ProTourBlog

Now that we know who’s starting the Tour tomorrow and who isn’t, it might be a good idea to think about this year’s Le Tour.

After all the doping scandals, financial problems and who knows whatever, to teams are ready to go and entertain us.

General classification:

I think most of you would agree with me on the following: it’s all about beating Astana. You beat Contador, there is Lance; you beat Lance, there is Levi; you beat Levi, there is Klöden; you beat… I guess you see my point. Clearly, they are the team to beat. Even though it isn’t their strongest squad ever, it will be difficult for anyone to tear the Astana-train apart.

Why do I think that it isn’t their strongest team? My Astana would be the following: Lance, Alberto, Levi, Klöden, Zubeldia, Popovich, Paulinho – til now it’s the same – Brajkovic and Horner instead of Rast and Muravyev. But Johan had to do this: he had to include at least one Kazakh, and Rast is really a good rolleur. Paulinho, Rast and Mura are going to to a lot of work in the front and also, even more, in the back, taking bottles all over the peloton. Also missing: Vaitkus, Rubiera and Noval, three other stellar domestiques, but that’s it, you can only select nine guys.

Astana vs. peloton. Who should they be afraid of? Or at least, who are going to be top 15 riders?

Defending champion Carlos Sastre (Cervelo Test Team; mountain domestiques: Gomez Marchante and Cuesta), Cadel “I’m going for silver” Evans (Silence-Lotto; Wegelius and Van den Broeck), Frank or Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank; Sörensen maybe), Denis Menchov (Rabobank; Gesink, Garate, Ten Dam), Chris Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream; Hesjedal), Igor Anton (Euskatel), Michael Rogers (Columbia; Kirchen, Monfort, Hincapie), Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R; Dessel, Goubert), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas; Pellizotti, Nibali), Joaquin Rojas (no Valerde, go for it!!! Caisse d’Epargne; Oscar Pereiro, Arroyo, Luis Leon Sanchez), Vladimir Karpets (Katusha), Linus Gerdemann (Milram).

Podium in Paris:

1. Alberto Contador

2. Carlos Sastre

3. Lance Armstrong

It is going to be a  H U G E  fight once again!

Sprint classification:

As usual, not always the best sprinter wins this jersey – it the sprinter, who can also climb very well, or at least good enough not to arrive outside the time limit. Who could it be?

Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team; leadout by Lancaster and Haussler), Van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto; Van Summeren), O’Grady (Team Saxo Bank), Freire Gomez (Rabobank), Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream; Dean), Koldo Fernandez (Euskatel), Cavendish (Columbia; Eisel, Renshaw), Bennati (Liquigas), Uran (Caisse d’Epargne), Duque (Cofidis), Furlan (Lampre; Ballan), Boonen (Quickstep; de Jongh, Tosatto), Napolitano AND Pozzato (Katusha), Feillu (Agritubel), Ciolek (Milram).

Podium in Paris:

1. Freire

2. Cavendish

3. Boonen

Mountains classification:

As far as we know, it is only David Moncoutie of Cofidis who wants to take this jersey, but I’m sure there are going a lot of riders who might want to take it. Of course, we could start the list with GC riders, who are going to collect a lot of points just by finishing in the top ten at mountaintop finishes. But riders, who break away and collect points, well, it might be more difficult to guess. Depending on how much Menchov need Gesink, the young rider from Holland could make his move for the polka-dot jersey. One of the Schleck brothers, maybe…or a Frenchman, like Sylvain Chavanel (Quickstep)?

Young rider classification:

Just like last year, I have no idea who is in this category, I could give a shortlist after the first stage.

Team classification:

I’m not going to speak a lot about this one:

1. Astana

2. Caisse d’Epargne

3. AG2R

—–

Stage one:

Individual time trial! The stage is 15.5 km “short”, with a 4th cat climb at the middle of the stage: in the first part of stage, they are going to climb, and then descent. There are a lot of turns, we might see some crashes as well :s

1. Cancellara

2. Contador

3. Leipheimer