got a strong team though with fellow Yank Levi Leipheimer and German personal-hero Andreas Kloden. If Lance gets a podium place it'll be down to the strength of the team he's assembled.

Glory hunter rating: 10/10

Saxo Bank - Denmark

Blues and white

They have the most powerful time trial and cobbles rider in the Swiss Fabian Cancellara who will probably wear the yellow jersey for the early stages. They also have the Luxembourger brothers Andy and Frank Schleck who last year finished 2nd and 5th overall. Andy could win it this year. They're also a happy and lovely seeming team.

Glory hunter rating: 9/10

Team Sky - UK

Black and electric blue

Bradley Wiggins is Britain's great hope after finishing 4th last year. Edvald Boasson Hagen is also great.

Glory hunter rating: 10/10 (if you're British). You won't want to support them otherwise.

Anyway, I had a bet with a friend that Contador wouldn't win it this year even though he's favourite. I think a Liquigas rider will win it but I'll be cheering on Cavendish in the sprints, Millar in the time trials and probably Garmin on mountainous days.

[mikevandam]

I gave up on the tour after the 07 farce where Michael Rasmussen was robbed

Allthough the lads and i had a laugh at C*ntadors expense when they played the danish national anthem last year :lmao:

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Team Sky blunder puts a huge dent in Wiggins' overall chances ALREADY just 10km into the race.

They hoped it would rain later in the Time Trial so sent him out early, then it rained early instead.

David Millar was awesome as usual and picked up a great third. Tony Martin was a monster to take second and basically Fabian Cancellara is just a dominant time trialist. It's frightening. With the cobbles in a few days he should stay in yellow for the first week.

Millar's decent over the cobbles so should stay top ten until the mountains.

[FireDoughnut]

Where is Team Film4?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

They remain in my imagination.

[IAceI]

Ooh a Basque team who only sign Basque riders? God I love those crazy nationalists.

Come on team Basque!

(and Cavendish/Wiggins/Millar etc.)

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Loads of crashes today in the Belgian rain. Rumours abound of oil on some of the roads - cyclists were crashing out on straight and relatively flat sections which suggests SOMETHING.

Anyway some good images here... http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=101631952&EditorialProduct=Sport#

Vandevelde for Garmin lost 9 minutes so probably can't win now...In fact I'd say definitely can't win. Still he's got some classic pictures in that batch for the grandkids.

[Adam]

I can't imagine the sprinters were happy with Cancellara's (seemingly his anyway) decision to 'protest' the danger of the track by coming over the line together...I thought it was hilarious how somebody actually did break away to take second anyway right on the line, much to the chagrain of Cancellara.

Wiggians & Farra both picked up injuries today in one of the crashes but I hope they're both ok to continue with no problems. Andy Schleck's fall looked a bad one too but he did well to come back into the peloton like he did.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Cancellara spoke with the race organisers and they're cancelling all the sprint points at the line (except Chavanel's) anyway so the sneaky AG2R rider gets NOTHIN'!

Basically the winner today was Cavendish because he was never going to be in with a chance of winning today and this way none of his rivals gain any points. Petacchi was the other winner cos he crashed pretty badly but stays up near the top of the green jersey standings.

[GoN_]

Tyler Farrar is out and Gesink might abandon too, reports the portuguese press.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Another grand tour of Gesink crashing early and not living up to expectations. :/

Menchov and Rogers actually stayed on their bikes for once and they're usually the first two riders to fall over.

Vandevelde has broken ribs, Farrar has a suspected fractured wrist, Millar may have a broken rib (but probably should be able to continue with that). Garmin's whole tour has been destroyed in one stage.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

From CyclingNews.com

Riders blame oil on Col du Stockeu for spills

Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 42nd on stage, 19th overall at 3:36: "It was a straight road – downhill – with oil or whatever on it and the whole peloton went down. Sorry to the public for not racing. But it would not have been fair to the many who were injured."

Alberto Contador (Astana) - 81st on stage, 7th overall @ 3:24: "It was a really crazy stage. On this road it was impossible not to fall. I fell on a straight part at about 60 km/h. I saw at every turn there were people on the ground, it was impossible to go without falling.

“As soon as I heard that Andy was behind I ordered all my teammates to stop. As I wished he'd do with me, I had to do with him. [There was disagreement] with some teams who wanted to go ahead in spite of everything, because there were many dangerous riders in front too. In the end they acted with logic and decided to stop in front too.”

Carlos Sastre (Cervelo Test Team) – 45th on stage, 51st overall @ 3:51 minutes: “Today has been another fairly stressful day, with lots of agitation. It was a very fast stage in which we tried to control the breakaway that took place at the start, as today was a good day for Thor. The team did a sensational job. Then there was quite a bit of chaos in the ride down Col de Stockeu, which was caused by some patches of oil on the tarmac.

