Tour de France

[Uncle-AJ]

I've been off work the last couple of days with a viral infection. To keep myself from dying of boredom, I've been watching live coverage of the race. This year it is wide open since so many prefavourites have been banned from the race and some of the remainder have dropped out through injury. On top of that, John's (Atomic's) old friend Lance has retired. I think from now on toward Paris we are in for some great races, as we always are with the Tour.

For John and Sheldon, who do you put your money on after today's race?

I would put my money on Savoldelli (sp?) of Discovery. He's proved he can get over the mountains among the top riders, he can time trial reasonably well and Discovery is one of the few teams riding 'complete' (i.e., no rider banned). The only thing stopping him is if Discovery management decides to try and support Hincapie for the win. I don't think Georgie can pull out a win, so if Discovery goes that way, they'll lose a definet podium finish with Savoldelli.

I may be wrong... There's a young Aussie named Cadel (stephens??) who should also be a major contender if not podium finisher.

We already lost one fave today who crashed out with a broken collar bone.

[Uncle-AJ]

I'll keep an eye on him John. I saw the crash today, plus a few more. It reminded me of a few times I came off through someone's pedal in my wheel or someone pulling in front of me and these were recreational rides.

Originally Posted by Uncle-AJ

I'll keep an eye on him John. I saw the crash today, plus a few more. It reminded me of a few times I came off through someone's pedal in my wheel or someone pulling in front of me and these were recreational rides.

A crash is never fun, whether racing or training. Hell, just last Saturday we were on a training ride going up a medium hill (i.e., able to climb it on the big ring) and a guy in front of me and to my left pulled out of his pedal. Amazingly, he didn't go down (although his crotch hit the top tube pretty hard) and we all managed to avoid him, but it could have been much worse. I've seen guys hit trees, oncoming traffic and even get run over by a dump truck on training rides. Always dangerous stuff. With so much pressure to perform at the TDF, and crashing out in the first few days has to be crushing to the rider, his team and his sponsors.