*Official* 2008 Tour de France Thread

[Matteh]

Well, it starts tomorrow/later, no prologue this year, so straight into things.

Cadel Evans, Valverde and Menchov are the GC favourites.
Cavendish is an outside tip for the Green, won't get it, but should get at least 1 stage win.
Soler to walk the KotM if he wants it.

http://ifarm.nl/tdf/

Found the link for the game, you have until Monday 7th 10am to get a team in, scoring will start on that day's stage i imagine.

Basic premise is to pick 15 riders who you think will finish in the top 10 of a stage most of the time, so pack it full of sprinters with some GC candidates/climbers at about number 8/9 on your list.
Another approach is to try and get the best score for one stage in the competition rather than go for the overall, people tend to pack a team with 15 decent time-triallers in order to do that, possibly the better approach for people that barely know anything about pro cycling.
Also, post in this thread if you've entered, so i can keep tabs on a table everyday for here.

 

[headhunter]

Will give it a go tomorrow morning, cbf atm.

 

[Craig]

Gert Steegmans could be a worthy outsider for the green jersey.

My tip for tonight? Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia (formerly T-Mobile and recently Team High Road).

 

[NZTailender]

Name: Greg Thomas
E-mail: etendard@gmail.com
Country: New Zealand
Date: 20080705 03:31:45

1. R. McEwen
2. S. O'Grady
3. E. Zabel
4. M. Cavendish
5. T. Hushovd
6. C. Evans
7. A. Valverde
8. G. Hincapie
9. F. Cancellara
10. D. Millar
11. T. Voeckler
12. J. Voigt
13. D. Arroyo
14. N. Jalabert
15. B. Lancaster
16. M. Soler
17. O. Freire
18. B. Cooke
19. J. Dean
20. R. Hunter


I know nothing about the riders tbf, except that Evans is gun (H)


"jose maria olazabel da silva smith jr. (swaziland, iszabo@xxxxxxxx.au)"

 

[headhunter]

Have submited some sort of crap.

 

[Matteh]

Valverde wins what looked like a Classics stage, similar sort of stage again tomorrow in what is a very non massively pro sprinter flat as first week for a change.

 

[open365]

Some questions about the tour

1. Am I right in thinking that the final stage doesn't count towards the general classification rankings?
2. If there are doping revelations on the scale witnessed last year, added to the split between the UCI and the French cycling federation, is it forseeable for the Tour to be in danger of not running in 09?
3. Did Lane Armstrong not competeing in any event outside of the tour give him a big edge over the other riders? Are there many who only ride one race a year?

 

[Matteh]

Some questions about the tour

1. Am I right in thinking that the final stage doesn't count towards the general classification rankings?
2. If there are doping revelations on the scale witnessed last year, added to the split between the UCI and the French cycling federation, is it forseeable for the Tour to be in danger of not running in 09?
3. Did Lane Armstrong not competeing in any event outside of the tour give him a big edge over the other riders? Are there many who only ride one race a year?

1 - It does, but traditionally the only thing that people care about on the last day is the stage win on the Champs Elysses, it's an etiquette thing. Lemond i think won it by about 8 seconds on the final day in the late 80s, so it's doable but generally considered bad form if it's not really close.

2 - Tour will always run, they'll just kick out all the cheats. As for the renegade series, shall have to wait and see on that.

3 - Did the Dauphine Libere a few times iirc, but yeah it probably would have done a fair bit. Generally as a rule people try to win either the Giro d'Italia or le Tour in a season, Cunego for instace, this year missed out on the Giro in order to be fit for the tour.

 

[Craig]

Valverde wins what looked like a Classics stage, similar sort of stage again tomorrow in what is a very non massively pro sprinter flat as first week for a change.

Gee how much of an explosive kick he had? I thought Kirchen was home for all money, and then Valverde went around him for fun, mind you has finished 2nd to Boonen in the World Champs before, so I guess he can sprint

I wouldn't be surprised if they try and give up the yellow jersey before the time trial (stage 5).