“There were lots of falls and a great deal of chaos amongst all of the teams, with groups all over the place... We took the initiative to start racing again as Thor Hushovd, Jérémy Hunt and I were in the leading group but no-one was helping us. Then Fabian Cancellara told Thor that the race had been neutralised and we weren’t receiving any information on the radio. The race was stopped and then all the people who had taken a fall came back into the main group. It was a strange situation that didn’t help us at all, but that's what happens in racing: there are things that happen and that’s it. We got through another day without any setbacks, which in my case is the most important thing.”

Linus Gerdemann (Milram) - 8th on stage, 10th overall @ 3:32: “That wasn't a strike. With this action we wanted to show our solidarity with the many crash victims.”

Jerome Pineau (Quick Step) - 119th on stage, 31st overall @ 3:46, new mountains classification leader: “I’m thrilled. Sylvain and I had a great race. If I captured the polka dot jersey, Chavanel also gets some credit, since not only did he win the stage, he helped me on all the mountain climbs. In the Giro d’Italia we won two stages: one of them I won and I worn the red jersey for a few days. Here at the Tour de France history is repeating itself, actually, we’re doing even better and let’s hope it stays that way.”

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) - 191st on stage, 182nd overall @ 18:32: "One minute I was riding down the descent and the next minute I was sliding. That was the first crash. I got back up and started descending again and I have no idea what happened; all of the sudden my front wheel was gone and I was on the ground again. That’s the one where I knew something was very wrong.

"I rode the last 30k with one hand. I laid my left hand on the handlebars but that’s all I could do. I have a fracture in my wrist and banged up my elbow pretty badly. No one wants to quit the Tour de France, so you’ll push yourself a lot more through the pain than you will in any other bike race in the world. I’m determined to start tomorrow and as of this moment, that’s the plan."

Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions) - 170th on stage, 175th overall @ 14:01: "Today was just one of those days where I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tried to snake a trail through the falling riders around me but it was to no avail. I hit the road hard and could sense right away that I was not coming out of this one lightly.

"Post stage examinations and x rays all come back with nothing overly serious. I am more than a little sore where I took the impact on my back but I think I’ll be ok. So goes the Tour de France. It’s back on the bike to do it all again tomorrow."

David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - 114th on stage, 4th overall @ 3:17: "Today was definitely in my top five worst days on a bike, ever, and that’s a big cull considering the length of my career. My first crash was a simple race incident where Christian, Julian and myself were well positioned at the front, but someone in front of us lost control before the Stockeu. This didn’t bother me, I just lost some skin on my left side, but it made me more diligent to be at the front at the Stockeu. Whitey kept reminding us to be at the front over the top to avoid crashes, and that’s where we were even after the chase of the previous crash.

"Within only 200 meters of cresting I could see Lance fall about 10 places in front of me on a straight road. When I saw that happen I knew something wasn’t right - and that was immediately followed by my wheels disappearing from under me and my sliding across the ground. As I came to a standstill, Christian passed and asked if I was all right, to which I replied yes and got right back on my bike. At this point there were guys everywhere on the ground all around me. Only 200 meters after getting back on my bike I was faced with a Cofidis rider losing control in front of me. There was nothing I could do and I hit him and somersaulted over my handlebars, landing heavily on my ribs in a ditch thinking this time, I wasn’t fine.

"I got up and fixed my bike myself, and then I tip toed down the descent surveying the absolute carnage that was the Tour de France peloton and wondering what was going on. By this point I had no idea where Christian or anyone else was and had to concentrate on getting back to the front of the race. I got back, finished and waited in the bus to hear about the rest of my teammates. I’m very proud of the fact that all of us finished considering the disparity of some of our injuries. It reflects why our team is what it is, and why I love it."

Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo Test Team) - 17th on stage, 94th overall @ 4:10: “We pulled at the front all day. We all managed to get through. It was just chaos. In the end, they didn’t want to sprint. I cannot understand why. Hopefully there will be no points awarded for today's stage. It’s going to be chaos again tomorrow.”

Team directors

Cervelo Test Team's Jean-Paul van Poppel: “Everything was going to plan at first. It’s pretty bad for us. We took everything on our shoulders. No team wanted to start chasing. They wanted to let it go. We put up our hands and started to work. Everything was going well until the crash. If the crash wasn’t there, I am quite sure that there would have been a sprint and Thor would have been a big favorite. What the other teams decide to do, that’s their problem. It doesn’t matter what they want or not want, our guys are really motivated. They decided not to sprint for the points, and Thor was really upset about that. It ended up badly because of the crash. Otherwise it could have been the flowers and maybe the champagne.

