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Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

I think your both wrong. It's a very short prologue which would serve sky no good to win and have to Marshall the peloton for so long. Even going back a couple of years ago. Contador purposefullynever put his team in that position until he needed to. No team with real intentions will be stupid enough to do it. Sky need to.conserve as much energy apossible if they are to help cav get his wins, help wiggo in the hills and when.they need to take on the duties of the yellow jersey team.

Tactically spot on and I agree. Sky will not want the yellow jersey after the prologue.

More likely stage 9 but even better to be after stage 20. However I agree with John D that I believe Sky will take seconds wherever they can.

Haggis - while I do think he's a long shot ( 60/1 odds ) Martin only won the white Jersey a few year ago. He's well rested due to his early season injury so I think he could be a good outside bet. Like you I'm struggling to gauge who will be up there with Wiggins and cuddles. There are plenty of potential s as you said, but non I'm confident in. Im sure the usual suspects will be hovering around the top ten. I did like the look of Roy last year though and he nearly beat chavanel to the French tt Jersey at weekend.

[John_D]

I quite fancy Juan Jose Cobo's chances. Am I going mad?

Yes definitely lol. There were some serious eyebrows raised at his vuelta performance. It would be interesting if he could repeat such a performance

[John_D]

Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

Yes definitely lol. There were some serious eyebrows raised at his vuelta performance. It would be interesting if he could repeat such a performance

Got a better squad around at Movistar than he had with Geox last year.

Someone has to win it if, say, Cadel falls off and Wiggo blows up in the mountains.

John_D wrote:

Got a better squad around at Movistar than he had with Geox last year.

Someone has to win it if, say, Cadel falls off and Wiggo blows up in the mountains.

If wiggo blows in the mountains then it will because he's getting the crap attacked out of him. Wiggo will ride his own race at his tempo and not panic. It'll be interesting to see where Froome is following an early season of illness and whetehr he can step up if need be. Failing that Porte could be quite capable especially if wiggo swaps roles and becomes the pace setter in the event he does blow himself out of contention.

If both wiggo and Evans crash out then it'll be a completely different race as the tempo will be much slower and allow for those attacks to happen.

I like the look of Roy as a nice outside bet. And if the top 2 did bow out then I reckon the tempo could actually work in martins favour to stay close enough to pull it back in the last TT.

Just looked at Movistars squad, Valverde is team leader and no 1 GC contender. I think cobo will be under strict orders to help him out. It seems they're wanting him to go for the Vuelta again from what I've just read.

Talking of the poodle haired p***k he is another one of the outside bets who is well worth taking a punt on. At his best he is great to watch. The only chance the other teams have is to take the fight to Sky and BMC. Movistar with a Valverde, Cobo one/two could be an interesting mix. In fact any teams who have got 2 good outside bets in their team could make this race very interesting. Rabobank with Gesink and Mollema for example.

Evans and Wiggins are pure power meter men who know what their maximum effort is and how long they can sustain that effort for. Voeckler for example refuses to ride with a power meter so he does not always control his effort ( who I understand is now back in by the way).

There are quite a few underachievers who could make a name for themselves this year. I just think that Wiggins and Cadel will have to much class for them if they stick to their game plan and grind out the numbers. Like last year I reckon the winner will not win a single stage, but win it on consistancy. Some will argue that your not a true champion unless your winning the stages as well. While I would love to see Wiggo win a mountain stage it's not gonna happen at teh TDF.

I'm also looking forward to the first couple of weeks and the medium stages which will be in the Goss, Pip, J rod, Spartacus, Eddy Bo kind of territory. I just hope I get enough time to watch all the stages as the sky + is gonna get hammered lol

Anyone got a Velogames league up and running for le tour?