 

[PhoenixFire]

1 - It does, but traditionally the only thing that people care about on the last day is the stage win on the Champs Elysses, it's an etiquette thing. Lemond i think won it by about 8 seconds on the final day in the late 80s, so it's doable but generally considered bad form if it's not really close..

Only because it was a time trial TBH.

 

[Craig]

Soler has a possible fratured wrist, so his future in this race may be in doubt, especially to go on a long range breakaways in the mountains to tie up the KOM jersey. There was already some damage done with Valverde and Evans gaining 7 and 6 seconds respectively on rivals such as Carlos Sastre, Andy Schlek, Denis Menchov, Stijn Devolder, Damiano Cunego (and I thought it would suit him, considering he won Amstel Gold earlier in the year), and Haimar Zubeldia (only including him on three top ten finishes even though he has only two pro wins in his career, both in 2000!).

 

[Matteh]

Craig, put a team in man. Can't have one of the major cycling people on CW not bother with it.

 

[Craig]

Craig, put a team in man. Can't have one of the major cycling people on CW not bother with it.

Doing it now

 

[Craig]

Doing it now

1. Alejandro Valverde
2. Cadel Evans
3. Damiano Cunego
4. Stijn Devolder
5. Fabian Cancellara
6. Robbie McEwen
7. Thor Hushovd
8. Mark Cavendish
9. Frank Schlek
10. Kim Kirchen
11. Riccardo Ricco
12. Samuel Sanchez
13. Carlos Sastre
14. Jens Viogt
15. Maurico Soler
16. Denis Menchov
17. Oscar Periero
18. David Miller
19. Gert Steegmans
20. George Hincapie

Thrown a couple of gambles in throwing in Sanchez and Ricco, both won't win, but in any of the downhill finishes, if he is in a break or in the leading group and he attacks, then they will not see him until the finish line, because nobody in the peloton decends as fast (or as risk taking) as Sanchez. As for Ricco, well he is a bit of a ****, but he is clearly talented and could be a bet for a stage win in the middle mountain stages (was 5th last night anyway). Devolder is a strong time trialist, might swap him for Cancellar in terms of position and 'Cav' is a decent bet for a stage win.

 

[alternative]

Name: Manjunath Reddlapalli
E-mail: hunterbhai@hotmail.com
Country: Australia
Date: 20080706 06:30:58


C. Evans
R. McEwen
C. Sastre
A. Valverde
O. Pereirro
S. O'Grady
K. Kirchen
M. Burghardt
F. Cancellara
J. Voigt
R. Hunter
B. Cooke
T. Hushovd
M. Cavendish
T. Lowe
F. Schleck
Y. Popovych
D. Menchov
A. Schleck
A. Botcharov

 

[alternative]

What happened to Tom Boonen??

 

[Bobisback]

Name: Chris Dwyer
E-mail: bobisback_diablo@hotmail.com
Country: Australia
Date: 20080706 06:44:58

1. C. Evans
2. A. Valverde
3. M. Soler
4. T. Hushovd
5. C. Vande Velde
6. R. McEwen
7. Y. Popovych
8. D. Menchov
9. G. Steegmans
10. F. Cancellara
11. A. Txurruka
12. O. Pereirro
13. G. Hincapie
14. M. Burghardt
15. T. Valjavec
16. M. Sprick
17. R. Di Gregorio
18. R. Bertogliati
19. D. de la Fuente
20. H. Duclos-Lassalle

Got bored after about the first one and just selected randoms.

 

[Matteh]

What happened to Tom Boonen??

Did cocaine, was caught.

 

[alternative]

Got bored after about the first one and just selected randoms.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

What happened to Tom Boonen??

The Tour de France officials did not want him after he tested positive for ocaine in an out of competition drugs test which does not break scycling's anti doping rules.