“Tuesday’s stage will be important. Anyone can win this stage, not just a cobblestone specialist. We have very strong prospects with Thor for the stage victory. It will also be important to keep Carlos out of trouble. The stage should not be too difficult, because there are 13 km of cobblestones, not 60 km. I don’t have a problem seeing the cobblestones in the Tour de France. It’s part of cycling. It will be a big spectacle for the race.”

Team Radioshack's Johan Bruyneel: “It was dangerous all day so everybody was really paying attention. But on the downhill of the Stockeu it was like something I’ve never seen. It was like ice skating. It was as if something was on the road. When we got there in the car there were people everywhere. Lance went down, Klodi went down, Levi went down but it’s just skin. They will be ok.”

Milram's Gerry van Gerwen: "The riders themselves made that decision to show their respect for the crashed riders. But you must also see the other side. The fans, who stand along the road to see cycling, and for the sponsors and the race organiser, who invest so much in the Tour de France – they also deserve respect.“

BMC Racing Team's John Lelangue: "We are glad Cadel and Brent made it back – especially Brent – because his place is important for the position of our team car on another technical stage tomorrow."

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

BRILLIANT day. Lead group finishes with Hushovd winning, Geraint Thomas the British champ taking second! Cancellara makes sure Andy Schleck is the big winner today in that lead group, Evans in there too!

Wiggins in small second group back at 50-odd seconds with Vinokourov and Contador a bit behind them. Millar in the small group behind makes me happy and Cavendish finishing surprisingly highly in the top 30 or so on such a treacherous course.

Armstrong loses some big time.

Geraint Thomas goes second overall.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Frank Schleck crashed badly, might well be out. Huge blow for Saxo Bank.

[IAceI]

Even though it's early on, you have to imagine Hushovd will be favourite to pick up quite a lot of sprint points through out.

Thoughts on Cavendish managing to win the green jersey this year?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Cav can't win it now. There just aren't enough sprint stages. Yesterday's stage was one of those you'd expect Cavendish to win.

He won't ever say this of course as he refuses to blame his team about anything but the HTC train failed pretty badly. He only had Renshaw with him with over a km to go which meant that Renshaw was shattered at the 500m mark and so Cav was getting swamped by fresher sprinters who also swung across from Cav so when he went past Renshaw he was already behind and all the slipstreaming was taking place across from him. He had no chance of winning the sprint and so, knowing his all-or-nothing character I'm not surprised he gave up on the sprint.

However if he truly was after the green jersey he would have swallowed his pride and fought hard to take 6th or 7th like Hushovd does. Whatever Cavendish has been saying I think he thrives more on wins than on wearing green.

Talking of sprinters though, the more I see of him recently the more I'm liking Petacchi. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and very generous with his praise. He also really rates Cavendish (also defended him after the Swiss crash) and the two seem to get on really well, which is great.

Hushovd isn't the fastest sprinter there though. He knows it. However he's been excellent over cobbles for years, hence yesterday's win, he'll fight for 4ths, 5ths and 6ths, and he can pick up some sprint points in the mountains meaning he's always one of the favourites for green. Cavendish will always get dropped on the first big climb of a day while Hushovd can survive that first big climb and grab points.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

GET IN! Cavendish needed that. He sprinted from a long way out but was opening the gap all the way to the line.

The look on his face when he won was just brilliant. Glorious victory.

EDIT: And he's booing his eyes out on the podium. Beautiful.

[GoN_]

Paulinho wins!!!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Poor old David Millar. After his three crashes on day 3 he's been riding every day for a week with a busted ribs, back spasms, his left side not working properly. As he says: "It's the intercostals, they're all ripped. That has put pressure on the left side of my back and I'm over compensating on my left inner thigh and that's all ripped now too. I've lost all my left side effectively."

He's also got a kind of sun allergy so always has to use loads of sunblock in the Tour de France and it means he can get really depressed and the sun hurts him. He spent 100km riding on his own 30 minutes behind the peloton on the 9th stage, fighting to stay in the race in the hope that things will get better before the final Time Trial which he would have a chance to win. Poor fella.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Schleck attacks Contador on the climb, Contador starts to lose Schleck's wheel....

....and Schleck's chain breaks.

Schleck has to stop and wait for the car to get him a new bike and meanwhile Contador attacks and breaks away at the front. Utterly classless display. Apalling behaviour. It won't go down well AT ALL. The last great rivalry was Armstrong and Ullrich. At numerous times when one of them fell, crashed or had a bike problem then the other wouldn't attack. It shows class and dignity. Contador lacks these things. Disgraceful actions, especially as he'd beat Schleck in the Time Trial anyway.