2013 Tour de France

[Max_Junglie]

An evening finish on the Champs and a stage that goes up Alp d'Huez twice! A tour for the grimpeurs, with early speculation that Wiggo will give it a miss.

I'l get my bets on early: Sagan Cav for green*, Contador for yellow.

*I changed my mind, Cav with OPQS is going to be all out for the green. That's why he's gone there.

The route.

 

[tototoner]

reports that due to the race layout Frome will lead Team Sky

if he does he will take Yellow

 

[nightgoat]

I'd be very surprised if Wiggo didn't ride at all. Whilst it might not be a course that specifically suits him, he's not as poor in the mountains as some people like to point out, and few people can up the pace of the peloton over flat or undulating terrain as he can. If Froome turns out to be Sky's leader, then Wiggo would be an incredibly valuable asset to him. Plus, of course, he's defending the maillot jaune.

I'll particularly be looking forward to Stage 19, finishing in Le Grand Bornand. I went snowboarding there once, it's incredibly pretty (as is nearby Annecy, the start point for Stage 20)

 

[Max_Junglie]

There's a good early preview on inrng, here.

 

[nidge]

So it appears Froome will get the nod for the Tour over Wiggins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20516939

 

[SugarRay]

I followed it a bit last year and I'm sure I read or heard something about Froome being happy to be Wiggos main help in return for his shot next year.

 

[llamafarmer]

I'd be surprised if Wiggo doesn't ride at all, if he goes after the Giro in May (and it's going to be time trial heavy) hopefully he can then focus on powering the Sky train for Froome in France. It wouldn't be well received if the defending champion snubbed the Tour.

My money's on Contador though.

 

[nightgoat]

Just over a week till the start now, teams are starting to announce their line ups.

I was expecting maybe Eisel and/or Knees to be included in the Team Sky line up, but actually it's not surprising to see the team largely made up from the same riders as the Critérium du Daupiné.

Froome is understandably the favourite, and not just because of his second place last year. His form looks much better than Contador's, although with Rodgers, Roche and Kreuziger Saxo Tinkoff have one of the strongest teams in the race. I'd expect Rodriguez to be up there too, along with Van Garderen who'll probably duel it out with Quintana for the white jersey. Dan Martin will be a decent outside bet to get into the top ten.

The points jersey should be just as interesting with Sagan coming up against Cav with a team dedicated to winning stages around him, rather than fetching water this time. Add Greipel in there too and there should be some great sprint finishes.

Also, it looks as if this year's Tour will be graced by the two best names in cycling, Boy Van Poppel and Geoffrey Soupe.

 

[Marty]

Don't rule out Katusha's Alex Kristoff when it comes to the green, he blew Sagan away a couple of times in the Tour de Suisse but he will be on his own, the rest of the team will be dedicated to aiding Rodriguez. Edvald Boasson Hagen will also be there or thereabouts in the sprints on the slightly harder stages if Sky release him from Froome-duty.

Norway won four stages (Thor two, Edvald two) in 2011 and we're hoping for a repeat of that this year even if Hushovd might not make the BMC side. An announcement on that is expected today or tomorrow.

Bjarne Riis has been hounded a bit by Danish press on not including any Danes in the side but Saxo-Tinkoff are definitely stronger for it.

 

[llamafarmer]

I was surprised to see there was no Uran in the Sky team. Is he injured or something? They seem a bit short on out and out climbers, but I didn't see any of the Dauphine, so I might just be out of the loop!

 

[Max_Junglie]

Ready to go - should be a good sprint today - I'll be surprised if Cav doesn't clean up in the sprints this year.

 

[nightgoat]

I was surprised to see there was no Uran in the Sky team. Is he injured or something? They seem a bit short on out and out climbers, but I didn't see any of the Dauphine, so I might just be out of the loop!

Possibly down to a few things - taking over as team leader once Wiggo pulled out of the Giro, he might not be fully capable of giving everything in the Tour as well. Apparently Froome had a hand in deciding who made the team and in that sense it's not surprising that it's largely made up of the guys who have been riding with him this season - Porte, Lopez, Kiryienka, Thomas. There's suggestion that Uran is going to leave Sky at the end of the season, although I doubt he'd be left of out a squad just on that basis.

 

[al_pacino]

Ready to go - should be a good sprint today - I'll be surprised if Cav doesn't clean up in the sprints this year.

I think he'll have to share the stages with the Germans. With 3 strong sprinting teams I can't see anyone else getting close though.

There's suggestion that Uran is going to leave Sky at the end of the season, although I doubt he'd be left of out a squad just on that basis.

More than a suggestion I think.

The recent record of people trying to follow a hard Giro by doing the Tour isn't great though.

 

[nightgoat]

I think he'll have to share the stages with the Germans. With 3 strong sprinting teams I can't see anyone else getting close though.

The big difference is that Cav has shown he doesn't need his train to be working flawlessly to still win stages, he can latch on to someone else's wheel and position himself perfectly like no other sprinter. OPQS's train has been inconsistent throughout the season, but they started to look more impressive in the Giro and Cav won five of seven flat stages.

 

[al_pacino]

The big difference is that Cav has shown he doesn't need his train to be working flawlessly to still win stages, he can latch on to someone else's wheel and position himself perfectly like no other sprinter. OPQS's train has been inconsistent throughout the season, but they started to look more impressive in the Giro and Cav won five of seven flat stages.

I don't disagree but he has to get it spot on to beat Greipel and Kittel. The people he was beating in Italy don't come close to those two.

 

[nightgoat]

True, although Degenkolb is a good sprinter in his own right but doesn't have as good a team around him. A lot of the other sprinters in the Giro just weren't on form like Goss, Bouhanni, Viviani etc. Steegmans has turned out to be a pretty good lead-out man for Cav.

 

[nightgoat]

There's a bus stuck on the finish line, what the fuck?! Apparently they're going to take the result from the 3k line. Don't know how they're going to get that info to all the riders. Mental.

 

[al_pacino]

A slight mess.

 

[absolute bobbins]

It would be the Aussies, drongo's!

 

[Max_Junglie]

ha ha this is a total shambles!