The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California i

pancakeman

pancakeman

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

Levi did it! Woohoo!

I was on the edge of my seat when they were going up Palomar, not because I was worried, but because it was excitement usually reserved for Alpe de Huez or the Tourmalet. I was looking at the group that was there, and it was practically the group that always forms in the Pyrenees or the Alps. Great TV.

I liked how McCartney rode hard to earn his jersey, rather than just win it by default. That is sportsmanship, something more athletes need to learn.

What else...
I was waiting for Vandevelde to attack, and attack he did on the last two stages. It didn't really change anything, but it was nice to see him out on the front, seemed like good form for February. I know he is set on the podium in July, but he has a good chance at rivaling Lance for the Giro, if he plays his cards right.

Oh, and poor George Hincapie. He works so hard, and every time he is close to something it gets taken away. Both yesterday and the day before he would have won, but the group wouldn't help him pull back the leaders. Maybe he'll get his revenge at Paris-Roubaix this year.
 
mythos

mythos

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

I also hope George wins Paris-Roubaix, he's done the hard yards there in the past without any luck at all (I'm not counting the ton of BAD luck he's had). Still, I don't think he will win it. Boonen, Cancellara, Ballan and co are probably going to stop him. He can't beat Boonen in a sprint, and I don't see him getting away from Cancellara to take a long solo win. I would only be too happy to be proven wrong, though.

I don't really like Vandevelde's chances at the Giro. He will be using it as training for the TdF. He certainly won't be able to compete at a high level at both, there simply isn't a big enough break between the two races. He should pull a top 10 at TdF, but I doubt it will be a podium finish for him. I rate (in no particular order) Contador, Levi, Menchov, Evans and Sastre in front of him. They are all proven Grand Tour podium finishers. Then there's the dark horses in the Schleck brothers (Frank can't TT and Andy still needs to prove he won't have a bad day like last year), Rogers, Kloden (probably should be mentioned with the first group) and the guy who won the climbers jersey in '07, can't remember his name but he rides for Barloworld and crashed out in week 1 last year. Also Armstrong is an unknown quantity. Now, he'll defnitely beat a few of those guys listed above, but the point I'm making is that its going to be a very competitive top 10 this year at TdF.

This far out my pick for the Giro is Ivan Basso. Milano-San Remo is Alan Davis. Paris-Roubaix is Tom Boonen.

I also saw that Contador won his first stage race for the year last week. So I'm tipping him to win Paris-Nice.
 
pancakeman

pancakeman

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

Right now I'd go with Paris Roubaix either Boonen or Hincapie, the Giro either Lance or Basso, and the Dauphine either Lance or Evans.

The only reason I tip him for possible Giro podium is because of all those names you listed. They all have very strong teams dedicated to them (except for Rogers), and Vandevelde just doesn't have that. Garmin is a good outfit, but they havn't acquired the mountain domestiques they would need for a Vandevelde win in the Tour.
That being said, he is a very good time trialist, and the Giro has a lengthy one. It also has plenty of mountains, but none spiking up to Tourmalet or Alpe de Huez levels, which also suits him. If he wanted to, he might be able to get the podium in Italy.
 
mythos

mythos

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

BobCox2 said:
Anyone see the Lance V.S. Syringe Man Matchup?
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/deadspin/2009/02/syringe_man.jpg
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/deadspin/2009/02/syringe_man_2.jpg
Was pretty funny.
Full details here http://deadspin.com/5158311/if-youre-out-on-your-bike-tonight-beware-of-syringe-man
Click to expand...
Ha! That is pretty funny. Its a deliberate take off of the TdF 'el Diablo'. A crazy old German guy who dresses up as the devil and goes to the TdF every year. Always gets on tv. Is also apparently infamous for shocking BO.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour052/cycling-tdf2005-el-diabl-22

There's a lot of people who don't like the fact that Lance is back. They feel he symbolises all the problems the sport has been through with doping. But's its not like the number of cases has dropped away since he's retired. I think its great that he's back and doing some different races like Tour Down Under and the Giro. I feel he didn't do enough for the sport the last time round by focusing solely on the TdF and ignoring a lot of other prestigous events. Also the way he walked away from the Discovery Channel Team (which he half owned) sent a strong message that he'd taken what he wanted from the sport and was now going to ditch it for convenience.
For the record I don't think he won all his races clean. I simply don't se how a clean athlete could so consistently beat his rivals who have since been proven to have cheated. ie Ulrich, Basso, Vino, Landis, etc.

@PCM - Vandevelde could definately do better at the Giro than the TdF. Likewise, I'd like to see Evans race the Giro to win. The race is not as demanding as the TdF, even though the climbs are often actually harder. The difference is the TdF is raced at a much greater intensity.

I think the Dauphine will be another great opportunity for Levi to win. Lance and Contador will want to test themselves, but Levi can maybe go all out because he'll have a helper role at TdF, meaning he might not save himself like Lance and Contador. Plus, if they want Levi's help, giving him the Dauphine to lead the team in would be a nice carrot.



 
pancakeman

pancakeman

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

They know that Levi will help them no matter what, but I agree that letting him have the Dauphine would be nice. I doubt Contador will, though. He just seems like he won't, I really can't explain it.

I'm not going to get into the Lance cheating argument, I'm just going to say that sometimes people are just that good.

Evans might have won the Tour, but with Astana in it to win it, he's got no chance. Last year he had CSC dominating, so his is really an issue of timing. Sad, really, if it came down to one on one racing he could beat Sastre and the Shlecks, he just always had to deal with so many of them at once.
 
mythos

mythos

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

Yeah, I know what you mean. Contador just doesn't seem like the sharing type. Maybe its a cultural thing that I'm missing.

Re : Armstrong. I'm not anti-Lance. I actually like him a lot. I just call a spade a spade. He won 7 tours through a period where doping was out of control. Sure, if he's right on top of his game, then maybe he can beat them from time to time, but not 7 times straight in the toughest 3 week race on Earth. Plus, he did get busted using Cortisone in '99. However he got a TUE (theraputic examption). Only he got it AFTER the positive test. Attitudes were different back then and he got away with it. You'd never get away with a stunt like that now.

For my money Evans was the best rider last year. He covered more moves than ayone. None of the other GC hopefuls assisted him in any way and it ended up costing all of them. When you think about it Sastre only had two days where he was forced to work. The Alp du Heuz and the second TT. At all other times he rode the Schlecks coat tails. CSC simply proved that teamwork is greater than an individual.
This year, well, Contador is probably a better stage racer AND he'll have a MUCH stronger team. The only thing that could stop him is Puerto and a few bags of blood.
 
pancakeman

pancakeman

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: The REAL Star of the 2008 Season: The Tour of California

I agree, Evans was the strongest by far. If he hadn't have had the Schlecks, Sastre wouldn't have come close. I'd say second was Denis Menchov, but he had that disasterous descent, as well as a crash right as he began his big attack. The combination of the two sort of ruined his chances.

I read some about the LA Confidentiel stuff, and I read about how all of it was proven wrong by unbiased observers. Even if he cheated in his early years, there is just no way he could be cheating now. The level of testing he goes through is ridiculous.

You know as well as I do that no Spanish court would indict Contador, and they'll stall the Italians until at least the end of July.
 
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